Sun is Cat Power’s first album in six years since “The Greatest.” She impressively [yet not surprisingly] wrote, played, recorded and produced the entire album. Her gorgeous, potent, multifaceted vocals run the emotional course on this song collection that’s truly about self-fulfillment and being happy in the moment. A lovely meditation for the 40-year-old singer/songwriter. She’s managed to incorporate empathy, anger, aspirations, art, power and more into her songs.

Elaborate musical arrangements and her exquisite vocal range takes you from lulling “Cherokee,” to more hypnotic “Always on My Own,” to the funkier “Ruin.” The melodies and beats range all over the place making this a wonderfully eclectic album. And then there are Cat Power’s lyrics: from “Human Being: “You’ve got your own voice so sing” and “you got a right to scream when they don’t want you to speak” Then there’s Cherokee: “Never knew love like this/ Never pain like this/Never knew pain like this.” From “Real Life”: “Real life is ordinary/ Sometimes you don’t want to live/ Sometimes you got to/ But you don’t want to/ To get away with an ordinary life.”

my picks:
“Cherokee”
“Human Being”
“Peace and Love”

Cat Power
Sun
Label: Matador Records
Release date: September 4, 2012

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purchase at Amazon: Sun