Cat Power seems to be surging a late-round comeback. Not that she was ever on the ropes exactly, but her songs and image are everywhere these days, which is pretty peculiar considering her latest LP “The Greatest” (read our review) was released a year ago, and not without generous fanfare.

None the less, Chan Marshall’s pretty face can be seen on the cover of this month’s Magnet as well as Venus, and her delicate voice can be heard covering Cat Stevens’ “How Can I Tell You” in a holiday commercial for DeBeers diamonds (isn’t that sort of like the namesake series of cassettes David St. Hubbins references at the end of “Spinal Tap”?). The appearance of Marshall’s voice in the commercial isn’t troubling in and of itself (she previously licensed a song for a Cingular spot), but because DeBeers was convicted by the US Justice Department of price fixing in 2004, the decision seems somewhat dubious. We respect the need to pay the mortgage, just not the decision to do so with blood (diamond) money.

Don’t get the wrong idea, we like Cat Power as much as the next poorly-written pop culture website, we’re just surprised to see such a big mid-album cycle publicity push. Such displays are generally reserved for the Britneys and Christinas of the world, not indie singer/songwriters. Let’s just hope Cat Power doesn’t decide to marry a no-talent backup dancer or be photographed sans panties (oh wait, scratch that last part).

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