Cat Power “The Greatest” Matador Records
On her seventh album, Cat Power’s Chan Marshall returns to
her roots. In “The Greatest,” Marshall sheds the
anthem-like qualities of 1998’s “Moon Pix” and
slumps deeper into emotional complexity than in her 2003 release
“You Are Free.” But she does so this time by digging
deep for the gold of the Memphis soul sound. Southern-bred Marshall
recorded the album with help from Mabon “Teenie” Hodges
(Al Green’s guitarist and songwriting partner), as well as
Green’s bassist Leroy “Flick” Hodges and several
Memphis horn players. It seems as though Marshall has been afraid
to thoroughly delve into the music she grew up listening to due to
the risk that it might personalize her lyrics more intensely. The
courage to run with this degree of intimacy is evident in tracks
such as “The Moon” and “Living Proof,”
which find her delivering bluesy cries. As with all of her work,
Marshall herself is the album’s focal point. Her voice takes
center stage beginning with the title track, a ballad featuring a
brooding piano that punctures the listener with emotion as
Marshall’s voice rushes over the soft chords, with strings
accompanying the vocal melody. The album’s major-scale,
country-soul orientation makes you want to dance along at times,
but her formerly unsteady, lingering whispers have matured into
richer tones revealing age and pain ““ pain that is more
evident now in her deep honey-like vocal delivery. “Where Is
My Love” is another classic piano ballad with a standard
five-note major scale repeating in the background of Marshall
swooning the words of the title. “Hate” is the
album’s highlight track, her most desperately revealing song
yet. A fuzz-tone guitar plays a steady, but rushed, minor chord
progression, while Marshall’s voice quivers and creaks as she
tries to whittle out the song’s words with her voice. The
lyrics show her at war with herself, as with the lines “I
hate myself and I want to die/ Do you believe she said that?/ Can
you believe she repeated that?/ I said I hate me, I hate myself and
I want to die.” The album ends with “Love and
Communication,” a track full of churning rhythms and deep
bluesy vocals which seem to admit that, although Marshall may have
some inner turmoil, she at least sounds confident and passionate in
her struggle.
““ Taleen Kalenderian