I think I may have finally forgiven Cat Power. This would be a big step for me, considering the concert-hell she’s put me through. With the release of her seventh, aptly-titled album, The Greatest, the sultry-voiced singer-songwriter has finally redeemed herself for two of the most painful and disappointing stage performances I have ever experienced.

Even if you’ve never had the pleasure of listening to one of Cat Power’s brilliant albums, you have probably gotten word of her psychopathic onstage antics. Music journalists, fans and Chan Marshall herself seem to be intrigued by her inability to put on a decent show.

Yes, she breaks down and cries. Yes, she turns her chair around so she doesn’t have to look at her fans. Yes, she gets members of the audience to sing her entire set because she’s too drunk to do so herself. I know, because I’ve experienced it. Twice.

Cat Power packed The ’Sco early last semester, so many of you probably know what I’m talking about.

Cat Power’s fans are certainly not the motivation behind her live performances. And on “I Don’t Blame You,” the first track of 2003’s You Are Free, she expresses these exact sentiments: “They said you were the best/but then they were only kids...They never owned it and you never owed it to them.”

Yeah, so she’s no performer.

Whatever the case, Marshall has the studio-shtick down and The Greatest is certainly her best work to date. On these 12 changeable tracks, Marshall manages to sound like a lounge lizard (“Lived In Bars”), a Nashville starlet (“Islands,” “Empty Shell”), a back-porch blues singer, (“After it All”) and everything in between.

Tracks like “The Greatest,” “Willie” and “Hate” deliver like the old Cat Power of previous albums. The one that we know and love, whose lyrics make us want to drag a dull razor over our wrists and just call it quits. She’s still there; you’ve just got to look a little harder for her.

And my friends, could this really be a bad thing?

The album sounds like Cat Power recorded it in an abandoned warehouse, with only an old car battery, a drippy faucet, and her band and instruments to keep her company. The Greatest was actually recorded in Memphis, with the help of a killer backing-band.

Cat Power managed to recruit some of the city’s best soul musicians to accompany her: Mabon “Teenie” Hodges on guitar, his brother Leroy “Flick” Hodges on bass and Steve Potts on drums. If the album sells as many copies as I suspect it will, Cat Power should thank these three fellas, in addition to her lucky stars.

Could the release of The Greatest mean a saner, more stage-worthy Cat Power? Maybe, but I can’t help but chuckle toward the end of the album, when Marshall whispers, “No/He’s not crazy like me.”