Is anyone else looking forward to the new Cat Power?

"We thought it wasn't possible, but Cat Power just keeps getting sexier. Chan Marshall's forthcoming album, The Greatest, (due January 26 on Matador), continues the trend of her guest turn on Handsome Boy Modeling School's "I've Been Thinking", turning the indie rock chanteuse into a simmering Southern diva. Listen to her purr and just try not to want to make babies.

As previously reported, The Greatest was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, with a murderer's row of veteran session musicians, including members of the Hi and Stax Records house bands. The record is steeped in the R&B and country traditions, with lots of horns and thick, smoky grooves."

Sounds good to me.

"I'm a busy man so I haven't checked yet" - Texas guy on the Simpsons

There's an mp3 of the title track here (as well as an album-cover I'm not exactly sold on). I can't listen to it till this evening, but you're all welcome to tell me if it's good or not.

(in answer to the thread question)

ew, that pink.

I like the Morningwood album more.

Don't you think that might have died out for a reason?

Everything's very rosy-posy and superficial... prettily dancing around while Chan sings these lines full of longing. The contrast works great at first but gets really tiring after a few songs.

------combined into one (or chosen at random even) that latter's by far the best option! Oh combat! She plays better on her own, so yeah

With "The Greatest", I think Chan finally has the support and the arrangements that her songs have been begging for. In other words, I have the polar opposite view of this record that Sean Gramophone has.

I think it's Chan's way of kissing "indie" goodbye, and flowering into this 21st century songstress that the world truly needs. But I'll wait until the new Beth Orton - she could possibly trump this. The new Edith Frost is pretty stunning too.

Has this actually leaked, then? I've heard about half of it, and it does in fact sound pretty great.

The last one was her strongest album, I think, even though it didn't have her best songs overall (oh how I love "Still in Love" and "Rockets"). But this sounds like it's going to be a major departure in style, yes?

And though I love the drums on "The Greatest", I do not like them elsewhere.

Are You Nomar? = I think that some critics will say it's a great departure in style, but I kinda think that's hogwash. They are laid-back country arrangements, - against which I guess you could say Moon Pix was indie rock-style and You Are Free was singer-songwriter style, - but this isn't really the chanteuse record I imagined, or the country record. (Or the pop record.) To me it's Chan with a very different backing band, one that's got some twang and some sheen but which also lacks much soul.

It's possible I've not entirely downloaded the proper version, though -- do "The Moon" and "Hate" sound live (and different than the rest) to anyone else?

hey, thanks!

A "west coast/jefferson airplane/skip spence psychedelia thing" sounds promising!

cosign

i'm curious who all the young female indie singer-songwriters who sound like they're trying to be her are, or what the moves that they're making that come across that way are

I'm mostly referring to local stuff I see live in the Pacific NW with that comment.

and the signifiers are mostly vocal-related, that drawly yowl and detached attitude.

i think she's capable of putting out another great record. you are free is her best work yet, but it can be topped.

i really don't mind this neo-soul stuff, so long as she doesn't keep inundating us with cover after cover. seeing her perform live is just riveting stuff, regardless of the material.

you are free is her best work yet

I think you and I are the only two people with this opinion.

possibly. moon pix is so much greater. and what would the community think as well. with her it seems that the more she struggles the stronger is her output. i saw her on the moon pix tour with the dirty three, elliott smith played with quasi as well. she was so detached, so totally somewhere else, it was amazing. she is mor now, totally forgettable.

i really liked the Greatest, I thought it was a really nice album; my favorite is still Moon Pix though, and the first Covers album. I think she can do another great album, but I hated Jukebox, it just sounded like coasting to me.

yeah I agree with that assessment

other thoughts...even though I was familiar with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs before Cat Power (I had managed to avoid Cat Power for many years, while the YYYs are friends), when I started hearing Cat Power I think Karen O def. got some moves from her.

Also, they played Fortunate Son last night. Don't know if that's a regular cover for her, but it was fantastic.

when I started hearing Cat Power I think Karen O def. got some moves from her.

