Search - Cat Power :: You Are Free

Beyond brilliance

lady detective | east coat | 03/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chan Marshall has finally managed to combine the soft coziness of 'Moon Pix' with the raw emotion of 'What Will The Community Think', & the result is unbelievable lovely.'You Are Free' is crafty, melodic, layered, painful, beautiful & inspired. Its' quiet spaces give way to angry lamentations that manage to flow together seamlessly.If you're into early PJ Harvey (esp. her demo work) the Cowboy Junkies 'Whites Off Earth Now' album, Edith Frost, or Patty Griffin's first album- then this is an absolute must!Anyone who can sing, "turn out the lights, set yourself on fire, say goodnight," & make it sound sexy & like a piece of freedom, deserves attention.Highly, Highly recommended!"

Marvelously subtle, quiet, evocative music

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 05/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've really come to love this album, though I'll confess it was slow to grow on me. For once thing, if you are in the mood for something upbeat and energetic, this isn't going to be your album. It is quiet, somber, reflective, minimalistic. There are albums that have gripped me on a first hearing, but more often than not they tend to fade in appeal as time goes by. This is a "difficult" album, but once you penetrate the apparent lack of diversity and instead the come to appreciate the subtle variations from one song to another, it can possess at a far deeper level than more accessible but ultimately more superficial ones.



This is music stripped down to essentials. I have been alternatively listening to this and a superb Teenage Fan Club album, and while I love both, the differences between the two couldn't be starker. Teenage Fan Club hates empty space, to the extent of layering sound upon sound to produce a many layered, astonishingly dense result. Chan Marshall, the artist who is Cat Power, not only is comfortable with silence within the music, she seems to quietly cultivate it. Her songs are filled with spaces, and adds in new strands of sound only hesitatingly. If a piano, a single guitar, and a backing vocal get the job done, why add in drums or bass? Or even get rid of the guitar or piano. The only way for the album to get any sparser would be for Marshall to sing the whole thing a capella. The effect of all this is to focus all the attention on the lyrics and the emotions Marshall is evoking. The result sometimes feels almost more like confessional therapy than music, an attempt to put raw emotional experience into a form in which it can be confronted and absorbed.



I couldn't recommend this album more strongly for listeners who are patient and comfortable with subtle music that reveals its treasures only slowly."

Marshall's Best Yet

Andrew Cusack | Des Moines, IA United States | 02/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This year in music has been pretty boring so far. Nothing worth getting excited about has come out...and that's why it is all the more relieving that Chan Marshall just released the best work of her career with "You Are Free."The album's opener, "I Don't Blame You," leads one to believe that Marshall is content with continuing along her same old path: it is a slow, piano-driven number reminiscent of the entire Cat Power back catalogue. Though the song treads previously explored territory, it is already apparent that Marshall is on top of her songwriting game. The somber mood and the light hooks are executed perfectly.But when "Free" chimes in after the brief moment of silence in between tracks, you realize Marshall has some new tricks up her sleeve. It makes use of a simple guitar part that is looped throughout its entirety. However, "Free" is so well written that it never gets boring. Different textures and vocals interchange seamlessly to produce a fresh, lively song. It rocks.Marshall showed she was more than capable of breathing her own life into songs penned by other artists with her 2000 release, "The Covers Record." She chose to include two cover songs on "You Are Free" with country artist Michael Hurley's "Werewolf" and blues legend John Lee Hooker's "Keep on Runnin' (Crawlin' Black Spider)."The covers work very well within the context of Marshall's own work; they never really feel like they could have been written by anyone but her. "Werewolf" is especially convincing with its string-tinged, haunting persona.Marshall flexes her songwriting muscle time and time again throughout "You Are Free." The middle section of the album continues to explore new territory. This is all embodied by the album's best track (believe me, it was hard to pick just one), "He War," which is an outstanding guitar-driven rocker that manages to be haunting and menacing at the same time."Maybe Not," the tenth track, ushers in a retreat back to the piano, and it's a gorgeous tune. The last few tracks of the album follow in the same somber vein, but they all sound fresh and exciting given the context of the rest of the album-and it doesn't hurt that Marshall has become one of the best songwriters alive today.If Chan Marshall continues to make albums like "You Are Free," then she will be establish herself in the same league as the classic singer-songwriters Carole King, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, et al. Quite simply, this is the best album that has been released this year, and it will be nearly impossible for it not to remain among the top releases of 2003."