It's hard to say negative things about CAT POWER. For many years now, she entertained, fascinated and enthralled a cult following of fans with a captivating tunes and something truly beautiful. In fact, it could be argued that a voice like hers could make any song sound good. Thing is, was there any need to go out there and prove it?
'Jukebox' is Cat Power's second covers album, a tribute to the singers that have made an impact on her over the years. With an impressive cast list including Frank Sinatra and Joni Mitchell, it's easy to cast aside any doubts you may have about a releasing another covers album in the first place – out of sheer intrigue alone.
'New York, New York' is a good introduction. The tone of the song is different to the original – less a celebrating foot-kicker and more a lonely lament. It supports the point that this is a voice malleable to most songs – adding something new to a classic, just the way a cover version should do. It's sultry, lounge-jazz and that all familiar voice is in glorious breathy mode. This is the tone of the album. Hank William's 'Ramblin' (Wo)man' is given a similar treatment, and you start to think that you may have fallen asleep and started dreaming a flake advert.
It's obvious that a great deal of thought has gone into the delivery of these songs – that Cat Power's voice is as much an instrument, if not moreso, than anything else on this collection. 'Silver Stallion' would have made an amazing duet with Johnny Cash in his later years – certainly something that would have fitted perfectly on the American Recordings. This version is crying out for a male voice to sing along with – it would have made it special, rather than just being quite good. The cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' was always going to be a bold move, and there's nothing here that you don't get in spades and more on the original.
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And this is the problem – Power has raised the bar so emphatically during her career, that even her remarkable voice becomes run of the mill at some point, and it seems to wear thin on this collection. The interpretation of a wide variety of genres becomes a standard set of renditions – as an album it flows as if it were a series of her own songs. She has made them her own, but she's also made them sound a little too much like each other.
A late highlight is the cover of Dylan's 'I Believe In You,' but it seems to come too late – by this point the mind has wandered and this CD has been firmly relegated to pleasant background music. This is clearly a fans only release (with a cover of one of her own songs, no less – the times we live in!) – and if you've not been wowed by her talents thus far, this isn't the album to convert you.
There's nothing wrong with it as such, it's just all a little lazy – a couple of fast paced numbers may have helped out this effort immeasurably, but as it stands it's thoroughly forgettable.
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