I am very late to the party on this one. I recently heard her on a radio station I was randomly tuned to last weekend. I immediately fell in love with her sound and picked up Moon Pix. Made it through the entire album and every song, in my book, is a damn winner. That said, what of her other albums should I pick up if Moon Pix represents my favorite thus far. Any insight would be much appreciated!
What Would the Community Think and You Are Free would be my picks, especially the latter. Moon Pix is still my favorite, great record. Think I posted this before around here, but love reading recording comments about my favorite records, and this is one of them, below from part-time Melbourne recording engineer Matt Voight ... How a Part-Time Melbourne Engineer Recorded a Cat Power Classic How did the first few days go? So it started off and she came in and said "I want a backwards drum beat." She had a Beastie Boys cd or something like that in her bag and I can't remember which song it was, but we got one of the drum beats and flipped it around backwards. Cut it up a bit and put a drum beat in there, just some random thing. And she goes "Oh ok that's cool" and then she started recording American Flag on top of that. And it was very loose...but I think that was part of the charm. Was she playing and singing at the same time? Yep. And this was in Sing Sing South? No Sing Sing Richmond, the main one. We had a little amp in one room, her sitting in another room with a microphone. I think it was an M49 valve microphone. And I had a lovely Fairchild 660 compressor on there, going through a 1073 Neve Mic Pre. And it just sounded beautiful. She sang and it was like "Oh my god." She's got a creamy voice. What was your impression of her as she began? She was fine, a lovely lady. Very emotional. We would do takes and she'd just start crying in the middle of a take. And she'd say "Stop, stop, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" and I'm like "It sounded great!"
I’m a huge fan - my intro to her music was the album “Jukebox”. It’s an album of covers but they are amazing versions. She changed things up a bit for “Sun”and it’s awesome too. I finally got to see her on tour in NYC in May 2017 I think and true to her reputation she quit a bit early complains about sound or something but it had been a great show up the abrupt departure. I enjoyed seeing her so much I will give her a second chance someday.
Saw her a few years ago and she was really good on stage but the club was kind of noisy. The Greatest is such a great album. Sun is also good with its songs Manhattan and Nothin' But Time. Listen to those. Here are a couple of my fave YouTube performances by her... Cat Power - New York, New York on Jools Holland 2008
I've been a fan for a long while. Moon Pix was the first album I got. It was the cover of "Moonshiner" that did me in. I think that The Greatest is her masterpiece, but I have to say that the new album, Wanderer feels like a close second to me right now. I've been playing it a lot since it came out. Didn't feel that way about Jukebox or Sun, which were the albums that followed The Greatest. I like those two, but Wanderer has something special to it that The Greatest also had. L.
Been a fan since What Would the Community Think. The Covers Record is my favorite, her interpretations are stunning and a great ‘mood’ record. Moon pix is a close second. while I don’t love all her albums, they each have a few stunning can’t miss tracks. Saw her twice live and both times were hugely disappointing, around 2002 or so. She may be better live now but I just don’t bother, the records are enough for me.
I really like her music But She was a wreck when I saw her on stage Stopped nearly every song midway through I Left early it was so bad
Has she ever discussed all the early exits at concerts? I found it pretty annoying ~ it was a dream show that I was at and then poof - meltdown then bye-bye
I saw her once around the time of the Covers Album and it was a disaster. Stopped following her at that point. Moon Pix still rocks though.
I would suggest You Are Free after Moon Pix. The album looks like a synthesis of her music, and it includes some of her best songs. I consider Chan Marshall as the best songwriter of her generation with PJ Harvey.
Every time I hear the name Cat Power, I am reminded of that old band from the late 60's, Cat Mother ( and the all night news boys ) Sorry...Please continue...
I just saw Echoes From The Canyon and Cat Power caught my attention. Totally late to this party. Going to grab a couple of her CDs.
In addition to Moon Pix, which is the best of the early records, I think, definitely check out The Greatest and the newest one, Wanderer. I caught her show last month in Charlottesville, and it was superb. It was wonderful to see her so in command on stage after having heard so many reports from earlier tours about her struggles. L.
