Lipstick In The Moonlight

Cat Power “Manhattan”

“Manhattan,” intentionally or not, echoes the sound of one of my all-time favorite New York City songs – Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out.” Both songs pair a steady electronic pulse with bright, sparing piano chords, and somehow imply a grand, highly detailed urban landscape with those simple musical gestures. But while “Steppin’ Out” depicts the ritzy glamor of a night out in the big city, Chan Marshall evokes the feeling of the city just a few hours later, as the sun slowly rises and people get back to work. It’s not morning rush hour; it’s just before that – the first wave of the coming day, and you can still feel the stillness of the night around you. Yeah, she’s singing about the night, but it’s from this perspective. Sober, bleary-eyed, pensive. Like all of the songs on Sun, it cuts deep because she’s singing from this distance – the balance of softness and crispness in her voice signals a lot of wisdom.

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