Music: Cat Power - "The Greatest"

'K, careful and regular readers may have noticed we put the new Cat Power CD "The Greatest" in the On Our Stereo list in the left-hand sidebar a while ago. But we've really been putting in a lot of time with the latest album to arrive from the mellow yet mercurial Chan Marshall, a.k.a., Cat Power. "The Greatest" may be her strongest, most accessible collection of tunes since she kicked off her career as a teenager in the early 1990's. While the CD is unmistakeable Cat Power -- with that deep, heavy, worn, lusty and barely above-a-whisper voice -- the disc is far cry from her first album "What Would the Community Think." The indie heartbreak is still cast all over these songs in typical Chan Marshall style, but the set is punctuated by upbeat, bluesy and soulful ditties arranged and recorded with hints of R&B and a Memphis-country twang, at times reminiscent of Wilco's "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel." The tracks "Could We," "Willie" and "The Greatest" have sucked us in, racking up the most times played in our iTunes tally this past week. So, I guess we really like those three songs a lot. Another Cat Power tune that we've played often recently, but which is not on "The Greatest," is her beautiful, melancholic cover of the Oasis hit "Wonderwall," which she recored during one of those famous John Peel Sessions for the BBC in London.

Posted by Supercore at April 18, 2006 01:01 AM