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- Date Released: January 21, 2008
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: Matador
Chan Marshall repositions the rock canon.
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We Say...
Few singers are as eloquently acquainted with the loneliness at the heart of devotion as Cat Power’s Chan Marshall. In “Song to Bobby,” she details her lifelong, one-sided love affair with Bob Dylan. She’s a teenager at an outdoor show, screaming as he plays her favorite song; then she’s in some arena, convinced he’s singing his third encore just to her. Once she attains renown of her own, a miraculous phone call comes that Dylan wants to meet her. “Backstage pass in my hand/ Giving you my heart was my plan,” she sings, emulating Dylan’s choppy cadence and nasal vowels. But Dylan, ever magisterial, remains out of reach; the song trails off before the meeting comes to fruition.
Jukebox is much more than a sequel to Cat Power’s 2000 album The Covers Record. Though it contains a similar preponderance of other people’s material, Jukebox is more forcefully and deeply about the risks and ecstasy of losing oneself in music. On The Covers Record, Marshall remade every track in her image, proving that even a petulant anthem like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” wasn’t immune to her drab, dirgy touch; here the best versions are more reverent, more stylistically in sync with the originals. She’s never sounded so engaged with the world. James Brown’s ballad “Lost Someone” shows the incredible facility with soul she developed working with the Memphis Rhythm Band on 2006’s The Greatest, while the Highwaymen’s “Silver Stallion” demonstrates her equal facility with country wanderlust. But the showstopper is “Aretha, Sing One for Me,” a 1972 hit by Memphis songwriter George Jackson. A bookend to “Song to Bobby,” it too evokes pop music’s unfulfilled promise to solve our problems. Marshall is a hell of a singer, but she’s paying tribute to the slavish audience in us all. -
They Say...
Eight years is a long time in almost any artist's career, but in Cat Power's case, it's an even more sizable gulf, as Chan Marshall's collections of other people's songs reflect. Released in 2000, The Covers Record found her becoming an ever more nuanced performer, tempering the rawness and intensity of her earlier albums with a lighter approach. Arriving in 2008, Jukebox reaffirms what a polished artist she's become, especially since her Memphis soul homage The Greatest. But where The Greatest sometimes bordered on slick, Jukebox's blend of country, soul, blues, and jazz feels lived-in and natural. Marshall recorded this set with her touring act, the Dirty Delta Blues Band, featuring some of indie rock's finest players, including her longtime drummer, the Dirty Three's Jim White -- who gives even the quietest moments vitality -- as well as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Judah Bauer and Chavez's Matt Sweeney, so it's not surprising that the album often plays like an especially well-recorded concert. However, some of the session legends she worked with on The Greatest make guest appearances, including Teenie Hodges and Spooner Oldham. Oldham's song for Janis Joplin, "A Woman Left Lonely," appears here, and the original's sophisticated yet earthy sound is one of the album's biggest influences. As on The Covers Record, Marshall makes bold choices. She citifies Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man" (switched to "Ramblin' [Wo]Man" here), turning it slinky and smoky with spacious drums and rippling Rhodes; despite the very different surroundings, the song's desperate loneliness remains. Joni Mitchell's icily beautiful "Blue" gets a thaw and a late-night feel that are completely different but just as compelling. Not all of Jukebox's transformations are this successful: Marshall's penchant for turning formerly brash songs brooding (like The Covers Record's "Satisfaction") sounds too predictable on Frank Sinatra's "New York." And, while the choice to change James Brown's "I Lost Someone" from searing and pleading to languid was brave, the results fall flat. One of the most drastic remakes is Marshall's own Moon Pix track "Metal Heart," which adds more drama and dynamics to one of her prettiest melodies. While the way this version swings from aching verses to cathartic choruses works, the subtlety and simplicity of the original are missed. Indeed, many of Jukebox's best moments are the simplest. Marshall's reworking of the Highwaymen's 1990 hit "Silver Stallion" frees the song from its dated production, replacing it with acoustic guitar and pedal steel that impart a timeless, restless beauty. She pays Bob Dylan homage with a gritty, defiant, yet reverent take on "I Believe in You" from his 1978 Christian album Slow Train Coming and "Song to Bobby," Jukebox's lone new track, dedicated to and inspired by Dylan so thoroughly that she borrows his trademark cadences without sounding like an impersonation. Uneven as it may be, Jukebox is still a worthwhile portrait of Chan Marshall's artistry.
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| 01. |  |
New York |
2:01 |
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| 02. | |
Ramblin’ (Wo)man |
3:48 |
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| 03. | |
Metal Heart |
3:54 |
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| 04. | |
Silver Stallion |
2:53 |
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| 05. | |
Aretha, Sing One For Me |
3:13 |
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| 06. | |
Lost Someone |
2:51 |
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| 07. | |
Lord, Help The Poor & Needy |
2:38 |
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| 08. | |
I Believe In You |
4:08 |
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| 09. | |
Song To Bobby |
4:18 |
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| 10. | |
Don’t Explain |
3:51 |
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| 11. | |
Woman Left Lonely |
4:08 |
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| 12. | |
Blue |
4:01 |
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12 Total Tracks, 41:44 Total Length
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Credits
- Larry McDonald - Percussion // Larry McDonald - Guest Appearance // Mark Segal - Cover Photo // Teenie Hodges - Guitar // Teenie Hodges - Guest Appearance // Judah Bauer - Guitar // Stuart Sikes - Engineer // Chan Marshall - Arranger // Chan Marshall - Vocals // Jim White - Drums // Gregg Foreman - Organ // Gregg Foreman - Piano // Dylan Willemsa - Viola // Dylan Willemsa - Guest Appearance
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