Cat Power Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert 2LP

TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 5/5 Sonics in the February 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at London's Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Held at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966 - but long known as the "Royal Albert Hall Concert" due to a mislabeled bootleg - the original performance saw Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing ire from an audience of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock-and-roll. In her own rendition of that historic night, the artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall inhabited each song with equal parts conviction and grace and a palpable sense of protectiveness, ultimately transposing the anarchic tension of Dylan's set with a warm and luminous joy. Now captured on the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, Marshall's spellbinding performance both lovingly honors her hero's imprint on history and brings a stunning new vitality to many of his most revered songs.

Pure celebration

Now we know how much applause it takes to lift the Albert Hall

...[Marshall's] consummate performance on Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert (which actually was recorded at the venue), balances confidence with reverence. The love she brings to these songs is palpable....Marshall's wise, loving performances strengthen her reputation as one of her generation's most gifted interpreters.

Clearly, the woman LA Weekly dubbed 'The Queen of Sadcore' was born to record 'Visions of Johanna' and 'Just Like a Woman.' On those tracks, and such classic songs as 'Like a Rolling Stone' and 'Ballad of a Thin Man,' she deftly evokes the bard's yearning mood and lyrical brilliance. The result is one of her finest vocal performances and a great Dylan cover album. Grammy-winning engineer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck) expertly captures the live ambience to offer a delicate, airy sound that draws you into these stunning performances, especially on the acoustic numbers.