Stream Fuse's Favorite New Album: Cat Power, 'Sun'
Perhaps you read "Marry Me, Cat Power: 9 New Reasons to Love Chan Marshall," my story last week about the long-troubled singer-songwriter's comeback with Sun, her ninth studio album. Well, Sun has arrived on NPR ahead of schedule and now I have to redo my entire list of reasons to celebrate Cat Power's return, placing this puppy at a solid numero uno. Listen for yourself right here.
Real talk: This is a great album. Admittedly, I'm a longtime Chan Marshall fan. I've loved the breakdowns, breakups, quirks, fits, onstage freak outs, good songs (and even some of the bad ones). But overall her output has been, well, melancholy. The mood matches her voice; it's been her "thing." Sun opens the curtains on that preconception, and that's why it's perhaps her best effort yet. She played all the instruments on the LP herself, which is new (she worked with a blues band on her last effort, the acclaimed The Greatest), and the Sun songs are upbeat, fun and--gasp--danceable, and not in a funeral waltz way but a Miami hipster dance club way.
The highlights include the piano-loop charger (and first single) "Ruin," the lo-fi drum machine beats and keyboard bleats of "Manhattan" and "Nothin But Time," the epic centerpiece which has Iggy Pop and Marshall hollering what's perhaps the album's mission statement over heaven-bound piano and shape-shifting synths: "It's up to you to be your superhero! / It's up to you to be like nobody..."
Damn straight, girl.
55s
21m
22m
1h 18m
41m
1m
1m
1m
41s
2m
49m
57s
30s
2m
1m
2m
2m
21m
56s
20m
45m
1h 39m
44m
22m
21m
2m
1m
22m
43s
6m
20m
46s
4m
3m
1m
22m
5m
5m
5m
6m
9m
20m
10m
10m
9m
10m
14m
20m
41m
13m
1m
6m
8m
2m
1m
2m
30s
3m
7m
41m
21m
41m
21m
11m
12m
15m
13m
55m
3m
8m
1h 30m
22m
20m
2m
1m