Cat Power - Jukebox

Jukebox is Chan Marshall's second album of covers, released on Matador in 2008, and it plays like a late-night tour through American song as heard by one of indie rock's most singular voices. Recorded with producer Stuart Sikes, it reshapes standards into something smoky, loose, and unmistakably hers.

Marshall bends Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" into a bluesy dirge, turns Hank Williams into "Ramblin' (Wo)man," and finds fresh ache in Bob Dylan's "I Believe in You" and Joni Mitchell's "Blue." Between the covers sit two originals: a re-recorded "Metal Heart" and "Song to Bobby," a letter to Dylan himself. Her phrasing lingers behind the beat, warm and unhurried, letting every song breathe.

The album debuted at number twelve on the Billboard 200, her highest chart placing to that point. Pressed on a single LP by Matador and housed in a gatefold jacket, this is Cat Power at her most quietly commanding.