Cat Power - Jukebox

Hot on the heels of her Bob Dylan cover, "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," for the film I'm Not There, comes Cat Power's second covers record of her career. Though taste-makers and indie-aficionados have known her for years, it wasn't until the success of her last record, The Greatest, that Cat Power found a bit more commercial success.

Two busy years later, after a bit of touring, shelling for commercials (Gap, Chanel, De Beers), making movies (My Blueberry Nights), a breakdown, and reportedly getting sober, Cat Power is back, taking the sonic textures of her last record and applying it to her highly interpretive method of covering music, this time, reportedly, as a tribute to "great vocalists that have influenced her through the years."

Where Cat Power's 2000 release of covers, The Covers Record, felt sorrowful, depressing, heartbroken and at turns devastating, Jukebox is all polished and upbeat, basking in southern swank. Recorded with her touring band of last year, The Dirty Delta Blues Band, her choices are interesting, opening with one of the best Sinatra covers I've heard ("New York, New York") and then shifting to another Dylan cover ("I Believe In You"). Chan hops the gender-divide and covers the ladies: Billie Holiday ("Don't Explain"), Janis Joplin ("Woman Left Lonely"), and Joni Mitchell ("Blueâ€). Jukebox is warm and bluesy. Despite their hops in genre and time, the songs come out quite evenly on the whole, and each sounds fresh. If some weren't so instantly recognizable as classics, they could very well be mistaken as new Cat Power material.

by Tyler Martin

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