Cat Power - Jukebox

Label: Matador
Rating: 4 Guns

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It takes a true talent to cover a song and make your audience forget it was originally sung by someone else. Cat performed this miracle on “The Covers Record,” back in 2000, and lightning has struck again in 2008 with “Jukebox.” On this record, Cat Powers covers Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Joni Mitchell and James Brown- she even covers herself with “Metal Heart” (which was originally released on “Moon Pix”).

Let’s take the track “Ramblin’ (Wo)man.” Cat could have sung the song way it was written (“Ramblin’ Man”), but where’s the fun in that? The gift that Cat has with her covers and her own material is that she disappears in the lyrics without over-singing a song like Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mariah and Christina, but sometimes they ring out every emotion that by the end of the first verse, I’m spent. Listening to Cat, she lets the lyrics speak, her voice is almost like a conversation, speaking to what's important.

Standout tracks are the “Theme From New York, New York”. Sinatra made this his signature tune with a bouncy beat; you believed new life was waiting in New York. Cat adds her sultry voice to create a jazzy ballad.



“I Believe In You” was written by Bob Dylan when he found Christianity, but Cat turns this song into a song of inner strength and conviction by singing with fire "I walk out on my own/A thousand miles from home/But I don't feel alone/'Cause I believe in you."

The original “Metal Heart” was a very simple song, but now it is more dramatic goodbye to those who hurt us. Like “I Believe In You”, her line “I once was lost but now I'm found was blind/But now I see you/How selfish of you to believe in the meaning of all the bad dreaming” Cat’s inner strength continues to shine. It is very interesting to her an artist revisit an old song. In the ten years since she did “Metal Heart” Cat suffered a mental breakdown and her experiences and life is on full display; with "Jukebox," you can tell she is back in a good place.