What Would the Community Think

What Would the Community Think was recorded in February 1996{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=156}} at Easley Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The sessions marked the first time Marshall had recorded in a professional recording space, as her previous two releases had been recorded in a makeshift studio in New York City.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=148}} During the recording sessions, Marshall was reportedly ill with a cold, which required her to strain her voice during the recording sessions.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=148}} Many of the vocal and guitar tracks were recorded by Marshall in single takes.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=150}}

Recounting the recording process, Marshall recalled: "I got to do things, I got to direct it a little. The other times we just pressed the record—this time I got to branch out and figure out where I thought it should go."{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=150}}

The tracks on What Would The Community Think have been noted for their blending of blues, alternative rock, and country, as well as for their largely melancholy lyrical subject matter.{{cite web|url=http://www.nudeasthenews.com/reviews/948|work=Nude As The News|title=Cat Power: What Would The Community Think?|access-date= January 24, 2011}} The songs on the album range from "rhythmic dirges" (such as "Good Clean Fun") to down-tempo tracks ("Taking People," "Water & Air").{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=151}} Marshall also incorporated elements of hymns and old blues standards: the track "They Tell Me" specifically contains Southern-inspired lyrics sung over a classic blues guitar riff.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=151}} The album features two cover songs: "The Fate of the Human Carbine," an "angry singsong" cover written by New Zealand singer-songwriter Peter Jefferies, and "Bathysphere" by Bill Callahan, whom Marshall had formerly dated.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=151}}

The lead single, "Nude as the News" was Cat Power's first song to receive an official music video in 1997, directed by Brett Vapnek.{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=271}} In retrospect, Marshall has divulged that the ambiguous lyrics to the song were written about an abortion she had in 1992, and the names "Jackson" and "Jesse" in the song are references to Patti Smith's two children.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/12/10/071210crmu_music_frerejones?currentPage=1|magazine=The New Yorker|title=Wonder Woman|date= December 10, 2007|author=Frere-Jones, Sasha|access-date= January 23, 2011}}

The cover artwork for the album was created by Chan Marshall out of a postcard: "I just needed a cover and I had this postcard that I've had for a long time. It's this woman from the '70s in New York and they did this collage of cigarette ads and she whited out the eyes and instead of a cigarette she had a whistle. It's no big deal, I just cut out the center of her face and put mine on top. It made it look more real."{{cite web|work=Cool Beans|title=Interview With Chan Marshall|url=http://coolbeans.com/cb7/catpower.htm|date= May 2, 1997|access-date= December 16, 2010}}: "I just needed a cover and I had this postcard that I've had for a long time. It's this woman from the '70s in New York and they did this collage of cigarette ads and she whited out the eyes and instead of a cigarette she had a whistle. It's no big deal, I just cut out the center of her face and put mine on top. It made it look more real."

{{Music ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|last=Phares|first=Heather|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/what-would-the-community-think-mw0000613348|title=What Would the Community Think? – Cat Power|work=AllMusic|access-date=December 30, 2017}}

|rev2 = Alternative Press

|rev2score = 5/5{{cite magazine|title=Cat Power: What Would the Community Think|magazine=Alternative Press|issue=99|date=October 1996|pages=70–71}}

|rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

|rev3score = A{{cite magazine|last=Romero|first=Michele|url=http://ew.com/article/1996/09/20/what-would-community-think/|title=What Would the Community Think|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=September 20, 1996|access-date=January 13, 2018}}

|rev4 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

|rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|last=Sheffield|first=Rob|author-link=Rob Sheffield|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artist/album/news/artists/8828/54952/54990|title=Cat Power: Album Guide|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=April 10, 2010|access-date=September 30, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20101127011444/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artist/album/news/artists/8828/54952/54990|archive-date=November 27, 2010|url-status=dead}}

|rev5 = The Tampa Tribune

|rev5score = {{rating|3|4}}{{cite news|last=Johnson|first=Rommie|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28076100/the_tampa_tribune/|title=Cat Power, What Would the Community Think (Matador)|work=The Tampa Tribune|location=Tampa, Florida|date=November 29, 1996|access-date=February 5, 2019|page=21|via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}

}}

Michele Romero of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Marshall "raises goose bumps on What Would the Community Think with bluesy, traumatized songs on which she whispers laments over a spare arrangement of guitar and drums. A sudden fervent holler — to the father of her unborn child or to her own lacking papa — interrupts the calm like thoughts of mortality in the night." Rolling Stone{{'}}s Rob Sheffield called the album "leaner and tougher" than her previous releases, adding: "It's a quiet album, but the songs get more powerful the closer you listen, as Marshall testifies to her unbearable longing for an unbearable love."

Music critic Mark Groescher wrote of the album: "Listening to What Would The Community Think is like watching a friend on the verge of losing her mind. It is a wild and sometimes disturbing ride, but it is completely honest. And like any great blues album, it is contagious."{{cite web|work=Nude as the News|url=http://www.nudeasthenews.com/reviews/948|author=Groescher, Mark|title=What Would the Community Think|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20030126125834/http://www.nudeasthenews.com/reviews/948|archive-date=January 26, 2003|access-date=January 25, 2011}} Biographer Elizabeth Goodman referred to the album as Marshall's "most violent, angry work, a deranged epic filled with sadness, guilt, and defiance."{{sfn|Goodman|2009|p=154}}

Rommie Johnson of The Tampa Tribune described the album as "Quiet, [but not] mellow...  Cat Power builds tension through repetition, then eerily cuts things off without a trace of resolution...  her understated tales of epistemological doubt may just be missives to herself. More often than not, Marshall sounds like a woman alone with her thoughts."

{{Track listing

| collapsed =

| headline =

| all_writing=Chan Marshall, except where noted

| total_length=47:40

| title1 = In This Hole

| writer1 =

| length1 = 4:59

| title2 = Good Clean Fun

| writer2 =

| length2 = 4:46

| title3 = What Would the Community Think

| writer3 =

| length3 = 4:30

| title4 = Nude as the News

| writer4 =

| length4 = 4:23

| title5 = They Tell Me

| writer5 =

| length5 = 2:53

| title6 = Taking People

| writer6 =

| length6 = 3:25

| title7 = The Fate of the Human Carbine

| writer7 = Peter Jefferies

| length7 = 2:58

| title8 = King Rides By

| writer8 =

| length8 = 4:03

| title9 = Bathysphere

| writer9 = Bill Callahan

| length9 = 3:01

| title10 = Water & Air

| writer10 =

| length10 = 4:43

| title11 = Enough

| writer11 =

| length11 = 4:25

| title12 = The Coat Is Always On

| writer12 =

| length12 = 3:34

}}

• Chan Marshall {{en dash}} vocals, guitar, piano
• Tim Foljahn {{en dash}} guitar
• Steve Shelley {{en dash}} drums, xylophone, production
• Doug Easley {{en dash}} pedal steel

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Goodman|first=Elizabeth|title=Cat Power: A Good Woman|publisher=Three Rivers Press|year=2009|isbn= 978-0-307-39636-5}}

• {{AllMusic|mw0000613348}}

{{Cat Power|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Cat Power albums

Category:1996 albums

Category:Blues albums by American artists

Category:Matador Records albums