Cat Power — Speaking For Trees

Perhaps fearing her last CD had some mainstream appeal, Cat Power’s wounded songstress Chan Marshall, stars in this CD/DVD performance oddity. For the DVD, picture a soundcheck on the Discovery Channel. A distanced camera captures Marshall standing in a field, like a strange guitar-wielding bird producing its mating call — in this case a sleepy set of fragmented, gently-strummed songs. Chirping crickets, a 100-minute runtime, repeated takes and the director’s annoying camera-fiddling make this a questionable buy even for fans. Much more accessible is the CD portion of the package and its lone track — a sprawling yet breezy 18-minute ballad that feels brief after the seemingly endless film.