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, 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.
A1 In This Hole
A2 Good Clean Fun
A3 What Would The Community Think
A4 Nude As The News
A5 They Tell Me
A6 Taking People
B1 Fate Of The Human Carbine
B2 King Rides By
B3 Bathysphere
B4 Water & Air
B5 Enough
B6 The Coat Is Always On