Cat Power

For many ATLiens of a certain age, Chan Marshall is a sweet and singular 34-year-old woman who moved to New York and became one of the most acclaimed cult acts of the past decade. For hundreds of thousands of indie rock fans, she is Cat Power, a trenchant singer/songwriter whose given name denotes an overwhelmingly dark and mysterious grace. But with The Greatest, the disconnect between the successful musician who lives in Miami and New York and the fragile artist who seemingly immolates herself on stage, collapsing into crying jags, has finally begun to disappear.

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Recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Al Green’s guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges and bassist Leroy “Flick” Hodges, among many others, The Greatest promises to be Cat Power’s most emotionally varied album to date. “Living Proof,” which pipes along Scott Thompson’s emphatic trumpet, is warm and emphatic, and Cat Power is both gauzy and inflective. Not yet a full-bodied chanteuse, her voice still holds unmistakable beauty, even during the modest first date that is “Could We”: “What a dream/In the grass/We kissed/Fell in love too fast too soon/Love full bloom.”

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The Greatest also includes dark, lonely songs (“Where Is My Love”) more characteristic of Cat Power’s prior output. But even these numbers are enlivened by the vivid performances of her sidemen. “Hate” is the sole exception, an acoustic number on which she sings, “They can give me pills/Or let me drink my fill/The heart wants to explode far away/Where nobody knows.” But it seems out of place among the album’s bright country soul.

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The best song on The Greatest is its title track. A picture of an aspiring boxer described through complex broken poetry (“Lower me down/Pin me in/Secure the grounds/For the lead/And the dregs of my bed/I’ve been sleepin’/For the later parade,” she sings), it stands as one of the finest pieces she has written.