Ruin

Album: Sun (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • After attempting to write some material for her ninth studio on a synthesiser, Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, was not happy. She had lyrics and a beat and notes, but no actual songs. So the Atlanta born singer's touring band, the Dirty Delta Blues, came to her house in Malibu and played along live to her skeleton demos. They did this intermittently for five months, however this is the only track on Sun that came from the process.
  • The breezy piano jam finds Marshall singing about her visits to different places all over the world. On her return home, Marshall is met by, "Bitching, complaining when some people ain't got nothing to eat." Having experienced the poverty and hunger in such places as Calcutta, the song turns into a cry against apathy and self pity. "What are we doin'. We're sittin' on a ruin," she implores on the refrain.
  • Marshall recorded the Sun album after a difficult break up with her long-time boyfriend, the actor Giovanni Ribisi. This song's music video finds the singer sporting a shorter haircut than before, having cut her locks after their split.
  • Sun debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It wasn't only Marshall's highest placing to date, but also the first album released in Matador Records' twenty-three year history to crack the Billboard 200 Top Ten.

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