FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
PHOTO CREDIT: Julien Bourgeois
then you might not know where to start with her back catalogue. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Charlyn Marie ‘Chan’ Marshall is a tremendous songwriter and has released some wonderful albums! I really love her work, and her tenth studio album, Wanderer, ranks alongside her very best. I think Cat Power’s albums warrant a lot of focus and attention, so I have recommended four essential albums, the underrated one, and her latest one – in addition to a related book that people should check out. Have a read of the lowdown below, and it will give you insight and a guide to one of the music world’s most…
POWERFUL songwriters.
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The Four Essential Albums
What Would the Community Think
Release Date: 10th September, 1996
Label: Matador
Producer: Steve Shelley
Standout Tracks: In This Hole/King Rides By/Bathysphere
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Cat-Power-What-Would-The-Community-Think/release/4729606
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5tbykpeXPR1kEeveI0xOzK
Review:
“What Would the Community Think was the second album Chan Marshall released in 1996, but its richness suggests a longer period of evolution. From the first warm notes of "In this Hole," it's clear that Marshall's voice -- as a singer and a songwriter -- is not only stronger and more focused, but more empathetic as well. Where her previous works were dense and cathartic, What Would the Community Think gives her voice and lyrics space to unfurl and involve the listener; the title track alone holds an album's worth of eloquence in Marshall's hushed, clear vocals, backed by guitar, feedback, and an eerie, echoing piano. Fortunately, that leaves Marshall 11 other tracks with which to forge a fine balance between angular, angst-ridden punk and her gentler, folk-country tendencies. Different combinations of these extremes make Cat Power's sound more diverse but also more cohesive. Tense, tight songs like "Good Clean Fun" and "Nude as the News" retain the reflective, thoughtful nature of quieter numbers like "King Rides By" and "Water and Air," which turn the power of the album's louder moments into slow-building, implosive tension. Two of What Would the Community Think's finest moments, "They Tell Me" and "Taking People," are unabashedly blues and country-inflected, revealing Marshall not just as a cathartic vocalist, but as a true soul singer. Similarly, her covers of Peter Jefferies' "Fate of the Human Carbine" and Smog's "Bathysphere" show off Marshall's ability to make any song a Cat Power song. An intimate, personal album, What Would the Community Think makes imperfection beautiful and turns vulnerability into musical strength” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Nude as the News
Moon Pix
Release Date: 22nd September, 1998
Label: Matador
Producer: Matt Voigt
Standout Tracks: American Flag/Say/Moonshiner
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Cat-Power-Moon-Pix/master/36137
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0PBUZ2KHPp5Q9fybGuT2ry
Review:
“All of the shapes Marshall’s music would later take were vaguely discernible here: the careful way she arpeggiates that root chord on “No Sense,” over and over, and how closely the figure evokes the luxurious stretch of Al Green’s Hi Records band, how the hesitation on the downbeat heightens the tension to near-erotic levels. You can hear her future as a soul balladeer on The Greatest whispering at you. On the rudimentary finger-picked minor chord of “Back of Your Head,” you can hear the shadows of future Cat Power dirges like “Babydoll” lurking.
And on “Metal Heart,” the album’s moral center, you can feel her clasping her fingers around a message, a mantra that would follow and sustain through the next decade. “You’re losing the calling that you’ve been faking and I’m not kidding/It’s damned if you don’t and damned if you do/Be true ‘cause they’ll lock you up in a sad, sad zoo,” she sings. The “you” in the song, addressed with such affection, feels like Marshall herself—an unverifiable, if inescapable, impression” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Cross Bones Style
You Are Free
Release Date: 18th February, 2003
Label: Matador
Producer: Cat Power
Standout Tracks: Good Woman/He War/Half of You
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Cat-Power-You-Are-Free/master/36181
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/38CsAH6IM7fKMN0XnZReR6
Review:
“She addresses the struggle to do the right, but difficult, thing on "Good Woman," a near-spiritual breakup song where, backed by a children's choir and fiddles, Marshall explains that she needs to be a good woman with -- or more likely, without -- her bad man. Aside from being a lovely song, it's also a departure; earlier in her career the song might have just focused on the conflict instead of Marshall's gently strong resolution to it. This gentle but resolute strength runs through most of You Are Free's best moments, such as "He War" and especially "Names," a terrifyingly matter-of-fact recollection of child abuse and lost friends that says more in its resigned sorrow than a histrionic tirade would. As the album progresses, it moves toward the spare, affecting ballads that give her later work a strange timelessness; listening to You Are Free gives the impression of stripping away layers to get to the essence of Marshall's music. In some ways, the quiet last half of this album is more demanding than the angsty noise of Dear Sir or Myra Lee, but hearing her find continually creative interpretations of minor keys, plaintive pianos, and folky guitars is well worth the attention it takes, whether it's the dead-of-night eroticism of her cover of Michael Hurley's "Werewolf," the pretty yet eerie longing of "Fool," or the prairie romance of "Half of You." Every Cat Power album takes at least a few listens to fully reveal itself; You Are Free may take awhile longer than expected to unfold, but once it does, its excellence is undeniable” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: I Don’t Blame You
The Greatest
Release Date: 20th January, 2006
Label: Matador
Producer: Stuart Sikes
Standout Tracks: Living Proof/Where Is My Love/The Moon
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Cat-Power-The-Greatest/master/36169
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3WJRp6WVjUQh9JhDP5YdUM
Review:
“To start the climb, Marshall enlisted players from Al Green's old Memphis soul band for The Greatest, a disc of new compositions—never mind the misleading title. Longtime Cat Power fans needn't worry about a seismic change, though: Unlike Frank Black's semi-disastrous Honeycomb, recorded with Nashville session pros, The Greatest doesn't compromise a beloved vision to fit an unlikely sound. Green's old compatriots—guitarist Mabon "Teenie" Hodges contributes most definitively—serve the songs with championship restraint, adding colors and textures that Marshall never would've found with indie-rockers, but that never cheapen the impact.
