Record Review: Cat Power Jukebox

Cat Power
Jukebox
 Chan Marshall as Cat Power has long fascinated, enthralled and infuriated me.  Her whispered, atonal mewing is enchanting and yet sometimes there is jus t a sameness to the whole thing that is numbing.  With a few exceptions her original songs have been unremarkable and her gifts as a singer has always been through interpreting other peoples works.  Sometimes it is brilliant, sometimes the song selection is questionable, but it is never uninteresting to see what she does with someone else’s tunes and while her covers may be eclectic and more geared to music snobbery then tunefulness her CD Covers was very well received and had a number of memorable tunes on it.  Her cover of the Oasis anthem “Wonderwall” stands as the brilliant mark by which any artist should be judged, reinventing the song in a way never envisioned by those pretentious little twits the Gallagher's or in the much ballyhooed Ryan Adams cover.  Find it on iTunes….BUY IT NOW!
 
So it was with some apprehension and anticipation that picked up her knew CD “Jukebox”.  Once again a collection of covers, some old, some new, some borrowed, etc… She did this one with the help of pretty much the same Memphis session players she used for her last CD, the critically acclaimed but ultimately disappointing “The Greatest”.  These musicians are brilliant and understated with Judah Bauer on guitar, and Greg Foreman on Organ accenting  her voice and framing her tunes.  This CD also has special guests on it like the brilliant Spooner Oldham on piano and organ and Matt Sweeney on guitar.  It is a sweet band for a sometimes silky sweet voice.
 
She kicks off with “New York” and she is no Frank Sinatra and you immediately think ooohhh! That was a mistake but… it grows on you like a fungus or in you like a cyst and now (although I would never want to drunkenly sing it at a bar) it has become my favorite.  She moves into a muted version of the Hank Williams (not Jr. or III) tune Ramblin (WO)MAN and it lilts along in a most pleasing way with it’s steel guitar muted in the background and frankly…beautiful.  The third song is hers, “Metal Heart”, and it is surprisingly good.  Lee Clayton’s “Silver Stallion” lilts along followed by “Aretha, Sing One For Me” which unhappily sounds a little trite coming from a woman who does not by any estimation have a “big” voice.  James Brown’s “Lost Someone” is a non starter… and even after it fails to start it goes no where.  “Lord Help The Poor and Needy” seems to resonate but I do not know if that is because of her cover of it, or because it seems to be a relevant song to life right now.
 
She veers suddenly to brilliant again inn her cover of Dylan’s “I Believe In You” which you can also find on the sound track of the recent non hit movie “I’m Not There”.  This song works on every level with a great, almost Keith Richards on Xanax like guitar rift that counterpoints her reading of a song that when Dylan does it is almost unintelligible.  She follows up with her own “Song To Bobby” with the usual disappointing results and then reaches out and fails on the Billie Holloday song “Don’t Explain” before closing with a one two punch of Spooner Olhams “Women Left Lonely” followed by a really thoughtful version of Joni Mitchells under rated “Blue”.
 
The CD is cohesive and at times brilliant and enchanting but even as it fits together the unevenness of Marshall’s performances and commitment to these songs as she goes through it is distracting.  I think that when she stops recording she is going to leave us with a really sweet greatest hits package and I guess that is feint praise indeed for this critics darling.