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Have you heard this album? Give us your rating above, 5 being best.
On the long-anticipated sixth release from Cat Power, Marshall Chan delivers what I thought
folk music should have been: simple, heartfelt, and deeply introspective tunes with
stripped-down accompaniment. You Are Free deals with artistic integrity, heartbreak, and
other thought-provoking topics. Marshall starts with her wonderfully personal voice against
a piano with one of the strongest songs on the album, "I Don't Blame You," where she delves
into the relationship between fans and performers, singing, "you were swinging your guitar
around, 'cause they wanted to hear that sound, but you didn't want to play." Considering
Marshall's nervous and erratic stage behaviour, her disenchantment with obligations to
perform are understandable. She touches on the musician/fanbase relationship again in
"Free" where she sings "don't be in love with the autograph, just be in love when you love
that song..."
Track listing:
01 I Don't Blame You
02 Free
03 Good Woman
04 Speak For Me
05 Werewolf
06 Fool
07 He War
08 Shaking Paper
09 Baby Doll
10 Maybe Not
11 Names
12 Half of You
13 Keep on Runnin'
14 Evolution
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Then we come to what was the highlight of the album for me, "Good Woman," an incredibly
touching breakup song where Marshall painfully and sweetly sings "I will miss your heart so
tender and I will love this love forever." The album is full of thought-provoking themes
and insight into Marshall herself, ranging from love to the chilling ballad about abused
children from "deadly houses," "Names," where Marshall ends up singing of a lost boy she
knew at thirteen. Compared to Moon Pix, it's not as eerily beautiful, gloomily depressing, or thematic - this album widely varies thematically. From
folk-inspired tunes to haunting melodies like "Werewolf" to just plain rocking ones like
"He War." But I do consider it in equal standing with Moon Pix, and the most focused and personal.
-Jennifer Hall 09/10/03
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