Those looking for unmitigated downers may be jolted by the pleasantly tinkling roadhouse piano and the sweetly whistled refrain of "After It All," but the song is simply a case of Marshall housing her sorrowful songs—this one about the return of an abusive lover—in brighter packages. Reflective of its title, "Islands" is almost sunny, but its walking bass and slide guitar provide the bed for lyrics about eternal sleep. Delivered starkly, "Empty Shell" could've been another entry in Cat Power's deeply dark catalog, but here, with hoedown violins and smart backing vocals, it sounds like classic country. The gorgeous title track is elevated by a string section that echoes "Moon River" for effect. Marshall nods to the old school with "Hate," an effective, bare-bones chiller, but otherwise sticks to The Greatest's plan, challenging herself to explore familiar themes with remarkable new dressing. In its own still-quiet way, it's a triumph” – The A.V. Club
Choice Cut: The Greatest
The Underrated Gem
Dear Sir
Release Date: October 1995/3rd July, 2001 (re-release)
Labels: Runt/Plain Recordings
Producer: Ed Douglas
Standout Tracks: Rockets/Itchyhead/Mr. Gallo
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Cat-Power-Dear-Sir/master/36193
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1ZzviUcCxxTTH66SPcoFUm
Review:
“Cat Power's first full-length album, Dear Sir, spotlights Chan Marshall's demanding but rewarding songwriting. Her distinctive blend of blues, country, folk and punk creates songs like the dark, noisy "Itchyhead" and "Rockets," which mixes tension and hope, and tops it with Marshall's earnest, expressive vocals. Though the album needs the listener's complete attention, Dear Sir more than keeps it with nine of Marshall's searching meditations on life” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: The Sleepwalker
The Latest/Final Album
Wanderer
Release Date: 5th October, 2018
Label: Domino
Producer: Cat Power
Standout Tracks: Wanderer/Stay/Nothing Really Matters
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Cat-Power-Wanderer/master/1433078
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/28SMXZ4p2uQGJZJpFXw8em
Review:
“Over the lilting ‘In Your Face’, she laments, “You never take what you say seriously”. The object of her ire will meet their comeuppance, though – the song’s title alludes to the Buddhist belief that karma shows in your face, for anyone and everyone to see. ‘Robbin Hood’ is a brittle acoustic ditty – accompanied by atmospheric, glassy percussion – on which Marshall sneers at a “big cat fat cat” with the “biggest piece of the pie”. She’s said that the record was written with reverence to the generations of folk and blues musicians who came before her, and it’s on this atavistic-sounding song that that intention is most keenly felt.
For the most part, though, ‘Wanderer’ is an ode to Marshall’s indomitable sense of self. It’s the sound of someone with the confidence to reimagine Rihanna’s ‘Stay’ as a fractured, skeletal piano ballad. Other highlights include ‘Horizon’; ignoring the fact that the intro sounds alarmingly similar to Bryan Adams’ ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’, the track is a beatific paean to familial love (and a dissonant squall of autotune stops everything from getting too mushy). This album is a quiet triumph, the understated work of an artist honouring herself and her creativity” – NME
Choice Cut: Woman
The Cat Power Book
Cat Power: A Good Woman
Author: Elizabeth Goodman
Publication Date: 4th April, 2009
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Synopsis:
“How Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, Survived Herself–and Became the Indie Rock Queen.
Chan Marshall’s stark lyrics, minimal arrangements,and wounded, smoky vocals, were an instant indie hit in the nineties–but her mental instability nearly derailed her career. How this sensitive but headstrong Georgian daughter of an unstable mother and a relatively unknown musician father–managed to make it big, burn out, and rise up again to become not only the darling of the indie music scene but also a fashion and Hollywood icon is the fabric of this irresistible story.
Covering her musical beginnings in the south and her booze-soaked rise to fame in New York City to her eventual breakdown and subsequent reclamation of herself and her music, Cat Power delves into the soul of this fragile but ferociously gifted young talent. With seven albums behind her, the hottest designers clamoring to dress her, and perpetually sold-out venues, Marshall is at the height of her career–a perfect vantage point from which to look at her notorious and intriguing history.
From interviews with her family, musicians such as Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Dave Grohl, and Jack White, past loves like Bill Callahan and Vincent Gallo, and current friends such as Karl Lagerfeld and Wong Kar-Wai, Elizabeth Goodman gives us the real Chan Marshall–the little girl, the woman, the artist” – Amazon.co.uk
Order: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00256Z3L8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1