Sun (album)
| Sun | ||||
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| Studio album by Cat Power | ||||
| Released | August 29, 2012 | |||
| Recorded | 2007–12 | |||
| Studio |
Malibu; The Boat Studio, Silverlake; South Beach Studios, Miami; Motorbass Studio, Paris |
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| Genre | Indie rock, electronic, folk rock, indietronica | |||
| Length | 48:50 | |||
| Label | Matador | |||
| Producer | Cat Power | |||
| Cat Power chronology | ||||
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| Vinyl cover | ||||
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Limited edition deluxe vinyl cover
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 78/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| BBC Music | favorable |
| Clash | 6/10 |
| Drowned in Sound | 9/10 |
| The Guardian | |
| The Independent | |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.9/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Slant Magazine | |
| Robert Christgau |  |
Sun is the ninth studio album by American musician Cat Power. Her first album of all-original material since 2006's The Greatest, it was released on September 3, 2012, in the United Kingdom and in the United States on September 4, 2012, via Matador Records. The album was issued in a variety of formats, including a limited edition deluxe LP containing a 7" vinyl of bonus tracks.
The album's lead single, "Ruin", was released for free download at Matador Record's store on June 20, 2012. A music video for album opener "Cherokee", directed by Marshall, was later released, while an ambient remix of the song by Nicolas Jaar is available to download from Cat Power's official website. The song was premièred on NPR's All Songs Considered on June 26, whose host Bob Boilen described the album as "[going in] yet another direction. A lot more drive, a lot more electronics, drum machines, synths—it's very bold."
On April 10, 2013, Cat Power performed the previously unreleased track "Bully" on the opening episode of the forty-second series of Later... with Jools Holland. Immediately following the broadcast, a new version of the album containing "Bully" as a bonus track was made available for download through iTunes.
Work on the album initially began soon after the release of The Greatest, with Marshall announcing the album's title as far back as 2006 in an interview with The New York Times, where she also claimed that the entire album had already been written. Marshall decided to finance the recording of Sun herself, following financial difficulties arising from the cancellation of a lengthy tour in 2006 due to her hospitalisation. She was later declared bankrupt, claiming "I had my house in foreclosure and I hadn't paid taxes in two years. So to get away from people second guessing me and wondering what I was going to do with the advance for this album, I said, 'I'm going to fucking pay for this shit myself.' I knew that'd be the only way I could control things. So I cashed out my retirement fund." Recording began sometime in 2007, with Marshall building a studio in her Malibu home to record and produce new songs herself. However, much of the material recorded up to this point was later abandoned when Marshall decided it was "too painful and personal to put out", stating "I was writing all these really slow guitar songs, and my friend said, 'This is like depressing old Cat Power,' which made me feel like I got shot. I didn't work for eight months after that."
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