Music Review: Cat Power, “Sun” (Matador)

Rating: 80

Chan Marshall took an elliptical path to recording “Sun,” her first Cat Power album in six years. Originally, Marshall entered the studio to record a batch of pre-2000 songs, only to sideline those archival compositions when all-new material began to develop during the sessions. But then, as Marshall said in a recent interview for Spotify, a friend told her that those new songs were “super depressing,” prompting her to discard both those dark songs and her old ways of writing. So Marshall began composing on synthesizers and drum machines before bringing in Cassius member Philippe Zdar, who produced Beastie Boys’ “Hot Sauce Committee, Part Two,” to brighten the sound on “Sun.”

The presence of technology on “Sun” is not entirely left field — drum loops showed up on “American Flag” from 1998′s “Moon Pix” — but the crisp futuristic bent is evident on opening track “Cherokee” and builds from there, leading into the jeep beats and atmospheric synth washes on the title song. “Ruin,” Marshall’s examination of first-world complaints and third-world realities, begins with an Afro-Cuban piano figure before accelerating to an energetic dance-rock gallop. Cat Power’s embrace of present-tense pop methodology on “Sun” is not as alienating as the list of styles and collaborators might suggest. But while her previous album, 2006′s “The Greatest,” was recorded in Memphis with Al Green sidemen — on the surface, a much more complimentary environment — Marshall’s lyrics and her rich, soulful voice are still the most important components of a Cat Power album. “Sun” proves that any attempts to pigeonhole Marshall as a bare-bones traditionalist were premature.