What Would the Community Think

iTunes Review

Chan Marshall, who performs as Cat Power, relies on a slightly abrasive dissonance to channel her emotional woes. Though her third album, What Would the Community Think, is considered to be a step up in focus and cohesion, it’s still a long ways from conventional pop music. Electric guitars are strummed ruthlessly; drums kick forth unvarnished. From there, Marshall sends forth her whispers, her quiet moans and cathartic wails until it unravels as her own personal interpretation of the blues. “They Tell Me” is obvious, a straight-forward blues progression, but the title track and “Nude as the News” channel the tradition and spike it with a punk rocker’s abandon of melody and harmony until the effect is less Muddy Waters than X or Sleater-Kinney. Even when the arrangements spread out — “Talking People” connotes country music with sudden sweeps of pedal steel — they retain their rawness by refusing any studio effects. Instead something soaks up the ambience until the sound closes in on itself and Marshall sounds as if she’s singing from inside a box, warbling in imperfect pitch, sounding scared and insecure. The hellhound is on her trail and gaining.