Cat Power - The Greatest

For The Greatest, Chan Marshall went to Memphis and hired legends. Released on Matador in 2006, the album pairs her with the Memphis Rhythm Band, including guitarist Teenie Hodges and bassist Leroy Hodges, veterans of Al Green's classic Hi Records sessions. Producer Stuart Sikes captured them live and warm, wrapping Marshall's songs in horns, strings, and a slow Southern soul glow.

The title is not a boast but a story: the opening track imagines a boy who dreamed of being a champion boxer and never got there. That theme of thwarted ambition runs through "Lived in Bars," "Could We," and "Willie," carried by Marshall's most assured singing to that point. It is a record about doing your best in a world that rarely rewards it.

The Greatest debuted at number thirty-four on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album at the time. This Matador LP delivers her Memphis soul turn in full, lush and lived-in.