Wintertijd

Jukebox.

It's not often I have to reverse on my positions on Lo-Fi artists. Typically the lo-fi people's (lack of) production values make for eternally flawed recordings that are kind of like masturbating with a cheese-grate... Interesting, but painful. Of course, you have the mainstays like Will Oldham (aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) and the Magnetic Fields that are good in spite of the budget, but apart from that it's just not my cup of tea.

So when I heard Cat Power's "Jukebox" played in a record store yesterday I was surprised to find out it was her. I had heard her earliest outings because of a Lo-Fi Loving friend of mine in Sweden had insisted, and I had seen her live at the Debaser club in Stockholm, but I was hardly impressed with it all. She has made some pretty gritty lo-fi stuff, and I wasn't expecting something as polished as this.

The whole album is bursting at the seams with languid vocals and guitar play, and she seems to have managed to attract a very decent keys-player who lays down very nice Rhodes accents throughout the whole album. The music sounds great, albeit a bit heavy on the reverb.

She also makes some bold choices here. There are Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Hank Williams and Frank Sinatra covers on this album. I'm not sure how to even qualify it, because some of the songs are country-ish, while others are rhythm and blues, soul, blues and even jazz influenced. The one common denominator on the album is the atmosphere which is decidedly brooding.

All in all, this album made me want to revisit her 2006 album "The Greatest" which allegedly is a tribute to the Memphis soul scene, from which she got some of the backing musicians to play on Jukebox too.

Some critics seem to dislike her opening tune because it is too predictable of her, but not having heard much of her other albums I was completely blown away by it. It is by far the coolest rendition of a Frank Sinatra song I have heard to date, and a good indicator of the ear-candy you can expect on this album. Therefore, please enjoy New York by Cat Power, and then run out and buy Jukebox.

Posted by Chris at April 2, 2008 05:55 PM