Today's Sounds: Cat Power

Record:

Cat Power, Sun (Matador)

With its brooding synths, sluggish tempos and stretches of ice-covered soundscaping, this album doesn’t necessarily scream happy. But this is Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, aka onetime poster-girl for depression.

And as her sky clears, leaving a rainbow behind the rogue rays and dirty mixed precip, she leads us through beat-laden ruminations on the native genocide and being buried upside down (“Cherokee”), smoky neo-goth tracks that sound like Austra outtakes (“Sun”), songs about the monkeys on our backs (“3, 6, 9”) and quasi-Eastern noir “(Human Being”). But despite the superficial bleakness and sullenness, whether lyrical or sonic, the energy and novelty of these songs and these sounds — and perhaps the mere fact that she’s finally back with an album of new material after six years — counter the pall with positivity.

Sun was self-produced, and mixed by Beastie Boys affiliate Philippe Zdar, who must’ve helped facilitate the beats that occupy equal space with pianos and acoustic guitars and those synths. And although the record isn’t consistently stellar, and feels padded by one curiously trite and over-long track (“Nothing but Time,” which features a gratuitous Iggy Pop cameo), this is good news for your ears folks. The Cat came back.

Track:

Death Grips, “@DEATHGRIPZ”

The final offering from Adult Swim’s singles series is an unreleased cut by California extremists Death Grips, sounding a little less manic than usual here.

Video:

Solar Year, “Brotherhood”

The name is familiar, right? This local band attracted a lot of attention for launching their album under water a few months back. Now here’s a video that threatens to turn into Madonna’s “Express Yourself” at every turn, but stays sullen and grim. These workmen are not happy dude. A strike is imminent.