IFLTS: 'Good Woman,' Cat Power

'Good Woman,' Cat Power
From 2003's 'You Are Free'

There are a few things I miss deeply about living in the tree-lined streets of my quaint Upstate New York town. Namely, having a car and driving those seemingly endless -- but never unfamiliar -- dark streets, especially on a rainy night.

I used to listen to a lot of what my high school boyfriend liked to call "depressing girl music." (Read: Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Dar Williams). In an effort to spare him and most of my friends from all things "dark," sensitive and introspective, I'd often reserve this indulgence for solo late night drives in my car. I wasn't even sad most of the time. But if I was ... even better.

Unfortunately, Little Miss Tragic and Brilliant, Chan Marshall -- a.k.a. Cat Power -- didn't release this somber beauty until 2003, when I was well into my post-college, city life, super self-involved phase. But when I hear 'Good Woman,' I long to be back in high school, driving by myself on some random farm roads, listening to Marshall's brand of lo-fi melancholia.

Her gloomy guitar and exquisite vocals are backed only with strings from Dirty Three violinist Warren Ellis, a delicate chorus of children's voices and (yes!) Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, who adds a rich overlay to the last few verses. When she sings, "I will miss your heart so tender/And I will love/This love forever," it flat-out breaks me. Those lyrics so perfectly and succinctly describe that excruciating moment when you realize your limitations as a human being who's in the face of an ultimately doomed relationship that is cruelly rooted in buckets of real love.

What song do you freakin' love? Write our next IFLTS. Send it to us at spinnereditor@aim.com