Cat Power
Covers Rihanna
America singer-songwriter Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall, better known as Cat Power, dove into her music career in 1994 when she dropped her first album Dear Sir, quickly followed by her second Myra Lee. The indie rocker then hit the road and never looked back. Despite bouts of depression and alcohol abuse which threatened to derail her career, she always found her way back to the light, and continues to be one of the music industry’s most iconic and eclectic rock stars.
In 2015, she began her latest adventure: motherhood. Unlike most celebrities, Marshall is the kind of person who keeps her personal life to herself, and has refused to say who her baby’s father is. To be honest, it’s none of our business, so we’ll just leave it at. She also wasn’t going to let motherhood prevent her from continuing moving her art forward, so she brought her talents to a house in Miami Beach and started working on what would eventually grow into her latest album, Wanderer.
Cat Power has long been adored for her melancholy, low-fi, blues-influenced instrumentation and her melancholy lyrics, which earned her a dubious, but well-intentioned moniker by LA Weekly, who called her “The Queen of Sadcore.” Wanderer does nothing to shake that nickname, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. The new record includes a moody cover of Rihanna’s iconic melody “Stay,” that left her fans astounded.
Marshall has made quite a name for herself with her eclectic assortment of covers, and has dedicated multiple albums (including The Covers Record and Jukebox) to the material of other musicians. “I love the tradition of covering songs,” Marshall told Paste. “I think it’s one of the highest compliments you can pay another artist. It’s one of the great traditions in American music and one of the true pleasures of music history.” In an effort to pay respect to Rihanna, Marshall took “Stay” and made it her own.
According to The New York Times, she wanted to cover “Stay,” because it remained her of an old lover. “He was picking me up, and he opened the door, and that song was on the radio,” she told the New York Times. “He said, ‘Oh, There’s my girl,’ and I thought he was talking about me, you know? Then the song ended, and he turned off the radio, and I realized he was talking about Rihanna.”
A couple of years later, following the birth of her son, Marshall heard the song in a taxi and cried the entire way home. That night she met up with friends for Karaoke and sang “Stay” sixteen times. After that, what choice did she have but to include the song on her new record?
Greg Hunt is the director behind the beautifully shot music video, which explores the touching and emotional side of the lyrics. Hunt also makes dramatic use of warm and cool lighting techniques, the striking cinematography sees Cat Power alone at a piano to film, filling the frame with her gorgeous profile and heavenly instrument.
Cat Power’s new album, Wanderer, will be dropping on October 5. It also includes the track, “Woman,” which features supporting vocals from Lana Del Rey.
