Cat Power - Wanderer, in-depth

The Guardian 0

After her record label rejected her album, singer-songwriter Chan Marshall found a new home for her singular sound

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when someone from Matador – Cat Power’s former label – reportedly played this veteran, otherworldly talent an Adele album, to demonstrate what hits sounded like. Chan Marshall was in the process of delivering her 10th full-length outing but, despite a working relationship of over 20 years, the august indie stable did not take to Wanderer – a spectral work of piano, guitar and multitracked voice that slips out of your fingers the more you try to pin it down. This, you might argue, is the pleasure of many of Cat Power’s records. Matador, long held to be a bastion of artist-friendliness, neither confirmed nor denied the episode detailed in Marshall’s New York Times interview, but stressed their respect for Cat Power as an artist.

In an era of pop careerism, we have to remind ourselves that some artists don’t have much choice in the matter. The material world is often incidental to them; they are grappling for things we can’t fathom, dodging things we can’t see. “No, I’m not like those other ones,” sighs Marshall.

Related: Cat Power: 'I didn’t know I loved myself when I was younger'