Cat Power: Sun – review

Though the word Sun seems to point backward, to the southern soul/blues of Cat Power's last studio album, The Greatest , it has nothing to do with Sun Studios. Rather, the name comes from the album's second track, an electronic swoon that acts as a mission statement: "Here is the day/ We are free, you and me, and we can finally run." In the six years since The Greatest, Power has faced bankruptcy and the end of a relationship , but she's lived to fight another day, and this album is what she terms a "rebirth". It is assuredly that. Guitars have been swapped for synths , beats are crisp and she's evidently on the road to sobriety and emotional recovery. Inevitably, there's rawness and relapses (the R&B chant 3,6,9 was written in the throes of a hangover, after a night of failing to drink the pain away), but she's found a kind of peace. Dueting with fellow survivor Iggy Pop on Nothin But Time, she sings, as if to herself: "It's up to you" – a sentiment that underlies the rest of this moving record.