Cat Power

You Are Free

At her best, Cat Power’s Chan Marshall was pretty unstoppable. “You Are Free” represents both a high-water mark for Marshall and a transitionary period. There’s a clear tension between Marshall’s capacity for restraint and evident maturation with the rawness and potency of her emotions. She sounds no less melancholy than on her earlier releases, but perhaps less tortured, and with more perspective. Marshall has a particular talent for expressing these complex and ... read more

This record highlighted the end of Cat Power's best phase, completing the trilogy of her best albums started with What Would the Community Think, back in 1996. In You Are Free, Marshall's predominantly sad and obscure sonority meets a relevant turnaround with a substantial change to a more bright and optimistic aesthetic that stays within her music until today, eventually leading to one of her biggest commercial success, The Greatest, in 2006. Despite the less austere and dark sound present in ... read more

A slower and calmer version of her original style, a pioneer in that singing style.

an ambitious and strong work