???!?!?!?!

we're talking vocally, right? i can hear similarities, esp. when Karen O. chills out.

i cannot

not even on that commercial she sang on? (just googled it -- the adidas commercial)

bar in "lived in bars" video is where i do the bulk of my drankin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNQ7fSMW3Q8

i have never seen minors there tho

I think you and I are the only two people with this opinion.

does that mean we have to work extra hard to force it on the others?

don't get me wrong, i like moon pix and the covers record too, but you are free is such a great distillation of her sound. because the songs are so varied, it's the best representation of her songwriting skills over time.

yes vocally, esp. during the more acousticy YYY songs, or even the solo acoustic stuff Karen used to do.

you are free is too clean sounding, moon pix sounds damaged, its kindof a waterlogged sunrise

i saw her on the moon pix tour with the dirty three, elliott smith played with quasi as well. she was so detached, so totally somewhere else, it was amazing.

aw

was it a satellite link up?

signifiers are mostly vocal-related, that drawly yowl and detached attitude

can imagine ppl doing this — but i dunno that it'd really get at her essential, er, cat power-ness

lived in bars is a really great song, i find it hard to write off someone who had that on their last record of originals

i guess she's in the same position a lot of indie songwriter types get to — how do you complicate what you do, bring in actual worked-on craft, without removing your idiosyncrasies or reducing them to schtick

i mean, no way would moon pix pt 2, 3, 4, and 5 would be more interesting than her actual last four records

Hurrah, a whole room of people who agree with me about Cat Power.

Moon Pix is a such a goddamn awesome record. Impossible to follow it up.

you are free is her best work yet

I think you and I are the only two people with this opinion.
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 11 August 2009 20:02 (Yesterday) Bookmark

I'm happy to be a third. You Are Free is her best. She has def lost it since then mind.

i don't hear cat power in karen o at all. if we're talking about drawly yowl and detached attitude then scary mansion is my nominee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IacWOMLtjwY

she's cute, too!

i saw her with the dirty three also, at the end of the set she dropped her guitar and ran off the stage and out the back door of the club.

Moon Pix is a dull album with one deeply fantastic track - "Cross Bones Style". (Though I'll concede "The Colours and the Kids" is kind of affecting and perhaps is what "Harry Patch (In Memory of)" should have been.) I don't see her career trajectory as one of clear decline. The Greatest doesn't always work, but it's a good album. You Are Free is far and away her best though.

If I had to pick a standout on Moon Pix, it would be "Metal Heart" -- no question.

she's cute, too!

I'm guessing by cute you mean insufferable? ;-)

Metal Heart is her best song and one of my all-time favourites by anyone

jukebox vers of metal heart is a travesty

a friend show me a couple of songs she did on Jools a while back, i guess they we're all from The Greatest, but they were damn good still

I'll throw my lot in with the You Are Free crowd. It's an easier listen I suppose, but it never drags like her other albums tend to in places.

you are free sounds like a polished singer songwriter album by anyone

i'll be the grumpy fuck who says the first three Shelley/Foljahn-backed albums are by far her best stuff and Moon Pix was the beginning of the end as far as me being able to stand anything she did after.

what would the community think is pretty great but i can't say i've ever heard the other two all the way through

i'm exaggerating slightly (Moon Pix is definitely better than the first one), but Myra Lee is underrated as fuck.

you are free sounds like a polished singer songwriter album by anyone

it doesn't, though

it is polished for her, but i can't see how that suddenly makes her work any less distinguishable.

YAF sucks. She needs to stay away from Eddie Vedder & electric guitars.

i don't like that album but wtf, she played an electric guitar on the overwhelming majority of her first few albums.

yeah, and she sounds better with other instruments backing her voice & songs imo. Like on "Werewolf" from YAF--- the only song I love from that album.

And "Colors and the Kids" mmm & Sea of Love mmmm

Though I do like Nude as the News, which does have electric guitar.

+1 for You Are Free as her best.

do not agree with "no electric guitars" and moon pix is a very good reason why

i like "colors and the kids" but seriously keyboard cat >>>>> cat power pawing a piano two notes at a time

metal heart is definitely the only song on Jukebox I really liked, kind of a good version of her own song.

new york new york off jukebox is brilliant imo and is a bit "wow you have become a skilled singer who can do interpretations and not just in a "i'm so sad singing this song u guys" way"

wow you have become a skilled singer who can do interpretations

See, this is how I feel about The Covers Record.

Jukebox, on the other hand...

jukebox is decent. it has some interesting cuts, but isn't essential cat power. the covers record on the other hand is a fantastic example of her ability to make things her own, with "satisfaction" coming to mind as one of the most daring and successful moves she's made handling someone else's song.

Hearing her sing in spanish for jukebox's "angelitos negros" was perhaps one of the most painful musical experiences I've had in my whole life.