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Rating: To cover, to cover, almost as if we were talking about a warm blanket, enveloping, just like Chan Marshall's voice (Cat Power's birth name) can do, as indolent as ever, discreet like nowhere else. Yet, it just takes that light touch, that particular tone of voice, to succeed in giving each melody, each song, the unique and unmistakable style of the American singer-songwriter.
Yes, because it seems in this case there is an extra 's' in the blanket: it’s not cover, but covers, and so we talk about remakes of other people's songs for those that make up this album. The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Chan bends them, almost like twigs, uprooting them, decontextualizing them, as happens at the opening with an unrecognizable “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction” where the explosive energy of the Rolling Stones suddenly implodes, expanding, while the almost bored singing continually reiterates the verses that make up the “bridge” that would follow the chorus (in other words, when Mick Jagger sings “…When I'm driving in my car… etc etc.”) without, however, ever exploding into the liberating “I can't get no…”.
Chan’s energy is all compressed, always on the point of exploding, as often happens live (and those who have had the fortune or, depending on the point of view, the misfortune of seeing her live know what I mean), temperamental like few, emotional almost to the point of bursting the heart as she does in “Troubled Waters” or “Wild is the Wind”. This is a subtractive album, the first where the singer is really alone, without supporting musicians, exposed, despite her fragility, and perhaps this is also the meaning of the cover: clothes thrown on the ground, crumpled, the singer is completely stripped of any frills or embellishments of any kind, also ready to wear others' clothes to make them fit her. But elegance is not just an outfit; it is especially the way of wearing it, and in this Chan Marshall has nothing to envy, to anyone.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (03:05)
I'm driving in my car
And a man come on the radio
He's tellin me more and more
Bout some useless information
Tryin' to mess my imagination
I'm watchin' my T.V.
And a man come on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man
Cause he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me
When i'm riding around the globe
And i'm doin' this and i'm signin' that
And i'm tryin' to meet some boy
Baby, baby, baby, come back
Can't ya see i'm on a losing streak
When i'm riding around the globe
I'm doin' this and i'm signin' that
And i'm tryin'
And i'm tryin'
04 Naked If I Want To (02:47)
Would you let me walk down your street
Naked if I want to?
Can I fire fireworks on the fourth of every single July?
Can I buy an amplifier, oh, on time?
My sweet time
Well I ain't got no money
I will pay this time
And I ain't got no money
But I will pay you before I die
And would you let me walk down your street
Naked if I want to?
Can I fire fireworks on the fourth of every single July?
Can I buy an aeroplane while i'm high in all the sky?
And I got no mercy
I will pay this time
And I got no mercy
I will pay you before I die
05 Sweedeedee (03:53)
You wash them clothes
Swee dee dee
And hang em on the line
I can see by the way
You wash them clothes
Your cookin' must be fine
I'm with you in the morning
'Til the break of day
And I know everybody
Has a little hard luck
Sometimes
And I know lately
I've been havin' mine
We used to live
In a fleabag apartment
You know the kind
And he come home and he'd say to me
We gotta leave, leave, leave the city
You wash them clothes
Swee dee dee
And hang 'em on the line
I can see by the way you wash them clothes
Your cookin' must be fine
I'm with you in the morning
Unill the break of day
I know everybody
Has a little hard luck
Sometimes
I know lately
I've been havin' mine.
06 In This Hole (04:26)
In this hole that we have fixed
We get further, and further, and further
From what
We must do
I saw you asleep beside a wall
Your skull inside a wall
Your eyes blackened by the sound
And the thought of God
Where should I hang my head?
Where would you like for me to hang
My head?
One absence of truth
The one horrible thing I saw:
What you truly wanted to become
And who you thought I was
The fall, the fall
Afraid the love
Runs deeper than the brain
Goes all the way down those tracks
Everybody bow your head
For the greatest inspiration
A complete contradiction
Of ways
In this hole that we have fixed
We get further and further
From what we must do
I know this, I know this
You know this, you know this
In this hole that we have fixed
We get further, and further, and further
From what we must do
I saw you outside that wall
Your skull outside that wall
Your eyes christened by the sound
And the light of God
10 Paths of Victory (03:24)
( Bob Dylan, outtake from "The Times They Are A-Changin'" Sessions )
The trail is dark and dusty
The road is kinda rough
But the clearer road up yonder
With the cinders on the side.
Trails of troubles
And your roads of battle,
They lead paths of victory
We shall walk
I walked down to the valley
Turned my head up high.
Seen that silver linin'
That was hangin' in the sky
Trails of troubles
And your roads of battle,
They lead paths of victory
We shall walk
The mountain was a movin'
The hummin' of its wheels,
Told me of the new day
it was coming across the fields
Trails of troubles
And your roads of battle,
They lead paths of victory
We shall walk
The gravel road is bumpy,
It's a hard old road to ride,
But the good road is a-waitin'
And the boys it ain't far off.
Trails of troubles
And your roads of battle,
They lead paths of victory
We shall walk
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