New Cat Power

what do you mean kottke/fahey-ish guitar? isn't it just easier to say country blues?

guess i was really more referring to the version of salty dog in question. that really is pretty straight country blues pickin.

she's been covering 2 of his songs on her recent tour

did you see him in DC w/ lambchop?)

I have been a big, nay obsessive, Cat Power fan for years. I even paid $20 for the impossible-to-find Undercover seven-inch. So, when I eagerly downloaded He War in preparation for my next big Chan fix in February, I expected something like a cross between the circular beauty of Moon Pix and the near-naked genius of The Covers Record and the Peel Sessions. Not exactly the same, of course--bands are allowed to grow, change, evolve, whatever you want to call it.

But very few people seem to have noticed about the new song what I did. To me, it sounds like just another slab of boring college rock. I keep listening to it to find out what I'm missing, but it leaves me cold. It just doesn't have that certain something that made me fall in love with Cat Power.

I am trying to remain optomistic about the rest of the record.

diff is good. will buy and post.

pCatPower = new tCatPower();
pCatPower->FaultInject();
delete pCatPower;

I guess this went up on twitter last night (!)

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2t1rofDGC1qb3nrko1_500.png

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, April 21, 2012 6:20 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I HAVE HAD ALL THE MOUNTAIN DEWS

Team Chan vs Team Fiona 2012?

I feel the same about both of them (temporarily interested in new things, but actually just a fan of a few songs over all).

Hadn't seen this thread before. so just now posting my two cents on a wonderful album (later w bonus tracks, I think) review archived on thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Record to Beat in '08
Cat Power's Jukebox. I used to find her tiresome, but she's not
overplaying the waif card here, even though this probably her most
romantic album, her most truly atmospheric, because in order to have
an atmosphere, you gotta have gravity, from the right substance in the
spin. Every time the music starts, her voice first reaches me as a dry
ice smoke ring 'round the moon, over the shining spine of historee
(great and good old and newer songs coming together, and coming up in
just a minute) with a vivid poise that keeps her from sounding too
earnest: it's just the right, sensuous sound (especially as it moves
through her musical companions' reverb, echo and grooves) for her
cosmic quest, for romantic and spiritual fulfillment. ( Janis Joplin
answered, when asked what Today's Youth are looking for: "Sincerity,
and a good time." Hey hay hey.) The confidence as well as
sensitivity—so of course "New York New York," with just a simple
adjustment of its seatbelt, should have this tensile lope and sway,
backbeating right past Radio City rinky-tink, with ingenue still in
tow/charge. She's totally at home with the Dirty Dozen Blues Band,
especially drummer Jim White, of the Dirty Three and recent,
noteworthy collabs with Nina Natashia; Judah Bauer of the Jon Spencer
Blues Explosion(! But he does not play no fratblooze here) is also
aboard (with Eric Papparozzi on bass and Greg Foreman's keyboards),
but this little combo is less like a blues band is usually expected to
be, more like rockers who have learned much from the Hi Rhythm
Section, in terms of taut, spare punctuation and momentum, fitting
Chan Marshall's vibrant reveries perfectly (the one time she holds
back a bit, seemingly getting lost, on "A Woman Left Lonely,"
Foreman's electric piano tremolo gets more emphatic, rallying her,
appropriately for a song about a woman who's coming back from
rejection). The sequence of tracks is very effective: after "New York
New York," Hank Williams' "Ramblin Man" is recast as "Ramblin' Woman,"
and the original's melodramatic, spooked compulsion is tempered by a
certain expansiveness: she knows this kind of journey is where she's
meant to be, not that it doesn't matter who and what she finds. A new
version of her "Metal Heart" follows, with a confrontation, a note to
self and other, that steadfastness , mettle and "metal" is in the
sound, not heavy metal, but the electricity moving through natural
elements, 20th Century engine-uity revving up again in these old
songs, which sound as timely as ever. The sleek, starlit,
meta-metal's also there in Lee Clayton's "Silver Stallion" which
practical-minded Cowgirl Chan leads from mythology or decoration, out
into her own prospects, and "Aretha" is wistfully, unpretentiously
invoked, to re-inspire her lover and herself, also (as repeated
listenings reward), I think of this as prefiguring later songs, as I
relate it to Dylan's line from Tarantuala, "Aretha, crystal jukebox
queen (the album's title from this?), I shall play you as my trump
card." I think of that because I know she'll reach Dylan's own "I
Believe In You," with Bauer accentuating the Stonesy riff with which
Dylan foresaw "Start Me Up," and White's drum leaps develop a hip hop
cast, kicking off the mud of a town through which one proud outcast
searches for another. Marshall's own "Song For Bobby, " reminiscing
about various near-misses with the Master, could easily be gushy, but
she's even too grown-up for that now. She strikingly connects
Dylanesque phrasing to Billie Holiday's, on the latter's "Hush Now
(Don't Explain)," reminding me of D. 's description of his later songs
as "overlapping phrases on an electrical grid," the overlapping of
expression and reticence, austerity and warmth in the shadows. Which
is also where the hope and fear meet in, Jessie May Hemphill's "Lord
Help," just as "We're all reborn, to face the morning sun." Uh, and so
on, with some surprises: I didn't even recognize Joni Mitchell's
passive-aggressive self-pity/guilt-tripping you-dumped-me classic,
"Blue," at first, cos Chan doesn't imitate her at all! Not even in
this age of girly-swirly chamber folk, not at all (and the band's just
bumpin' at the walls of the break-up, you know it'll all work out as
it should or will). This girl is a woman now! (But not too scary with
it.) ------Don Allred

Ruin is great.

