CAT POWER - REDUX
Twenty years ago the inimitable Chan Marshall, otherwise known as Cat Power, released her landmark seventh album, The Greatest, upon the world. Arriving three years after the critically acclaimed You Are Free, the material on The Greatest marked a distinct shift in songwriting and approach, employing the use of the Memphis Rhythm Band, comprised of veteran studio musicians hailing from the south, giving the songs an inherent warmth not found on previous Cat Power albums. However, the historically troubled Marshall was still writing from a dark place, with "Lived in Bars" detailing her ongoing dependence on alcohol and the Kurt Cobain-referencing "Hate" focusing on self-harm. At the time, it's not hard to imagine Marshall submitting The Greatest to her longstanding record label Matador as her swansong album, acknowledging that she might not live long enough to make another record.
Two decades later, history has proven her wrong. Five Cat Power albums later, not to mention a move from Matador to Domino Recordings, she is indeed alive and thriving. Her latest EP, a slight yet significant three-song affair entitled Redux, sees Marshall revisiting material from The Greatest with the Dirty Delta Blues band, comprised of Jim White, Judah Bauer, Gregg Foreman, and Erik Paparozzi. These are the musicians that were tasked with touring The Greatest with Marshall back in 2006-2007, and if you were lucky enough to catch one of those shows, you will have witnessed first-hand the transformative power that this band had on Marshall as a performer. Historically crippled by stage fright and the aforementioned alcohol dependence, Cat Power live shows could be very touch-and-go to say the least. Simply put, by the time she was touring The Greatest, she seemed to have her shit together. The set lists each night were comprised entirely of material from The Greatest and her earlier Covers Record, as well as songs from the covers record that would end up following The Greatest, the aptly titled Jukebox.
On Redux, listeners are treated to two covers and a Greatest-era Cat Power original, an updated re-imagining of the standout track "Could We." This is not the first time we have seen Cat Power cover herself; as recently as 2021 she covered the aforementioned "Hate" as "Unhate" for what would be her third covers album, unsurprisingly entitled Covers. She has also re-visited her own "In This Hole" from her first covers album, and in this respect Marshall follows in the footsteps of every folk singer to come before her, acknowledging that the recorded version of a song is not the final version; rather, each song continues to grow and change with each subsequent performance, ultimately taking on a different form through the passage of time.
The cover of James Brown's "Try Me" that opens Redux is significant primarily because it was one of the first attempted recordings to come out of the original sessions for The Greatest, but ultimately never made the cut for the final album either because it didn't fit with the rest of the Marshall-penned material, or perhaps a perfect take was beyond reach. Masterfully handled here by the road-hardened Dirty Delta Blues band, the song takes on a triumphant quality that puts to rest the defeatism that Marshall was battling in 2006.
However, the true gem on Redux is the six-and-half minute take on Prince's legendary "Nothing Compares 2 U," a cover that is faithful both to Prince's version as well as the more widely familiar Sinead O'Connor Top 40 radio staple, all the while possessing a unique quality that is entirely Marshall's, due in no small part to her singular voice. Given that the world has lost both O'Connor and Prince in recent years, its appropriate that this EP is dedicated "In loving memories."
The Greatest in many respects marked the end of an era for Cat Power. While the album was followed up by the aforementioned Jukebox covers album, she would only release one final album of original material for Matador, the futuristic and arguably ahead of it's time Sun, before being unceremoniously dropped by the label for not sounding enough like Adele. By the time she signed with Domino and released Wanderer in 2018, the musical landscape had changed completely. Where previous albums featured guest spots from her heroes (Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder), she was now sharing her spotlight with acts that were directly inspired by her and whose level of fame had grown exponentially (case in point, Lana Del Rey's supporting vocal on "Woman").
Cat Power's influence on the current generation of female singer-songwriters is immeasurable, from Del Rey to Dacus, and closer to home, Charlotte Cornfield. She's never sold records like Swift, Adkins, or Welch, but her influence can be found across each of those acts. The world is a better place with Chan Marshall in it, and we are forever grateful that she didn't follow Cobain's advice on "Hate." Long live Cat Power.
-Leks Maltby