Dear Sir
| Dear Sir | ||||
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| Studio album by Cat Power | ||||
| Released | October 1995 July 3, 2001 (re-release) |
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| Recorded | December 1994 | |||
| Studio | Mott Street space, New York City, New York | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, lo-fi, experimental | |||
| Length | 27:40 31:53 (reissue) |
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| Label | Runt, Plain Recordings | |||
| Producer | Ed Douglas | |||
| Cat Power chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Rolling Stone |
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Dear Sir is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, also known as Cat Power, released in October 1995 on Runt Records. Recorded in New York City in December 1994 during studio sessions with Tim Foljahn and Steve Shelley (which also produced the material on her second album, Myra Lee, released one year later), the album displays Marshall's sparse guitar playing and early lo-fi influence. The album had originally been conceived as an EP, and features covers of songs by Tom Waits and This Kind of Punishment.
The album was reissued by Plain Recordings in 2001 on CD and vinyl, with an alternate recording of the song "Great Expectations" as the eighth track.
Marshall recorded Dear Sir in December 1994 in a small basement studio near Mott Street in New York City at the same time she recorded Myra Lee (1996), which was released nearly two years later, with guitarist Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley; Marshall and Shelley had initially met after she played a show opening for Liz Phair in 1993. A total of 20 songs were recorded in a single day by the trio, all of which were split into two records, making up Dear Sir and Myra Lee.
According to Foljahn, the recording session was "mellow" and "quick," and he referred to their recording space— purportedly a moist basement lined with musical equipment and empty beer cans— as "literally the third subbasement. It was so New York." Contrarily, Marshall described the recording session as "anxiety-ridden." "Most of the time Steve and Tim ended up looking at each other like, "What do we do"?" said Marshall. "I wasn't sure what to tell them since I had never really written songs with a band in mind."
Although Dear Sir is considered Marshall's debut album, she said in a 1996 interview that she considered it an EP. The original 1995 release of the album by Runt Records featured a total of only eight tracks; however, the 2001 re-issue by Plain Recordings featured the additional song "Great Expectations", giving the album a total of nine tracks (note that another version of the song "Great Expectations" is also featured on Cat Power's second album, Myra Lee). Both versions of Dear Sir end with the song "Headlights", which is a re-recording of an early song by Marshall's first backing band, and had previously been released as a 7" single in 1993.
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