Cat Power
You Are Free
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NATN Recommended
Cat Power
You Are Free
Matador, 2003
RiYL: Elliott Smith, Patti Smith, Mark Kozelek |
The track finds her plaintively milking a minor-chord riff on the piano while vocalizing empathy with a tortured and bored rock star who seems to be going through the motions to please his fans. "You were swinging your guitar around / 'cause they wanted to hear that sound / but you didn't want to play / and I don't blame you." The song's Cobain-esque subject ends up taking drastic measures to put distance between his humanity and the caricature that celebrity has created, but in a poignant bridge, Marshall makes a key observation about the relationship between an artist and his/her fans: "they never owned it / and you never owed it to them."
It's uplifting, this realization that the struggle between artistic integrity and rock-star fandom doesn't have to be destructive. Marshall doesn't blame the song's subject for his inability to cope, but she appears to have fared better in real life, keeping fame at arm's length by remaining her own person, and not letting celebrity's pitfalls force her into playing songs she doesn't want to or making music to please anyone besides herself.
This mixture of revealing honesty and defiant self-confidence pervades the majority of You Are Free, an affecting and unforced 14-track album that stands as arguably her most diverse and rewarding effort to date. It is especially welcome in the context of Marshall's trying live performances of recent years, in which it sometimes seems she is giving up on her music, occasionally in mid-song (see NATN's recent interview for her take on this). But the vibrant musical buffet offered on You Are Free strongly negates any such thoughts.
Marshall continues pondering the art-fame connection on second track "Free," whose addictive chorus asks "Don't be in love with the autograph / just be in love when you scream that song." In other words, love the art -- not the artist. It's somewhat of a shrewd defensive move to front-load all this sentiment on an album with the potential to be a bit of a commercial breakthrough for Marshall. Yet somehow, that train of thought seems at odds with her focus.
Still, "Speak For Me" and "He War" stand among her catchiest material to date, with full-band instrumentation (including Dave Grohl on drums) propelling their choruses skyward. Conversely, cuts such as "Werewolf" (a cover of a tune by folk singer Michael Hurley) and a version of John Lee Hooker's "Keep On Runnin'" echo the format of The Covers Record with their downbeat, vocals-and-guitar simplicity. Meanwhile, "Shaking Paper" uses drums and fleshed-out musical backing to a different effect, shuffling rhythms and droning guitars lending Marshall's wailing a wispy, fog-like sound.
Other highlights include the haunting "Fool," which muses disconnectedly about a relationship, and "Names," a litany of tiny tales about young children in tough situations. Marshall sings of kids affected by drugs, sexual abuse, and parental physical abuse, but as the title suggests, she gives the stories more import by approaching them from the side of humanity: "his name was Perry / he had a learning difficulty / his father was a very mean man / his father burned his skin / his father sent him to his death / he was ten years old."
Nope, no "Shiny Happy People" here.
But the spare "Maybe Not" grudgingly reveals a very uplifting message. "We can all be free," runs the chorus, "Maybe Not with words / Maybe Not with a look / but with your mind." Elegantly put.
You Are Free, in contrast to Cat Power's last two efforts, has more emotional and musical valleys and peaks, as well as more music overall. And so, one of our most unique singer-songwriters adds another peak to her impressive career. While her shows may remain hit-or-miss affairs, Cat Power continues to make beautiful music on her own terms, and that's the way we like it.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.