Summer Anne’s Best 125 Songs of the 2000s: #38

“Good Woman” by Cat Power

Read the introduction for details on my criteria.

And if you’re reading me in tumblr’s dashboard, be sure to visit the blog directly for video.

I love sad songs. A lot. But this song is so painfully familiar, sincere, and heartbreaking that I can’t really stand to listen to it anymore. Every time I do, a huge lump forms in my throat and saltwater brims my eyes. The lyrics are perfect. The melody and instrumentation is spectacular. Chan’s voice is the ultimate vehicle for this kind of bittersweet emotion. The little girls (and Eddie Vedder, in the only performance of his career that doesn’t annoy the crap out of me) singing backup don’t help the matter, either. It’s beautiful and terrifying.

“I will love this love forever.”