having been a Cat Power fan for the last ten years, i've come to believe that there are two Chan Marshalls. one is an absolute train wreck, impossible to watch and a no talented hack. and then there's the other Chan Marshall--the one that manages to pull her shit together and release a fairly decent record every few years. in the 90s she was really great at doing this, her records What Would the Community Think? and Moon Pix are indie rock classics--the stuff recently merely decent (apart from The Covers Record misfire.)
and now Chan Marshall has brought us her latest Cat Power opus The Greatest. once again, Chan has decided to surround herself with a group of really talented musicians (this time around it was Memphis soul musicians, in the past it's been Dirty Three and Steve Shelley, among others) and once again, Chan has set herself up for heaping helpings of critical acclaim. as Ed from Chasing Infinity says, "Norah Jones wishes she could make a record like this."
but what might be great for Norah Jones is becoming pedestrian for Chan Marshall. The Greatest is just more evidence of the fact that there are two Chan Marshalls. the Chan Marshall in the studio plays it safe. she has the credibility to surround herself with marvellous musicians, but she doesn't seem to take very many chances anymore. i don't know if it is because she caught so much shit for The Covers Record or what, but the wiser, older, has-her-shit-together Chan doesn't like to take chances. unfortunately, you need to have a train wreck streak in you to take the sorts of chances Chan took on her early records, and when she gets in the studio these days, she seems to put that all aside, and as a result the records suffer slightly. don't get me wrong--The Greatest has true stand out tracks, like "Living Proof", "Love and Communication" and the title track--but when push comes to shove the record is just a little too boring to be a good Cat Power record.
In the end, she's going to need to embrace that inner train wreck when she's in the studio--right now she's a little too much like mild-mannered Bruce Banner, afraid to let the Incredible Hulk out for fear of the damage that may be done. unfortunately, it's train wreck that put her on the map. Grade: B
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