Customer Reviews

Myra Lee

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

Certain people laugh when I tell them I have a song stuck in my head, because they happen to know it'll be a line or two from a Cat Power album. While lines like "I feel just like some great big disease" sound silly and awkward when read. or when sung by anyone else, Chan Marshall manages to convey in three lines what other musicians fail to reach on entire albums. I have three Cat Power albums; I'm just glad that it's difficult to wear out CDs. Finally, hearing first the above-quoted "Ice Water," then Marshall's version of "Still in Love" (w.b. Hank Williams), evokes first chills (as you would imagine from ice water) then a deep, peaceful acceptance of love still aching inside after it's actually gone (as is the most you can ask from a country song, really). I only wish she'd sing more soul/country songs. Of course, anything more she could sing, I would walk around singing quietly to myself.

This album is so well done, there is so much emotion behind every single note and lyric in every single song. Chan's voice is so powerful and moving, I cannot think of a better Cat Power song than "Ice Water." And as far as these "sloppy" and "amateurish" comments go- I fail to hear any such characteristic, though it is possible that this album may be hard to grasp to someone with a very close-minded and tightly wound musical listening history. Hands down, best Cat Power album.

this is my favorite album because it is true to a more raw, emotional sense. i feel it is her best work.

Found this early, primal, Cat Power a gateway into understanding--and fully enjoying--the Cat Power I discovered late, with "Jukebox." Entirely different style and delivery from her later works (i.e., post "You Are Free"), very skeletal song structures on the original tracks, but wow such feeling and depth of delivery! Love "Rockets" (same track as on her other first album, "Dear Sir"), "Ice Water," "Enough," and "Not What You Want." Then, out of the blue, this trio (Chan, Steve Shelly, Tim Foljahn), lapses into familiar, melodic chords sidling into an iconic cover of Hank Williams' "Still In Love"--what diversity. Buy this album, listen to it repeatedly and then view some 1995 Cat Power videos on YouTube!

A mysterious title for such a mysterious album. At first while getting this album I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I mean I do own some Cat Power music but this album is driven by true emotion. These emotions are not usally what people write to. This stuff is true it's driven by anger and frustration. Chan's voice gives such a great presentation of what she is feeling but also comes lightly to let you know it is going to be ok. The contrast of this album to all the others is so amazing that it could only have been done by Chan.

Brand-new musical experience in your life. Power in silence. It's almost religous beauty.

After picking up Moon Pix, I was captivated by the combination of haunting vocals, slow pace, and dreamy guitar playing. They all seemed to mesh together so well.

But on this album I found it completely lacking of the completeness that I found on Moon Pix. The guitar isn't nearly as prominent and is no where near as true. The vocals have the same tone but are unrefined and screeching at times. There are a couple of tracks that are alright and I don't mind listening to them, but some are just to hard to listen to, and I guess if I don't want to listen to it, it fails the test.

1 1/2

Dreadfully, derivatively dull, guitar-based simpleton ramblings sounds like the depressed goth chic strumming in her garage band on weekends from junior year. Ms. Marshall's sophomore release might have fooled many with delusions of raw emotion, when in actuality the only the that rings noticeable throughout these sludgy sessions is her occasional vocal intuition.

Although her subsequent albums are more technically sound. This album is still the most intriguing.