Album Review: Cat Power - Sun

Despite the curveballs that she has thrown to her oft-perplexed audiences in the past, Chan Marshall – aka Cat Power – returns with her first album of original material in six years with much anticipation. And on Sun she has taken complete control of her muse, recording and producing eleven tracks that eschew the abrasive guitars of her distant past for sonorous terrain that is ambitious in both scope and emotion.

Things start off in classic Cat Power territory with Cherokee, a track that emotes a complicated urgency entwining personal demons with historical remorse, the added glossy production adding another mysterious depth to her smoky timbre. The title track broods, the expansive shimmer and insistent drum machine helping to augment the isolation inherent within. There are upbeat moments to be had here such as 3, 6, 9 (with a heavily Auto-Tuned outro) and Manhattan that rings true of Marshall's assertion that this is an album of personal power and fulfilment, whilst the embracing of electronica offers a wider-reaching canvas for her eccentric world. The stark echo of Always On My Own, the soaring bliss out with added Iggy Pop on the extended Nothin But Time, and the crunching closer Peace And Love are excellent tracks that juxtapose the ecstatic veneer and further showcase Marshall's ever-growing confidence.

Nothin But Time evokes the glories of the day; whilst Peace And Love sounds out the record with the bruising “I may be a lover but I'm in it to win”. Sun is a far removal from her Moon Pix (1998) days, and it must be said that Cat Power has never sounded surer of herself.