Mixed by Philippe Zdar

o_O

i didn't like jukebox at all. hope the new one is hundreds of times better.

i don't like the new single at all. there is something mor and polished about it. i think she has lost it. she does not sound like herself any more.

LOVE the new single, so glad she's back. Fiona AND Chan in the same year, I can hardly contain myself!!!

she does not sound like herself any more.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, June 22, 2012 5:10 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^
yeah i think this is okay/maybe pretty nice but i would give anything for a cat power record in which she was singing in her original harmonica-like clean ringing bell of a voice instead of her weird sultry post-you-are-free affectated slur. even the way the vocals are recorded on this is strange. too much.

17 min into this- http://www.npr.org/2012/06/26/155705361/summer-music-preview-premieres-from-cat-power-avett-brothers-grizzly-bear-and-mo

"Cherokee" oddly sounds like an alternate 90s version of Cat Power, one where Chan Marshall chose drum programming and layers and trip-hop atmospheres rather than guitars and low fidelity.

...whatever that means.

Anyway, song's kind of flat and aimless imo.

weirdest thing about it is how after an intro that sounds like nu-era-digital-cat-power it morphs into something sorta moon pix-esque - the tangled guitars and layered singing

She's always been aimless and plain but she used to have a very hypnotic, breathy voice that made the meandering passages seem worthwhile... she might have been rubbish for all I care but it sounded heartfelt and it got into my nerves in a good way. Without the hypnotic, nudity of her voice we're just left with a pointless version of her.

Can't judge the full album yet but Ruin doesn't sound like it has enough going on to pull my attention or demand a replay.

Without the hypnotic, nudity of her voice

this is lovely & otm, moka. i def can't get anything out of the performative tone she has on the last few.

i always try to find a live version of what would the community think that i can't find online anywhere, to post in support of my old-cat-power-best-cat-power argument. her voice used to just carry & call out.

ohhhh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nNDDDUWHs

chan your voice is like a wonderful harmonica

man, the new album is really bad

and everyone otm about what she's lost from her vocals

aw that's sad

Have people heard this yet? Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of great? It's her best since You Are Free by a mile, but it feels more like a counterpoint to that album than a sequel. It's so bright and buzzy and the bass on every song is just huge; it's distinct from all of her other records.

And yeah, there are a few kind of embarrassing stylistic flourishes or indulgences throughout the album, but I don't think they really detract from anything. Even Moon Pix had its share of those

I heard it casually last night and I liked what I overheard! Has a I do not want what I haven't got kind of production vibe? Considering I have no love for any Cat Power post-Moon Pix I was pretty impressed, will listen again

Uh, that was not meant to be a sideways dis at 00s CP. Just mentioned it b/c I'm a specific fan of two awesome records, I can see how the new one would dismay fans of "You are free" etc.

Been listening to this constantly for the last week or two. I'm still impressed by how much umphff and authority these songs have. Not something I expected from Cat Power.

i can't really work this album out: i like the sound, i like her voice, but a lot of the time it seems kind of blustery and empty? and doesn't go anywhere much? idk.

the nico jaar remix of "cherokee" is HEAVENLY though

i like this album a lot

this is kinda terrible imo

i still don't know what i think of this but "manhattan" has this glorious day-drunk vibe. more songs like that plz

the monkey on your back song rules

I think the truth is, really, I've never liked Cat Power as much as I've pretended to like Cat Power. Community and Moon Pix have the bulk of the material I like, then there's a few songs on You Are Free and The Greatest (and I like her "Hanging on the Telephone" cover for the cellphone commercial), but that's about it really. The pre-Community albums, the covers albums and Sun are all mostly in one ear out the other for me.

Bought this yesterday, played it once through last night, and thought it seemed awesome.

the real long track on this is fucking amazing

'nothin' but time' ??

the superhero one i think

ya

Does it take the chord structure from Heroes by Bowie?

this is kinda terrible imo

― some dude, Tuesday, 4 September 2012 13:17 (Yesterday) Permalink

what would the community think is her masterpiece. that is the sound of pure fucking desolation, being in a hole

Started listening to this now. Don't know if it will turn out to be Tron or Field Day.

So, she broke?

should i go see her when she comes to philly?

pros: i love her music
cons: chances are good she won't finish the show?

I don't think she's "not finished a show" in years and years.

Based on the show I saw, and what I've read of the others, these are some of the most confounding shows she's ever played. They begin really shaky (so much so that a lot of people leave) and then end triumphantly. At times the juxtaposition between the good and the bad felt deliberate, almost as if she was faking the bad parts. I tossed around some theories about what might have been going on in my review of the show, but really, I have no idea what she was going for.

Anyway, as a fan I'm glad I went, because it was an experience and when she hits her stride it's still really glorious.

looked at a few setlists and found almost nothing from moon pix or wwtct, but a TON of covers. uninterested. love her new hairdo tho

might be worth going just to do a head-count of all different eras of cat power haircuts the audience is miming

maybe like a cat power people's choice awards, researched without having actually talked to anyone

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwray/surrounded-by-legends#.wbRYqRy7e

that was excellent, thanks