What Would The Community Think?

Rating

Album: What Would The Community Think?
#	Song Title		Time
1)	In This Hole	More Info...	0:05
2)	Good Clean Fun	More Info...	0:04
3)	What Would the Community Think	More Info...	0:04
4)	Nude As the News	More Info...	0:04
5)	They Tell Me	More Info...	0:03
6)	Taking People	More Info...	0:03
7)	The Fate of the Human Carbine	More Info...	0:03
8)	King Rides By	More Info...	0:04
9)	Bathysphere	More Info...	0:03
10)	Water & Air	More Info...	0:04
11)	Enough	More Info...	0:04
12)	The Coat Is Always On	More Info...	0:03

Album: What Would The Community Think?
#	Song Title		Time
1)	In This Hole	More Info...	0:05
2)	Good Clean Fun	More Info...	0:04
3)	What Would the Community Think	More Info...	0:04
4)	Nude As the News	More Info...	0:04
5)	They Tell Me	More Info...	0:03
6)	Taking People	More Info...	0:03
7)	The Fate of the Human Carbine	More Info...	0:03
8)	King Rides By	More Info...	0:04
9)	Bathysphere	More Info...	0:03
10)	Water & Air	More Info...	0:04
11)	Enough	More Info...	0:04
12)	The Coat Is Always On	More Info...	0:03

Performer Notes

Personnel: Chan "Cat Power" Marshall (guitar, piano); Tim Foljahn (guitar); Doug Easley (pedal steel); Davis (Moog); Steve Shelley (drums, xylophone).
Recorded at Easley Studios, Memphis, Tennessee in February 1996.
Personnel: Chan Marshall (guitar, piano); Tim Foljahn (guitar); Davis (Moog synthesizer); Steve Shelley (xylophone, drums).
Recording information: Easley, Memphis (02/1996).
1996's WHAT WOULD THE COMMUNITY THINK? Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall's second album under the name Cat Power, finds the North Carolinian at lo-fi maverick Doug Easley's Memphis studio, her soft, engagingly shy voice and delicate acoustic guitar supported by Easley's pedal steel and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley's percussion. Though Easley and Shelley are better known for working with much louder, noisier artists than Marshall, they never overpower her sensitive but sturdy material.
Sounding more self-assured than she did on her debut, 1995's DEAR SIR, Marshall invests more passion and fire in songs like the foreboding "Water and Air" and the obsessive, feedback and piano-laced title track than one expects to find in the slacker-friendly lo-fi genre. Elsewhere, the delicate "King Rides By" is an unvarnished love song that packs an equally powerful emotional wallop. This is an outstanding, underrated album.

Professional Reviews

Entertainment Weekly (9/20/96, p.82) - "North Carolina native Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power) raises goose bumps with bluesy, traumatized songs on which she whispers laments over a spare arrangement of guitar and drums..."

- Rating: A

Alternative Press (10/96, pp.70-71) - 5 (out of 5) - "...it seems she derives pervertedly sweet joy from wrenching out her guts and admiring them...Tragedy measures itself in feeling and hers is executed in perfect Tennesee Williams style..."

Option (1-2/97, p.79) - "...will appeal to those who like songs performed with a minimum of embellishment (another good reference point would be Palace's ARISE THEREFORE) and who can stomach hearing an artist who sounds as though she's entirely unaware of our voyeuristic ears."