cat power - "living proof" (from the greatest lp, to be released january 2006.)

in brief : lusty in memphis.

when first hearing "the greatest," i made some cursory comparisons to dusty in memphis. true enough, the vocal similarities are there, and she did record the album in memphis w/ some of al green's old sidemen. giving it more thought, though, one major difference asserted itself, and it has to do w/ what each woman thinks a bed is for. again, historically, both dusty and chan seem to think that a bed is something that one sometimes doesn't leave for days, only, listening to dusty in memphis, one gets the idea that dusty has company whereas chan is all by her lonesome.

this, happily enough, is not the case on "living proof." chan is getting some, or soon will, and, you know what? good for her. she moans and wails, but in the throes of ecstasy instead of agony, in the process reminding one of the thin line between the sounds of sex and the sounds of pain. really, the whole thing reeks of S-E-X, from the vocals to the swelling of the band on the chorus. they're all in on it: the drummer, the pianist, the organ player--well, you get the point.