Cat Power, Roundhouse - music review

It's been five years since Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, last played London so fans were almost delirious when she strolled on stage clutching a Union Flag mug and incense stick.

Now sporting a blonde crop, the singer from Atlanta soon tested their loyalty by reworking lush ballad The Greatest into an ominous opening tune. She sang into two microphones, employed vocoder effects and an avalanche of drumming.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it before,” she said, a reference to the show being postponed last year. In a career dogged by ill health, bankruptcy and troubled performances, the success of comeback album Sun has been heartening, though its pop appeal was not always obvious last night.

Silent Machine aligned her swooning vocal with ragged rock guitars, while the skeletal Manhattan was overpowered by two drummers and descended into a yelping jam.

Yet Marshall carried the audience thanks in large part to her soulful, wayward voice, which twists and turns like a country lane and leaves you guessing where it might end up.

She delivered a virtuoso performance of stark ballad Bully, sang 3,6,9 with a streetwise swagger and clapped along to the uplifting Nothin’ But Time. Marshall even refrained from the twitchy behaviour of past shows, though she did light up a cigarette.

After a breathless rendition of Ruin, Marshall threw flowers into the audience and didn’t appear to want to leave the stage. Hopefully her smoking antics won’t deter venues from bringing her back soon.