3/2/2006 - The Greatest

Song: The Greatest
Artist: Cat Power
Why this song is the current jam: First off, have to give props to Angie for telling me to check out Cat Power. I have just started listening to her, but so far, daddy likey. I think this song is really really beautiful so I thought I would post it for the few white people who havent already heard of Cat Power and who dont own this album already. Sometimes I get the sense that there is a massive culture of primarily white indie-type music that all of my friends get this big newsletter on, and I just dont have a subscription. Anyways, I am trying to catch up. So back to the song.

I love the gentle pace of this song, just striding forward, rolling ahead like a slow waves or succession of waves. Powerful, but not like a big crashing tidal waves, but like water is powerful over thousands of years, bending solid rock to its shape. The production is huge and sweeping, yet still intimate and they keep her voice the centerpiece of it all, and I love that. She has a beautiful voice. It makes it almost hard for me to listen to the words, just because I like hearing the sound of it so much. But the lyrics themselves are pretty cool. They point to some meaning, and I guess the song is ostensibly about a boxer, or so it says on AMG, but I dont particularly get that out it so much. It makes sense and all, but I find myself focusing more on the lines themselves like "No wind or waterfall could stop me, And then came the rush of the flood, The stars at night turned you to dust, Melt me down" The way the lyrics fit together and lead from one to the next draw me in, even though I dont maybe know exactly where they go. Anyways, I like em, and I like the song overall. Good musicians, good singing. I hope you enjoy too. I just read this review on this album and was reminded why I kind of hate reviews. They always sound so right, and make so much sense, but maybe you may feel differently about the music, but you may never know, because you may take the reviewers word for it that it is not so great. Or perhaps more insidiously, the reviewer's take could just color your vision of the music, and you'll find yourself half-quoting the reviewer when you talk about the album so that you sound smart, all without ever having really listened closely and with an openness to the music yourself. When this reviewer says

"Still, it's impossible to ignore the pull of the Beautifully Tortured stereotype, no matter what reality lies behind it. But if we didn't want Beautifully Tortured, we'd be obsessing over Norah Jones."

I kinda just want to tell her to go fuck herself. Just a little bit. I mean, of course I understand the allure of an artist who shares their pain through their music and who feels honest in this expression. But dont pretend to be above the lust for the "Beautifully Tortured" and looking down from on high at it and then proceed to talk shit about the album on the grounds that it is not that. Even if I agree with her review, what a fuckin intellectual hypocrite. It's like reading City Pages. So often self-important

In any case, I suppose I should just include this little caviat to my whole music blog enterprise. While I HOPE that other people like this stuff, I do keep in mind that at all times, these are just my opinions, and I really just invite you to check this music out and give it a listen. I am not reviewing this stuff, I only post stuff that I would give a good review, were that what this was about. I am just trying to show you where I am coming from on each song and what I see about it that makes me like it.