Covers - Cat Power: GORGEOUS!
After The Covers Record (2000) and Jukebox (2008), Covers is Chan Marshall's third cover album. A gift for us, for the music, for the originals she covers and elevates with incredible talent.
In a recent interview, speaking about Chansons D'ennui, her own cover album, Jarvis Cocker declared: "I wanted to stay very faithful to the arrangements of the original song, because I don't like covers that are too distorted. Cat Power does this very well, but it's probably the only one. (Plugged, 48, p. 70). Whether she is the only one may not be certain, but there is absolutely no doubt that she does this very well. Covers is another example of Chan Marshall's incredible talent behind the Cat Power moniker of not only trussing up new tracks, but also rolling up those that catch his eye. Chan Marshall doesn't just sing other people's songs or his own songs — since Unhate, the second track on the album, is a cover of his own Hate. She takes them somewhere else. Jarvis Cocker says "distort". One could say that it re-natures them! It enlarges them, elevates them… How is this possible? This is the mystery of creation. But the result is there. The 12 songs that make up this album come out different, so different that we forget that they are covers. Who cares? It's so beautiful. And even the rare encyclopedic ears and bionic memories that can easily recognize the originals behind these versions will want to listen to these songs to enjoy them, to enjoy them.
Among these recut jewels, there is Against The Wind (Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band) to which Chan Marshall adds a dramatic and dark dimension, through sumptuous arrangements of lyricism. There's also the incredibly slowed-down version of I Had a Dream Joe that Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds packed with electricity. Here, we will be satisfied for the most part with a haunting piano and the hammering of the drums… and the voice (obviously) to find the same energy and the same emotion. There is also a very electro Endless Sea by Iggy Pop which, unlike the previous one, chooses to electrify. Always so hypnotic. A little less sticky perhaps, sharper, more cutting. Or Lana del Rey's White Mustang which is also more electric, faster, more emphatic with these rich string arrangements. And, to finish, we can't fail to mention Frank Ocean's Bad Religion which opens the album and its few guitar notes that come out of nowhere, a gimmick that loops, comes back, haunts the song, the listener's ears, which becomes so obvious…probably one of the most remarkable tracks on the album.
Chan Marshall can't just add. It is also perfectly capable of removing, reducing, purifying, even purifying. The children's choir that worked wonders on the excellent Pa Pa Power from Dead Man's Bones has disappeared, and we don't find it missing! Also gone is the roughness of the original. We are entitled to a rounder version, as if more peaceful, calmer. This is also what happens to It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells, which finds itself slowed down, amputated by a good minute, the first verse, the harmonica and whose country guitar which passes to the background but which totally keeps its honky-tonk side — in Chan Marshall's version, it's the bass that does everything! And the voice, always. The voice again, accompanied simply by an organ, on A Pair of Brown Eyes, this piece of the Pogues which seems so pure without its original arrangements.
And then there are some tracks that are closer to the originals. Like Billie Holliday's I'll be seeing you, which Chan Marshall nevertheless purifies by giving the dry guitar the role of the piano in the original, but removes the brass. Or Jackson Browne's These Days, which was self-sufficient. And above all, Here Comes a Regular des Replacements. Chan Marshall, the longest track on the album, the penultimate. Where the Replacements used the guitar, Chan Marshall sings accompanied (almost only) on the piano without deviating much from the original melody. The emotion that already emanated from the Replacements track here takes on a formidable dimension. The piece carries you away. Like the album. Irresistible.
Alain Marciano
Cat Power – CoversLabel: DominoRelease date: Jan 14, 2022
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