11. Cat Power
Jukebox

It’s been a bumper last few years for Cat Power (or Chan Marshall to her parents). She got rid of those pesky demons – drugs and drink and all that malarkey – and Jukebox was the first album she recorded clean. Her new found sobriety makes for an enthralling collection of ten cover versions, plus one original and a re-imagining of an old Cat Power song (the epic ‘Metal Heart’). ‘New York’ is unrecognisable from the Sinatra standard, with backing band Dirty Delta Blues creating a dramatic blues swamp, whilst the fantastic ‘Aretha, Sing One For Me’ keeps the soul of George Jackson’s original firmly in tact. Those yearning for the desolate sound of old will find solace in James Brown’s ‘Lost Someone’ and Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’. With a new album of original songs due next year, Jukebox acts as the perfect stop-gap between the Cat Power of old and the Chan Marshall of the future.

Key track: 'Aretha, Sing One For Me'