Album review: SUN

Richard DiCicco
Staff Writer

After a long and tumultuous period of creative drought and personal turmoil, Cat Power has returned. The indelible singer-songwriter Chan Marshall has finally released her ninth studio album “Sun” to the world.

Now, I have a confession to make: I have never listened to a Cat Power record before “Sun.” However, it is a testament to her imprint on music’s culture by the fact that I cannot recall a time when I was not at least familiar with her as an artist.

Encountering her music during a point of rebirth in her career has given me a unique perspective on Cat Power both as a songwriter and as a person. Listening to “Sun” was instantly a much more intimate experience than I was prepared for.

The record’s painfully long gestation period proved to be a source of inspiration for much of its content. Marshall is not unknown for taking extended breaks between records, but the gap between her last LP of original material and “Sun” was a long and largely unproductive six years.

She claims that she has been working on the record since 2006, but bankruptcy and a lack of new ideas prevented her from completing it until now. That frustration proves to be the engine that drives the album.

Just like that flaming ball in the sky, “Sun” is at once beautiful and intense, life-affirming and harsh. These are pop songs with a heavy-handed maturity; songs about disappointment, freedom, guilt and despondency.

On the page, Cat Power’s lyrics are dismal, but melodically they spring to life. Every track explodes with color and personality; while Marshall may lament the lack of first-world humility on “Ruin,” the music itself is jaunty and assertive.

For Cat Power fans, the album’s biggest surprise is the extensive use of electronic elements. In addition to her patented acoustic instrumentation, Marshall breaks out drum

machines and synthesizers to accent her sobering view of her own life and the world, constructing sharp and threatening artificial soundscapes and alternatively beautiful minimalistic looping beat. It works remarkably well.

“Sun” sounds somewhat jaded, and its dry synths and brittle drum machines reflect this, but it also sounds hopeful and energized. Much of Cat Power’s appeal lies in her impressively emotive and personal music and this record proves that she is a singular talent.

She commands the elements of each song around her with a veteran’s intuition. Though a tad lengthy, “Sun” is a bold album, exhibiting the rare case when an artist’s music says exactly what cannot be expressed in words.