Cover songs.

Madison.

The latest Cat Power album, The Greatest, doesn't feature a single cover song. I find this strange. Every other album has had at least one cover or rendition of something traditional, in addition to the regular Chan Marshall-penned offerings. While it's not a strike against the album, it's a regular piece that I miss. A quick rundown of the previous covers:

• Dear Sir - "Yesterday Is Here" (Kathleen Brennan and Tom Waits); "The Sleepwalker" (Chris Matthews)
  
• Myra Lee - a charming, twangy "Still In Love" (Hank Williams)
  
• What Would The Community Think - a wonderful "Bathysphere" (Bill Callahan); "Fate of the Human Carbine" (Peter Jeffries)
  
• Moon Pix - "Moonshiner" (traditional, but noted as "inspired by The Bob Dylan")
  
• You Are Free - "Werewolf" (Michael Hurley); "Keep On Runnin'" (John Lee Hooker)

There's also, of course, The Covers Record, which is all cover songs. Though they're all quite wonderful, I think the most significant is actually a cover of a Cat Power tune, "In This Hole". It may not technically be a cover, since Chan Marshall wrote it, but it's so much more sparse and delicate than the original version that it's not much of a stretch to think of it that way. And I can't think of anyone else who's done something quite like this.

So, I think I'm allowed to be a little disappointed.

Other excellent cover tunes? Built To Spill's take on Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy". The Flaming Lips's brilliant, heartfelt version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", which I think they've only ever done live. The Dismemberment Plan's complete revision of Jennifer Paige's "Crush", which appears on the same EP as Juno's guitar-driven cover of DJ Shadow's "High Noon". Mogwai's 'remix' of Link's "Arcadian", which goes so far as to eliminate any trace of the original recording.

And so on.