You Are Free

Recording

You Are Free was recorded over the course of a year, the longest Marshall had spent recording an album at that point. Marshall and engineer Adam Kasper recorded about 40 songs during these sessions.

In a 2003 interview with Pitchfork, Marshall explained the album was recorded "Sporadically. While I was traveling...Adam was working on other things, and I worked on his schedule. He'd get these really nice studios, and when he had off time we'd go in and then try to remember what we did like two months ago and pull that tape up. I'd be like, 'Uh, no, I wanna do something new,' and then I'd write a new song. So it basically worked like that-- every few months getting together and essentially writing new songs." According to Marshall, Kasper helped her decide which of the 40 songs they recorded should make it onto the album.

Marshall revealed that she chose Kasper because "I was looking for somebody who would let me do what I wanted to do, who's a really good engineer," and said that she saw him as an engineer, rather than a producer.

Numerous songs on the album are performed solo, with only Marshall on vocals and guitar or piano. Grohl plays drums on the songs "Speak For Me," "He War" and "Shaking Paper," and plays bass on "Shaking Paper." Vedder provides backing vocals on "Good Woman" and "Evolution," while Ellis plays violin on "Werewolf."

The songs "Good Woman" and "Werewolf" feature string arrangements by David Campbell, which were recorded after Marshall's vocals had been completed, at the Boat Studio in Los Angeles, California.

Release

You Are Free became Cat Power's first charting album, reaching 105 on the Billboard 200. The song "He War" was released as a single, and a music video for the song directed by Brett Vapnek was released.

Reception

You Are Free, Marshall's first album of original material since the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), has received widespread critical acclaim since its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 26 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Kelefa Sanneh of Rolling Stone wrote that "Free may be her most beautiful album, as well as her cagiest: There are gaunt rock songs and ramshackle ballads, all painted with bold, sure strokes that belie her ambivalence." Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that "You Are Free may take awhile longer than expected to unfold, but once it does, its excellence is undeniable." Chris Ott of Pitchfork Media called it an album "full of arresting, serene beauty...Sans a handful of lesser inclusions and tributes, the imaginary, shorter version of You Are Free is flawless."

In 2009, Pitchfork Media placed the album at number 98 on their "The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s" list.

Track listing

All tracks written by Chan Marshall.

Personnel