MUSTHEAR REVIEW:
Like the blues itself, Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) is a soulful product of the Deep South. Her voice is charged with aching strains of gospel, soul, blues, and country-folk. The Covers Record is her quiet storm, a stripped down affair, featuring nothing more than her captivating voice coupled with a lone piano or guitar. Without any contrived nostalgia, her covers of mostly contemporary songs sound as if they could have come from Alan Lomax's Great Depression field recordings. She updates the old American folk tradition of using other peoples' songs as a way of getting at her own soul. A distinctly individual singer, she reworks the songs of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, Moby Grape, and Michael Hurly, dramatically transforming them into something of her own in the process. Opening the album with the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction," Marshall turns this classic rock & roll stomp into a restrained and bluesy statement of personal frustration, stripping away the song's inane "I can't get no, a-no-no-no" chorus and leaving a brooding sensuality in its place. In her hands, this all-too-familiar Stones anthem is reborn with a real sexiness. From album's beginning, you are struck by Marshall's remarkable ability to create an intense immediacy and depth with every word she sings, making her compelling in much the same way as the great Billie Holiday. Far from being a one dimensional or derivative singer, she covers a wide emotional and vocal range, from the twangy down-home levity of "Salty Dog" to the crooning sensuality of "Wild Is The Wind." With its many different currents, this is a mood album only in the sense that all of its songs are spare and expressive. Taken as a whole, the album leaves you throbbing with a delicious melancholy approaching that of Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Taken individually, each song is a self-contained universe of expression and meaning, pulling you in and demanding your undivided attention. Quietly spiritual, The Covers Record is one of the most heartfelt and original examples of how best to appropriate other peoples' songs.
--John Ballon (email)
Buy or Hear It Now...
Tracks:
1. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger/Richards) - 3:05
2. Kingsport Town (Public Domain/Tradtional) - 4:54
3. Troubled Waters (Coslow/Johnson) - 3:29
4. Naked If I Want To (Miller Jr.) - 2:47
5. Sweedeedee (Hurley) - 3:53
6. In This Hole (Marshall) - 4:26
7. I Found a Reason (Reed) - 2:00
8. Wild Is the Wind (Tiomkine/Washington) - 4:10
9. Red Apples (Callahan) - 4:24
10. Paths of Victory (Dylan) - 3:24
11. Salty Dog (Public Domain/Traditional) - 2:07
12. Sea of Love (Baptiste/Khoury) - 2:19
Players:
Chan Marshall- Vocals, Piano, Guitar
Matt Sweeney - Guitar
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