When Chan Marshall opens her mouth, it’s impossible not to take notice. There is something ancient and pretty and aching that resonates when she sings. She writes sad songs, and even when Marshall covers upbeat tunes, like The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” she turns them into sorrowful ballads.
Chan Marshall is Cat Power. Cat Power is more than hipster folk music; her new album, “You Are Free” blows everything else out of the water. And it isn’t even as good as her 1998 release “Moon Pix.”
On earlier albums, her songs creep slowly, as if before each breath, before each note, Marshall has to gather her courage and pull herself together before allowing any sound to escape. This album is more eager, more confident and — gasp! — even poppier.
However, the lyrics are anything but bubble gum fodder. On the track “Names,” she laments, “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 10 years old.”
Fans can expect the same bare bones sound — guitar and drums, austere piano — keys struck with hands bearing the weight of the world.
Rockers Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl contribute on
several songs. Vedder adds backup vocals to “Good Woman” and “Evolution.” Grohl drums on “Speak for Me,” “He War” and
other tracks.
Listening to Cat Power is pure catharsis, especially the track “Good Woman,” where the singer reluctantly gives up love. Marshall’s voice radiates like a beam of light through a church window or a forest canopy as she sings “This is why I can’t see you no more / And this is why I’m lying / When I say I don’t love you no more / ‘Cause I want to be a good woman / And I want you to be a good man.”
Marshall, a Georgia native, exists on a plane much deeper than the rest of us. While she spins gold when writing her own songs, she also does an exquisite job reinterpreting other musicians’ work.
Cat Power covers the John Lee Hooker song, “Crawlin’ Black Spider,” retitling it “Keep on Runnin’.” And on “Werewolf,” written by Michael Hurley, Marshall becomes the beast with the lyrics “Crying nobody knows / How I loved the man / As I teared off his clothes / Crying nobody knows my pain / When I see that it’s risen / That full moon again.”
Despite all its country western tragedy, the album is as close to an affirmation of hope as Cat Power will probably ever come. Even the album art — pictures of a sunny afternoon in the tall grass — is a bit more lighthearted.
The title says it all: “You Are Free.” Throughout the album’s 53 minutes, Marshall reminds us that we are free: “We all do what we can / So we can do just one more thing / We can all be free / Maybe not with words / Maybe not with a look / But with your mind.” It sounds like Marshall has finally realized she doesn’t owe anyone anything. By overcoming some of her own demons, Cat Power helps listeners break through theirs.