Album Review:
Moon Pix perfomed/written by Cat Power
I just featured Moon Pix as album of the week on Vintage Rock when I realized I could make my review into an entry on Beautiful Pain. I've been such a bad co-author on this site, so to make amends, I'll try to write a decent entry since Allie's been doing her part.
Kristy's Opinion: Allie was kind enough to feature Cat Power on Beautiful Pain awhile back. I had downloaded a few of her songs off of Limewire, but I'd been on the lookout for one of her CDs. Living in Iowa, we usually don't have huge music selections at our stores, but I was lucky to find Moon Pix at CD's Plus, a used CD store for six dollars.
Every song on Moon Pix is unique and moving, but none more so than my two favorite cuts, "Metal Heart" and " Cross Bones Style." "Metal Heart opens with a lilting, delicate electric acoustic magic. Then her lyrics combined with her voice take you to a sad, lonely place inside yourself that oddly contains a wee bit of hope.
An example of her beautiful "Metal Heart" lyrics:
"Sew your fortunes on a string
And hold them up to light
Blue smoke will take
A very violent flight
And you will be changed
Sand everything
And you will be in a very sad sad zoo."
"Cross Bones Style" would have to be the most fast paced song on the album. I noticed that this is one of the few songs on Moon Pix with drums to drive the rhthym. "Cross Bones Style" for some reason reminds me of the spirit of a pirate.
"Oh come child
In a crossbones style
Oh come child
Come and rescue me
'Cause you have seen some
Unbelievable things"
Those lyrics conjure up vague images of pirates flashing black eyes on a Meditarranean Sea, and how no matter how much money they acrue, it will never mean as much as the adventures they've had, of the unbelievable things they've seen.
Not in recent memory has a female vocalist/musician haunted my brain like Chan Marshall aka Cat Power does. Her music is lo-fi, but is different from LizPhair's brand of lo-fi because of its beautiful, breathless intimacy. Her voice draws you in and beckons you to turn your ear a little closer to the speaker to feel the full resonance of her sound. Musically her guitar arrangements are simple, but that is not a bad thing necessarily. It actually brings out her lyrics and voice even more, which are the strong points of her musicianship. Moon Pix is one of those albums that grows richer with repeated listenings, which is truly an accomplishment in itself.
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AllieRose January 26, 2005 06:15 PM PST Yay! Kristy posted!
Good lord, I adore this album. Cat Power is definetaly one of those artists that hit me like a slegde hammer when I first heard her music. It's delicate and beautfiful and powerful all at the same time. "Cross Bones Style" is definitely one of my favorite songs... ever! :)
Hey, I think I'll go ahead and put that up in the sound-bytes section.
Yay Chan! She's already had 2 album reviews featured in this site! Thanks Kristy! Great review!
Album Review: 
Allie was kind enough to feature 
