Stevie Chick's Quietus piece on Cat Power's 2006 album The Greatest is first and foremost a, well, great appraisal of a truly "miraculous" album - one on which Chan Marshall found her "perfect foils" in the form of the Memphis Rhythm Band, illuminated by songs like the "haunted and hopeless and pretty" 'Where Is My Love?'.
But it's also a thoughtful rumination on "the romantic archetype of the doomed artist" - on the connection between trauma, catharsis and artistic creation, and on the extent to which listeners/fans fetishise artists' suffering.
When I heard she was on this year's Green Man bill, I was distraught at having to miss out. When I discovered she'll be drawing heavily from The Greatest (if not playing it in its entirety?) to mark the twentieth anniversary of its release, I was even more distraught. But there is a part of me that agrees with Chick's verdict on the "erratic nature" of her live performances pre-The Greatest: "If this is so painful to her, we shouldn't be asking her do it." Maybe things have changed over the last two decades, and she's now much more comfortable - but I can't help but feel there might be a measure of guilt at watching her go through it all again.
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