[.ca] Moon Pix

Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, has created an album, Moon Pix, that somehow manages to be both complex and difficult as well as stark and spacious. It's an interesting contradiction mirrored in Marshall's vocal and lyrical talents; her voice soars and croons, sometimes trading melodies with a wandering flute line, while her lyrics are powerful, inscrutable, and fiercely intimate. Two of the Dirty Three evoke a subtle instrumental landscape upon which she wanders, a place less haunting than haunted; specters of lost friends, lost loves, and unrealized dreams abound. There is beauty here, but the kind of beauty found in the crushed shell of a bird's egg or a cemetery in fall. Not an easy listen, but a necessary one. --Tod Nelson

From Amazon.com:
Singer Chan Marshall takes intimacy to a new level with the eerily lovely song cycle of Moon Pix. The narrative revolves around a nightmare figure who beckons toward a location that sounds rather like H-E-double hockey sticks. The starkness of this ghost story is mirrored in the austerity of the atmospheric music. Joined by Jim White and Mick Turner of the Australian slow-rock band the Dirty Three, Marshall uses spare guitar, flute, and piano arrangements to create the sounds of the last singer left on a postapocalyptic landscape. As Marshall sings in "Say," "If you're looking for something easy, you might as well give it up," and that lyric is the best description of this difficult and brilliant album. --Lois Maffeo

Haunting:
When I asked a friend to give me something tranquil to listen to while I study, she gave me "Moon Pix" on tape. Stilling and haunting, it proved entirely wrong for my purposes, being just the kind of music that makes you gaze off into the distance for long moments, forgetting where you are...Not that I minded. Spooky and off-kilter, this album is maudlin the best way. Chan Marshall (is that her name?) adopts a kind of child-visionary persona, delivering an idiosyncratic mixture of surreal, direct, and insinuating lyrics that are enough to rend your heart the more you hear them. Her voice is husky yet pure at the same time, and she's at her best with minimal instrumentation, just stark vocals and a muffled guitar, sounding like the saddest, most hopeful person on earth singing to herself in an empty room. If you know what I mean... Nonetheless, I can understand why a lot of people might fail to see the weird beauty in this album, especially upon first listen, and it's very difficult to know whether you're the kind of wistful oddball this will appeal to unless you try it for yourself. Take a gamble and see.

The best album....if you want to sleep!:
I've always thought that I'd only enjoy a completely new band to me, through hearing the album while I'm sleeping...Well, Moon Pix is fantastic, 'cause it makes me fall asleep right away and I wake up feeling refreshed...songs like "Metal Heart", "Back Of Your Head" and "You May Know Him" are like hot milk to me! When I stopped to listen to the cd, paying attention to the lyrics and melodies...it kinda let me down...but still the distinct voice of Chan Marshall makes me fell like someone was putting a child to sleep...which is a beautiful feeling!

People give out 5 stars too easily:
I didn't love this album when I first heard it. I thought it was "nice"... "beautiful" even... but that was all. That was in the summer of 2001. Today I would rather sever my right arm off at the shoulder than be deprived of this great work. Chan + the dirty three + Australia = perhaps my favorite album of all time. I know there are a lot of five star reviews out there, and I've added one more to the pile, but you may take comfort in knowing that this is the only review I'll bother to do because Moon Pix has come to mean so much to me.

One of the best:
This is one of my all time favorite CD's. ITs music ranges from mellow and soft to a slight beat that moves you. A great purchase.

Hauntingly beautiful yet stark...:
I'm a fan of Cat Power since hearing "You Are Free" at an SO's place... This one I like almost as much... "No Sense" is my favorite track on this one, although I like them all each in their own unique way... To me Cat Power has staying power... As well as I've read in an article that Perry Farrell enjoys Cat Power's music, so who knows, maybe Cat Power will be in the next Lollapalooza festival... Here's to hoping... - Savannah Skye...

• American Flag
• He Turns Down
• No Sense
• Say
• Metal Heart
• Back of Your Head
• Moonshiner
• You May Know Him
• Colors and the Kids
• Cross Bones Style
• Peking Saint