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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
The Covers Record
Universal acclaim
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Matador
Release Date: 21 March 2000
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Indie, Alternative
Summary
Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall is Cat Power, and on this album she reinterprets (sometimes drastically) the works of some of her favorite artists, including Smog, the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, and Bob Dylan.
Also By This Artist: Dark End Of The Street [EP] Jukebox The Greatest You Are Free
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Spin
Is it essential? Absolutely. With only a guitar or piano, and a voice that is developing into one of the most expressive in rock, Marshall crafts deeply textured explorations of heartache, terror, longing, dismay, and emotions I'm pretty sure I've not found yet.... Rock will see few finer releases this year.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
The unrelenting bleakness that pervades most of Marshall's music can be oppressive when taken in excess, and The Covers Record's gloom is exacerbated by the fact that its instrumental accompaniment seldom entails more than a piano or guitar... That barren approach can't match the stunning elegance of 1998's Moon Pix... but it is appropriate: The Covers Record is Marshall laid bare, and it needs no embellishments.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Here, backed only by guitar or piano, she inhabits other singers' material (including Smog's "Red Apples") with a fierce conviction that's often startling.
Read Full Review >Puncture
Its deft beauty fuses Marshall's powerful fears about the world and herself with her manifest belief in the divinity of song. [#46, p.34]
Entertainment Weekly
Marshall takes wild liberties with lyrics and melodies, and dissolves indie-rock self-consciousness into fractured, heartrending folk-blues.
Read Full Review >MTV.com
Quite a few steps away from the "typical" girl-with-guitar record, this is the album that reveals Marshall to be quite a unique force.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Marshall?s sparest album yet, The Covers Album uses guitar and piano as the only foils for her malleable, emotional voice.
Read Full Review >Almost Cool
The simplicity of it all (only one instrument and vocals) highlights her vocals even more and even when the disc closes out with the more upbeat "Sea Of Love," you'll still feel a bit of melancholy hovering over.
Read Full Review >Checkout.com
This extraordinarily gifted vocalist casts an unbreakable spell over each interpretation, turning it into something else entirely, and making one believe that it's impossible for the supposed original to be as significant.
CDNow
The Covers Record is for the daring music fan; Marshall's quiet journey and its rich, emotional rewards are not for the faint of heart.
Read Full Review >Ink Blot Magazine
An uncommonly moving singer whose deliberate delivery extracts volumes of yearning and melancholy from her own material and the work of other writers.
Read Full Review >Salon.com
Rarely, though, do artists completely strip original material of all familiarity and reconstruct them in their own sensibility the way that Cat Power has here.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Marshall traipses around on just about everybody's hallowed ground here and pulls it off without inducing winces.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Although the album tends to meander at times, with too many similarly arranged tracks clumped together, the individual highlights here are inspired enough to make "The Covers Record" a unique work in its own right.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
With her distressed, Southern-inflected vocals and guitar/piano accompaniments tolling like perpetual church bells, Cat Power brings these songs successfully into her own, bleak domain.
Read Full Review >Spin Cycle
Not only does Marshall make each of the album's dozen songs her own, but she leaves you straining to recognize the original in what she's marvelously reconfigured.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
While we await her next album of new material, due next winter, The Covers Record provides a stopgap fix of her unnerving, coldblooded voice and shaky acoustic guitar.
Read Full Review >Nude As The News
The uninitiated will still perceive these songs as music to slit your wrists to, but The Covers Record is actually the first time Chan Marshall lets her hair down for more than one song per album.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Eventually, though, the guitar-and-piano-only, stripped-down dynamics mean that a dull torpor settles over the album.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Gaby Das3 gave it a10:
im fourteen and this album makes me happy, nostaglic (i know how ridiculous that sounds) and calm. with an amazing voice which is hypnotic, amazing and fantastic this album can only be a must have for anyone. Can't Get no Satisfaction' from Rolling Stones is the most amazing cover i have every heard...Cat Power makes me appreciate music again.
Ricky gave it a10:
Her voice is entrancing and addictive.
Benjamin Bunny gave it a 7:
For the small amount of energy Chan Marshall put into these recordings, the results are spectacular. I rarely condone cover albums, but this one gets by sheerly on Marshall's ability as a singer, which is considerable.
Solveig gave it a 9:
Well, The Covers Record is in my opinion not Chan's best work but still it's beautiful. I can guarantee that anyone can fall in love with Cat Power's sour music, just give it some time. You will not regret it!
