Track Listing

1. Greatest
2. Living Proof
3. Lived In Bars
4. Could We
5. Empty Shell
6. Willie
7. Where Is My Love
8. Moon
9. Islands
10. After It All
11. Hate
12. Love And Communication

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9880 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-18
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Indie-folk singer Chan Marshall has a reputation for onstage unpredictability, but some erratic (read: often drunken) live performances won’t have prepared you for the full-bodied beast that is The Greatest. Recorded with the help of a few Memphis musicians, including Al Green co-writer Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, his brother Leroy "Flick" Hodges, and present Booker T And The MGs drummer Steve Potts, this is a gentle homage to ‘70s soul that Chan carries with a sleepy-eyed charm.

Element of pastiche or not, though, there’s a vitality here that’s absent from many of her earlier recordings: "Living Proof" simmers with a just-under-the-surface raunch, Chan cooing "It’s not your face/Or the colour of your hair/Or the sound of your voice, my dear…" over the simmering organ, while even the restrained "Where Is My Love" boasts a mini-orchestra of sweeping violin and elegiac, wandering piano. Most importantly, The Greatest doesn’t suffer from the rather troublesome sense of genre tourism you get when, say, Will Oldham hooks up with a troupe of Nashville old-hands – perhaps because it’s executed so convincingly, or perhaps simply because Chan Marshall’s voice could melt your heart under any context--Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Best yet
Teaming Cat Power with the Hi team who recorded behind Ann Peebles and Al Green was an unexpected and brilliant idea. A special alchemy took place at Ardent Studios in Memphis which enhanced both Cat Power's gorgeous smoky voice and the soulful groove the band has laid down. I would say that that it was worth the price of the album just for the majestic opening song, The Greatest, were it not that it is also available as a single, but that would be to unfairly demean the rest of the record. Of course Cat Power does not need embellishment, as is demonstrated on the unadorned song Hate. Cat's most accomplished album to date.

Chan Marshall in Memphis...
appears to be the subtext of every review of 'The Greatest'- recorded with musicians from Al Green's band, these soulful elements have got critics, fans and on-line types citing 'Dusty in Memphis' - sure you can see where they're coming from, but there are differences - Marshall writes, plays, arranges and sings - and there's the suggestion that this is the Cat Power Sells Out LP. When you can really here the same artist found on 'Moon Pix', 'The Covers Record' and 'You Are Free'- just more developed down the line...

The album blends the highlighted soul elements with the prior piano-lead joy of Cat Power, offering something between 'Dusty in Memphis' and Patti Smith. The sophoric/transcendental qualities Power offers recall Mazzy Star/Hope Sandoval too - it's been a good year or so for talented females incidentally: Neko Case, Fiona Apple, Vashti Bunyan, Joanna Newsom, Candi Staton, Marissa Nadler, Kate Bush, Bjork, Laura Cantrell, Isobel Campbell...which is not to same that being female they are all the same - but to point out that many great records are being made by females.It should be easy for people to get lost in the shuffle...

'The Greatest' is (predictably) the Greatest- not really a dud here and I kind of feel cheated that I waited a few weeks before getting it - we've lost hours together. 'The Moon' and 'Islands' are moments of poetic joy - you can see why someone mentioned 'Astral Weeks' in an earlier review - while the conclusion of 'Hate' and 'Love & Communication' offers up something close to a concept sequence, Cobain cited on the former ("I said I hate myself and I want to die")- while the latter is more surreal with the use of 'Cuz' suggesting Chan's a Slade-fan!

This album seems to have opened Cat Power up a bit more - I was quite shocked to hear 'The Greatest' being played by Wogan on Radio 2 one morning (...perhaps I imagined that...) I'd say it features as many great songs as Marshall has recorded before - 'Lived In Bars' perfectly blending her soulful aspirations and her caustic confessional - the lyrics of 'Lived In Bars' belong more to a Paul Westerberg world than a Ryan Adams one. The best song here, and the track I'd justify buying the album for alone is 'Living Proof' - which is to be a single and has had a promo made by Harmony Korine ('Gummo','Julien Donkey-Boy'). This has a gorgeous soul groove nailed to Chan's piano, while an emotive organ recalling Al Kooper adds to Marshall's perfect phrasing (the fade out too soon as Chan begins to testify in vain is the kind of thing peak Dylan would have done...). The lyrics are brilliant and given pristeen delivery to fantastic musicianship and arrangement - I've listened to this song on repeat over and over and over again ('Like a Rolling Stone'? - PAH!!) It's one of those songs like Robert Wyatt's 'Sea Song', Dennis Wilson's 'Time', Neko Case's 'Tightly', My Bloody Valentine's 'Loomer' & Scott Walker's 'Farmer in the City' I can just get lost in...Just listen to those words sung that way with that voice: "It's not your face or the color of your hair/Or the sound of your voice my dear that's got me dragged in here/(change in phrasing)It's the ice in the seam, the scheme of you/(another shift)You're supposed to have the answer/You're supposed to have living proof...Yes I was jealous- cos you are sworn (you're sworn...)/How could you come undone to a word so strong?/(another change in emphasis)My beating heart the anchor to a ship so warm/(building on the previous conclusion)/You're supposed to have the answer/You're supposed to have living proof - Well I am your answer/I am living...Will you terrorize this with your perfect lips?/I watch you eat and feed this mess to the running wind [Dylanesque in its obliqueness!]/(the change...)But I know you from before and after until then/Do you have your answer?/Do you have living proof?/Well I am your answer - I am living...(...and the song builds to a testimonial climax)You're supposed to have an answer/You're supposed to have living proof/Well do you have your answer?/Well I am your answer/I am living..." A perfect song and number one for eternity in my happy utopia...

'The Greatest' is a fantastic album, adding to the brilliant career thus far - shame Marshall's cancelled the tour - can we have another album recorded in some woods please?

The Greatest...she may just be right.
It takes a certain amount of nerve to call an album "The Greatest" but in terms of Chan Marshall's fantastic catalogue, she's just about got it right with the title.

Single "The Greatest" is every bit as good as you would expect but it's by no means the only highlight on this brilliant album. "Could We" sparkles and shimmies, whilst "Willie" starts off sounding like a Ben Folds song but transforms itself into something else entirely over the course of a listen. "Hate" is earthy and raw and whilst somewhat out of place in some senses on this album, does hark back to some of her previous work.

My personal pick of the bunch is "Love And Communication." Right at the end of the album (ignoring the bonus 'unadvertised' track) I was already enthralled by the album, but this track quickly was stuck on repeat play with its blaze of guitars and strings.

You don't look to a Cat Power album for a cheery, laugh a minute, session and whist on the surface the tunes, such as "After It All" may make this seem like some kind of departure, but before you get too carried away lyrics such as "I hate myself and I want to die" remind you just who you are listening to.

It's perhaps not the leap that Marshall may have made, but this is still a fantastic collection of songs, which certainly does live up their with her greatest work and certainly defies any easy catergorisation. It's a liitle bit country, it's a little bit soul, but it's a whole lot Cat Power. She's pulled it off again.