From Joni Mitchell to Frank Ocean: Cat Power’s favourite albums of all time
Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, has been making music since the 1990s, recording her first two albums on the same day, accompanied in the studio by Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar. Known for her blend of indie folk, alternative rock and the blues, Marshall received critical acclaim for her 1998 album Moon Pix. However, she found greater mainstream success in 2006 with the release of The Greatest, debuting at number 34 on the Billboard charts.
After 11 studio albums, including three covers records, Marshall has cemented herself as a highly influential and well-respected voice in music. An eclectic taste in music is evident in Marshall’s sound, often evoking a vintage quality, paying ode to icons of decades past whilst incorporating a distinctively modern feel. During an interview with The Quietus, Marshall declared: “There are a zillion quadrillion incredible songs that have shaped me”. Yet she explained that many of her favourite songs don’t appear on her favourite albums. Rather, her favoured albums “have informed something, helped me gravitate to something else…when I’ve listened to them, there’s been a change. Information came after them.”
Marshall’s selections include a significant number of country and folk albums, including Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Desire by Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson’s Original Demos Album. Discussing Desire, Marshall said: “Desire is incredible. The history lessons in that record are just… incredible. He’s an informant; he has this ingredient, this lecturing tone, when he’s translating the stories, which are informing you of like, what’s up, man. You know what I mean? He’s telling you like it is, like a teacher would.” Furthermore, she describes Nelson’s demo album as “full of shockingly beautiful songwriting. Shelter Of Your Arms and Three Days are on there.”
The musician also picked out some more rock-orientated records, such as Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones, Misfits’ Earth A.D. and Hüsker Dü’s Metal Circus. According to Marshall: “I grew up listening to Sticky Fingers. I always loved it, ‘cus it was something you know like the back of your hand.” During a tough period in her life, Marshall stresses that the album “gave me the swagger I needed. It gave me some tears – ‘I Got The Blues’ – but it also gave me some strength and sway, and it gave me some fun. I needed to dance a little bit”. As for Metal Circus, Marshall received a tape copy of the album when she was 12. She recalls: “All these impossible sounds were making sense, this abstraction was making sense, in a panicked, superfluid way. It was a great feeling. I felt really alive. It was intense, incredible.”
Check out the complete list of Marshall’s favourite albums below.
Cat Power’s favourite albums:
- Kar Kar – Boubacar Traoré
- Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones
- Metal Circus – Hüsker Dü
- Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen
- Original Demos Album – Willie Nelson
- Astral Weeks – Van Morrison
- Crescent – John Coltrane
- Blue – Joni Mitchell
- Desire – Bob Dylan
- No More Shall We Part – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- Channel Orange – Frank Ocean
- Earth A.D. – Misfits
- Kissin Time – Marianne Faithfull
Marshall’s taste also extends to R&B, her favourite being Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. She states that hearing ‘Bad Religion’ “brought me right back to a night in New York City around 2001 when I was having a really spiritually frightening time. […] His emotional depth, his vulnerability in delivering his struggle, on such a personal level, with this beautiful, elegant, unapologetic creativity, originality, and this sort of gracious manner, is just mesmerising. His gift is very potent.”
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