My sister just had a baby, and in preparation she loaded up on those Rockabye Baby! CDs that offer lullabye instrumental renditions of deathless rock and pop classics. They're not much more than a nice way to expose the little one to "Kashmir" and "Paranoid Android" and "Heart-Shaped Box" without scaring the shit out of him-- and to keep mom and dad from losing their heads listening to interminable nursery rhymes. My sis asked me to grab a few more in the series as stocking stuffers, but I think I might just surprise her with Cat Power's new EP, Dark End of the Street, instead.
Aside from the fact that the nominal Chan Marshall actually does sing on these six covers of songs made famous by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the Pogues, there's not a whole lot of difference between the somnambulistic effects of this EP and the Rockabye Baby! records. In their original, raw form, Aretha's voice or CCR's guitars or really anything relating to Shane MacGowan could easily upset a newborn, but Marshall has smoothed over those upsetting displays of passion and personality with sleepy readings that transform all the material into one never-ending narcoleptic haze.
These six cuts were apparently deemed unworthy of inclusion on Jukebox, Cat Power's covers LP released earlier this year, which wasn't terribly impressive itself, aside from a nice gender twist on Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man" and a fascinatingly vulnerable fan letter to Bob Dylan, "Song to Bobby". Of course, it wasn't always this way, as a listen to Marshall's 2000 effort The Covers Record strongly attests to her interpretative capabilities, yet ever since restyling herself as a weary soulstress for the jaded indie rock set, she's too often allowed her material to coast on the twin strengths of her tastefully muscular backing bands and her own invariably smoky vocal tone.
Marshall deserves some credit for having the stones to tackle such unimpeachable classics as Franklin's "It Ain't Fair", Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You To Long (To Stop Now)", and the title track (famously recorded by Franklin, James Carr, and the Flying Burrito Brothers). Yet her own versions aim at some druggily evocative conception of 60s soul, which makes them pale next to the originals. Marshall fares markedly better with the non-soul stuff-- her take on CCR's "Fortunate Son" is commendable, casting the song in an entirely different rhythmic setting that lends it a swaggering insistence even at low volume. As for the EP's other two offerings, a quick search of YouTube yields two superior renditions of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" (Sandy Denny's original and Nina Simone's cover) and at least three better takes on "Ye Auld Triangle" (from the Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, and especially a mesmeric run-through by Marshall's beloved Bob Dylan and the Band from the never-officially-released trove of Basement Tapes recordings).
