Hitting Lucky Number Seven

There comes a point in an artist's career when change must seem like a silly proposition. You might assume that this point would come when you're on to your seventh full-length album and you have yet to significantly alter your sound. Two indie heavyweights just hit this mark, but while Belle & Sebastian fully agrees with this "if it works, don't change it" philosophy, Cat Power has other plans.

On The Life Pursuit, Belle & Sebastian are still doing what they do best: creating bright, brilliantly simplistic melodies coupled with absolutely bizarre lyrics. Yes, those compositions come wrapped in the same glossy production we heard on 2004's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, but there is nothing on Pursuit that signifies a huge artistic shift. It is, fundamentally, another collection of Belle & Sebastian songs; each one remains within the miniature scope of Stuart Murdoch's universe, a place filled with musings about the smallest occurrences and melodies built on a similarly restrained scale.

On her latest album, however, Cat Power has produced what sounds like a shift in her basic persona. The Greatest is as powerful a statement as anything she has ever recorded; her warbling, strained voice and stripped, honest lyrics are here in force. But unlike her previous releases, this one is given extra depth by lush instrumentation and fully formed melodies. She allows beauty to infiltrate her compositions, especially on the title track, rather than just letting it in for an instant before shutting it out.

These two tactics were exactly what both groups needed to do to keep me interested. Cat Power was wearing thin. You are Free contained some of her best compositions, but both it and her public persona had too many frustrating points, too much dramatic angst-in this context, the sudden cancellation of her tour shouldn't have caught anyone by surprise. With Belle & Sebastian, I lost it for a moment when I heard the shiny, pop-production of Waitress. It took their show at Coachella 2004, amid the desert landscape and the mind-melting heat, for me to see that studio gimmickry can obscure the gently catchy melodies and endearingly bizarre lyrics that make up a Belle & Sebastian album, but it can't erase them. As long as those elements are there, as they are on Pursuit, I will remain a fan.

With Cat Power, it took this new, fuller sound to win me back. With the help of warmer vocalization, melodic orchestral backing, and less interiority in the lyrics, The Greatest grabs your interest and never lets go. It doesn't hit the same dramatic highs as You Are Free, but maybe, at this point in the relationship, Cat Power's audience needed the musical equivalent of a romantic night in, rather than a heart-stopping surprise. Cat Power traffics in sheer emotional discourse, with the musical background serving as just a part of that dialogue. On The Greatest, she finally allows the music to truly back her voice, and in doing so, finds a new way to impact the listener.

Belle & Sebastian had no need to make such a dramatic change, and luckily they didn't, producing an album that is equal parts the understated folk of their early albums and a proper dose of pop production.

At some points, they are at their undeniable catchiest: never are call and response lyrics over a funky beat better than when they are telling the story of a well-off criminal having to pay for what he did in "White Collar Boy." Once again, Murdoch has found the irony in the subtle juxtaposition of lyrics and melody. He shows just how uncool white collar crimes are by coupling them with bubbly pop melodies rather than a more traditional pairing of delinquency with healthy riffs and pounding drums.

Belle & Sebastian may be leaning more toward straightforward pop on this album, but the sensibilities that lie behind twee pop still abound. They don't need to incorporate hand-claps and glockenspiels to inform the listener that a song is catchy. All they need is a soul beat, a toe-tapping rhythm, and an easy to sing chorus like "the black will be white and the white will be black / but the blues are still blue." This is simplicity in its most sugary and engaging form; the storyline and extra instrumentation wrapped around that chorus are just icing on the cake.

Apparently, neither Cat Power nor Belle & Sebastian can produce a bad album. They are, however, capable of turning off fans. With these two albums, both artists did exactly what they needed to avoid that fate. Change is not for everyone, but having artists recognize when they need it (or don't) is almost as valuable as any album they produce.