Jukebox

iTunes Review

Cat Power’s second collection of covers is a notably more confident affair. Recording The Greatest in Memphis with veteran soul music session musicians apparently taught Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) a thing or two about rhythm, as she imbues her own “Metal Heart” with a previously unforeseen funk, skates over Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” with a big city attitude that was nowhere to be found on her previous solo work, where the emphasis was on the quiet spaces and dark corners and even deliberate musical ineptness, with amateurism favored over seasoned professionalism. There are still plenty of private, brooding moments here. The Highwaymen’s “Silver Stallion” is kept an acoustic blues. James Brown’s “Lost Someone” drifts over with a sweet reverb that recalls an empty nightclub in the wee hours of morning. Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” unfurls with its romantic tinge intact. But elsewhere Marshall’s a swinger, throwing real authority behind George Jackson’s ‘Aretha, Sing One For Me,” her backing musicians providing the perfect organ-horn support. Marshall’s growing up. The wallflower takes centerstage.