| Slow-core minstrel Chan Marshall--a.k.a. Cat Power--will only take on someone else's tune if she thinks there's something she can add to it. Or, as in the case of The Covers Record, if there's something that can be subtracted. Indeed, Chan Marshall's fifth outing is perhaps her most stripped-down yet--an approach which, ironically, leads to some quite radical reworkings. Take, for example "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", which replaces the Rolling Stones' rollercoaster angst with a sepulchral but quietly graceful acoustic strum. Shorn of its chorus, it's barely recognisable as the same song, and it's all the more affecting for it. Elsewhere, Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground sidle up against Nina Simone and Smog. It's of some credit to Marshall's starkly beautiful vision that The Covers Record hangs together so perfectly. --Louis Pattison |
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