Song(s) of the week

I’m going back a bit for this week’s instalment of the most pretentious column on this blog. You try talking about music without sounding ostentatious (thank you thesaurus).

This week’s pick:

“Metal Heart” by Cat Power

Where I found Cat Power: I didn’t know much of her early work at all before I heard this song, so in all honesty this is a brand new discovery for me. Cat Power first came onto my radar when her cover of Sea of Love (included below) appeared on the Juno soundtrack. Since then I’ve picked up on a few of her songs here and there, but most of them were covers. “Metal Heart” first caught my ear quite recently when it closed out a second season episode of United States of Tara (they have some great music on that show by the way). Naturally it prompted me to set up this little tribute.

What I like: This may not be general knowledge so full disclosure – there are two versions of this song. One recorded in 1998 on album called Moon Pix and the other in 2008 for Jukebox. While some of the people I’ve talked to seem to enjoy the Jukebox version more, I’m more partial to the original, so when I talk about the song below it’s the Moon Pix version I’m referring to. There are some major differences between the two arrangements, so I’ve included both versions for comparison.

I’m not sure how many of you have been following this particular column, but if you’ve been listening over the last five or so months it’s pretty clear what draws me to a song. I love chaos, especially chaos with melody. There’s just something incredibly organic about the messy way Cat Power recorded this song. There are two guitars doing two completely different things, drums that have a mind of their own, and yet throughout the entire recording there is a tremendous sense of purpose, as if the song itself were just raw emotion in musical form. It’s that improvisational style that makes me favour the Moon Pix version over the Jukebox version. There’s just something to say for that kind of spontaneity.

Enjoy!

Metal Heart - Cat Power (Moon Pix)

Metal Heart - Cat Power (Jukebox)


Sea of Love - Cat Power