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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Plastic Chan Band, July 31, 2000
This album is fast becoming my favorite Cat Power album. There are a handful of atmospheric and catchy songs (Rockets, We All Die, Ice Water, Not What You Want...) The band (Chan, Steve Shelley and Tim Foljahn--note no bass but two guitars and the human drum machine Steve Shelley) is raw, loose and adventurous. At times, Chan's singing style, coupled with her bleak and suggestive lyricism, evokes the majesty of a young Dylan, circa 1966. (She must really be the "Devil's Daughter...") But, then again, the last cut, Not What You Want, evokes the feel of another great artist/album: John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band. This track sounds like it was recorded by a Playschool tape recorder for todlers, and Chan singing, "I'm not what you want," over and over again, does remind this reviewer of the haunting finale to the Lennon masterpiece, with cathartic screams and all. And for the non-Cat/Chan converts... can anyone turn a line so simple as "I'm so angry" and make it elusive, suggestive, catchy and breathtaking? Cat Power/Chan Marshall is something rare in music: a sense of adolescent and awkward prodigy; a rare combination of a voice blessed by God and sloppy, but edgy and always inventive, musicianship. Maybe it's the rough groove, the contrast between stumbling and squealing dueling guitars and Steve's ever-so-tight but sparse drumming. Go check this out. You won't stop playing Rockets for a long time.
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