Cat Power – Moon Pix — music review

Posted on December 3, 2005 by Kris Nelson

If Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane/Starship) and maybe Fiona Apple had a vocal offspring, it would be Chan Marshall, aka: Cat Power. If you know me, you know why this name initially grabbed me (wow go kitties!), but the exaggerated slo-mo stylings, bare-bones instrumentation and strange scraggly drawl-singing are what kept me listening.

So it’s mostly just a guitar, sometimes a bass and piano and/or bowed saw accompaniment, sometimes a clip of an impending thunderstorm that travels along Marshall’s narcoleptically slurred tones. Her vicious octave thrusts mimic the bitter, almost juvenile accusations in her lyrics. ‘Colors and the Kids’ and ‘Back of Your Head’ are so plain in their description of responsibility and partnership that it runs close to immaturity: “Yellow hair/ You are such a funny bear… I could stay here and become someone better” and “Big monster lover/ A bigger pusher over… Burnt flavor you hold the big picture so well/ Can’t you see that we’re going to Hell.”

The lyrics make sense if you take the album as a book of repents and self-medicated laments. In fact, the disc stamp displays a message: “All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.” Otherwise, the quirky-sweet, melancholy Mazzy Star-like melodies act as bizarre lullabies on that deserted island where technology doesn’t exist. Well, besides the juice needed for the electric guitar I guess.

Cat Power also has this great almost a cappella album entirely of covers you won’t be able to recognize which is so damn cool its on my Christmas List.

American Flag (fan video)

About the Author

Kris Nelson will listen to anything once. Her favorites include Trip Hop, oldschool Jazz (Sonny Rollins), electronica (Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Glitch), Indie, Experimental, Funk, Punk, Folk, Classical (Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin)… footfalls through November leaves, zipper pulls in the dryer, or ice clinking in a Summer glass… music is all around us!