This is the first post in what I hope will be a recurring feature on this site – New Music Friday. I’m an emusic subscriber, which means I pay a monthly fee for the ability to download a set number of songs per month (in my case, 50). In the interest of spreading out my purchases while maintaining a steady stream of new music, a couple years ago I instituted New Music Friday. The name’s slightly confusing, so let me explain it: I buy new music every Friday.
Until now, NMF has been a weekly holiday only in the Kingdom of Smitchington, my personal fantasy land where I live in a live in a 25-bedroom mansion behind a waterfall that has a basketball court, a four-star restaurant, and a massive basement recording studio with every instrument known to man. Mgdistrict sleeps on a trampoline next to the adjacent ski lift, and, when he’s not running the recording studio, jimmymontreal is allowed to roam free in my twelve-acre Colombian flower farm.
And on New Music Friday, the Rock Fairy puts a brand new album under our pillows.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the Rock Fairy has pretty shitty taste sometimes, as was the case last week when NMF brought me Cat Power’s 1998 record Moon Pix.
Being forced to download a certain number of songs every month – while, on balance, a very positive thing – has its downsides. When there’s no album that I absolutely know I want, I end up taking a chance on something random or buying older albums by artists that I know and like. You’d think the latter approach would more consistently yield good stuff, but with Cat Power, that hasn’t been the case. And I’m realizing it might be because I don’t actually like her all that much.
Moon Pix is literally the fourth consecutive Cat Power album I’ve bought that has been disappointing. Read that sentence again, and think about it for a second. That’s stubbornness. It also means I have at least four Cat Power albums. (I actually have five. FIVE!)
The first album of hers I bought was The Greatest (2006), and I loved it. Thinking that her other stuff was at least close to as good, I bought You Are Free (2003), The Covers Record (2000), Jukebox (2008), and now Moon Pix. While there are a handful of songs on these four albums that are decent, for the most part, it’s your standard whiny folk singer with a guitar she can’t play all that well. Some people dig that kind of stuff; it irritates me. Moon Pix actually has some elements that made The Greatest so good – a backing band and some good electric guitar in places – but it lacks any tinge of soul music and the songs fall far short.
Anyway, in an effort to hold onto whatever it is about Cat Power that made me buy all these albums in the first place, I’ve posted the one song on Moon Pix that, from I can tell, is worth a damn, and a couple good ones from other albums.
Ah New Music Friday, you’re a fickle mistress. Can’t wait ‘til next week.
“Metal Heart” by Cat Power (from Moon Pix)
“Silver Stallion” by Cat Power (from Jukebox)
“Willie” by Cat Power (from The Greatest)
mgdistrict
smitch
jimmymontreal
Counterpoint: her voice is kind of intoxicating, no?
Very fair point. And over the songs on The Greatest (as well as those posted here), it sounds awesome. I guess I just don’t like many of the songs or arrangements on the older albums.
You’re welcome.
Also, an impulse buy is, in and of itself, a very good thing. Sure — sometimes you wind up with total crap. Othertimes you stumble across a hidden gem. For example: Ted Leo + Parmacists’ “Hearts of Oak”. Very solid album. Bought it only because of the soccer jersey cover art. Eitherway, when you’ve got nothing to lose — especially on eMusic/NMF, where it’s subscription-based, and thus you’ve already paid — how can taking a chance be a bad thing?
She is also very nice to look at. Just throwin’ that out there.