Cat Power - Redux

Chan Marshall’s fascination with reinvention is well-documented; she has been reworking her own music for over 25 years now, going all the way back to the version of her own ‘In This Hole’ that appeared on 2000’s ‘The Covers Record’. Since then, there have been new takes on both her own tracks – see the stunning reinvention of ‘Metal Heart’ as a bluesy torch song in 2007 - and those of others, especially recently, having just spent a year touring her own recording of Bob Dylan’s 1966 ‘Royal Albert Hall’ bootleg. Now, she’s back at it again, at the start of a year that will see her celebrate twenty years of her 2006 record ‘The Greatest’ on tour.

Here, she’s reunited with Dirty Delta Blues, the backing band who brought out her soulful best on both ‘The Greatest’ and ‘Jukebox’. We get a gorgeous cover of James Brown’s ‘Try Me’ - finally completed two decades after she started it - as well as a fresh, bluesy strut of a take on ‘The Greatest’’s ‘Could We’ on which she sounds reborn, her voice smokier and more striking than on the original. The best, though, is saved for last; a truly gorgeous, instrumentally rustic version of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, recorded in homage to legendary R&B guitarist Teenie Hodges. It’s a fitting tribute, and one which suggests that ‘The Greatest’ tour should be unmissable.