Abuse of Power

If, as Chan Marshall aka Cat Power has claimed, Matador played her an Adele album "to demonstrate what hits sounded like", then it was an extraordinary show of disrespect towards a critically acclaimed talent. Either way, the incident helped to precipitate the break-up of her long-term relationship with the label, with her tenth LP Wanderer recently released by rivals Domino. She'll be having the last laugh, too, given that 'Woman', her duet with Lana Del Rey, has brought her to a whole new audience.

Kitty Empire's Guardian review rightly suggests that the album finds Marshall revisiting a past that, with Sun, she looked to have left behind. In giving my own positive verdict for Buzz last month, I couldn't help but draw comparisons with 2006's The Greatest - it's not quite in that league, but it's certainly not too far away.

As part of the promotional merry-go-round, Marshall has been interviewed for Pitchfork's 5-10-15-20 series, her selection including music by Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Miles Davis and the Rolling Stones. The introduction to the article mentions that before Johnny Cash died, there were plans for the pair to record together - now THAT would have been quite something.