25 Records of Christmas, Day 10: Cat Power

In the past couple of years, I've found myself enjoying all types of electronic music more. Some might say this is just the vein that music is going into, with the rise of dubstep and more electronic features being used in music, and I would agree. There are so many bands and artists using the electronic sound to their advantage, for better or worse. Cat Power (or Chan Marshall) has been always known for her punk, folk, blues type tunes, but her newest release took on this electronic format, and for the better.

Marshall produced Sun herself (which is one of her staples), and she has incorporated the electronic sound quite well into her genre-busting songwriter tunes. This was a really unexpected album for me, because I hadn't really heard anyone do this whole songwriter/electronic sound before. Marshall incorporates a little bit of everything throughout Sun, and the songs are just infectious. Her music has always been piano-based, but this album seems to focus more on the percussive elements.

"Cherokee" has such an aura about it, this dense sounding drum beat under piano sounds, creating such a complex element for Marshall to sing over. She uses layering in such a unique way, bringing in this almost R&B flavor to the track. "Ruin", the album's lead single, is similar, but you can definitely tell that she worked more on it with her band, the Dirty Delta Blues. That's not to say it sounds out of place, because it fits right into the mood of Sun, which is very intricate. What is interesting is you can hear the similarity in mixing for the album to the Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, since Cat Power's album is mixed by Philippe Zdar. It has that type of earthy tone to it.

The title track is a bit more dark, with grainy guitars and Marshall's haunting vocals over the beat. It makes for one of the best and most climactic tunes on the record. This album has stuck with me this year, mainly because of that initial feeling of surprise when I first heard it. The mix of all the various genres, which were even present on previous albums for Cat Power, have taken on a new flavor with the added electronica. I hope to hear a similar focus from Cat Power in the future, because Sun is some of the best stuff I've heard this year.