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Jukebox is an unsurprising album. It sounds exactly how you'd expect–-classic, but not overly well known, songs, like Dylan's 'I Believe In You,' squeezed by the Cat Power sound into tracks that sound like they could feature on "The Greatest."
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If anything, Jukebox is bolder than "Covers," not least because two of the more obvious songs have been dropped from the original intended tracklisting.
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She refashions material from other artists and makes it seem like it's been hers all along.
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Jukebox is a big, bold kiss-off to the indie ghetto that’s braver and all the more interesting for the approach she’s chosen.
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Marshall may appear more stylish, her striking face and poker straight hair gracing many more magazine covers than it used to, but the music making is clearly totally safe in her hands, and anyone predicting a creative nosedive any time soon should be in for a very long wait.
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This album's pleasures stand as something warmly new from a major talent.
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Uneven as it may be, Jukebox is still a worthwhile portrait of Chan Marshall's artistry.
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This is Cat Power as strong and mature as we know her today.
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It's her cathartic, invigorating voice on the never-miss Jukebox that aids in delivering one of the best albums of 2008--already.
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Marshall's reinterpretations reveal a welcome intimacy.
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She doesn’t outdo the originals. Instead, like a fan, she claims them by pondering them.
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A tender fragility still touches her music, effectively so, but these strong interpretations feel like another step toward strengthening her own foundations.
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They’re subtle, but loaded with the laid-bare emotion she spent so long learning to harness.
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Jukebox's few truly memorable moments--such as the shimmering 'Silver Stallion,' which takes the jaunty country-rock tune popularized by the Highwaymen and turns it into a late-night whisper, à la her version of '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'--are dwarfed by the merely adequate ones.
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Full of simmering restraint, Jukebox sounds lived-in and genuine, less a genre experiment than full fledged statement.
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It’s a low, slow groove that might be coming out of the bodies of the musicians as much as their instruments--echoey, held back even at its most intense, every note sung or played with a determination not to force anything.
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Subtle touches of jazz, blues, rock and country add to the dreamy, soulful elegance and make Jukebox feel like a private love letter to treasured tunes.
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Ultimately, Marshall's knack for rearranging and her adulation for the artists at hand make Jukebox almost as compelling as an original confession.
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Under The RadarOn Jukebox, she shows how her diverse tastes formed what she is today, an artist working at the height of her powers. [Winter 2008, p.81]
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Any decent covers album should reveal its songs, not dress them up - but by Marshall's standards, Jukebox is an overly polite and frustratingly removed listening experience.
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MojoNot even Cat Power can turn an album of cover versions into anything more than a facinating detour from the main journey, but Jukebox is a precious waste of time nonetheless. [Jan 2008, p.98]
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On Jukebox, some of the eyes-closed magic is traded for dim lights, but the readings are just as stunning.
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Entertainment WeeklyIt sucessfully grafts the Memphis-soul verve of her 2006 album of originals, "TheGreatest," onto tunes from James Brown, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, and gospel-era Bob Dylan. [25 Jan 2008, p.70]
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VibeShe sounds reawakened by the calm. [Mar 2008, p.98]
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Despite a smattering of highlights, there’s no gut-punch anywhere on Jukebox.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 22
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Mixed: 3 out of 22
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Negative: 1 out of 22
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Nov 20, 2013
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jwFeb 3, 2008
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Mr.JackpotJan 25, 2008This album is a great way to start a day or end a night. Am I the only one who thinks "Jukebox" is better than "The Covers Record"?