“Plea from a Cat Named Virtute” by The Weakerthans

"Plea from a Cat Named Virtute" lives on Reconstruction Site, the Weakerthans' third album, released in 2003, and it runs on the sharpest conceit on the record: the whole song is voiced by a cat watching the person it lives with go under in depression. On paper that reads like a novelty; on the record it lands as a small, clear-eyed portrait of somebody stuck, seen from the carpet.

The writing credit is shared by John K. Samson, Steven Carroll, John P. Sutton and Jason Tait, and Christine Fellows, one of the album's guests, sits in on piano. It's one of several side doors the album uses to get at its real subjects, grief, regret and loss, with hope turning up only at the end.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.