For his cover of Eddie Floyd's 1969 single "Consider Me," former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan eschews the original song's doo-wop background singers and muffles the plush horn section that bears its Stax/Volt pedigree. He leans his gravelly groan on the chorus' lead in ("You're gonna need a man/ A man who'll understand"), lending urgency and a smoky mystery to this otherwise fairly pedestrian refrain. Why does the woman in this song need so much understanding? Why is her need so dire? What has she done to cause the abandonment of her friends? There's a creeping darkness in Lanegan's voice here-- something not apparent in the jumpy R&B; of the original. It's the realization of a transgression unimaginable at the time of the track's original release. By the time Lanegan gets around to crooning the song's plaintive chorus, we're left wondering if his ostracized subject really has any choice but to accept his offer.

By slightly tweaking its connotation, Lanegan transports the song into a context of his own making. It's this context, carried across the 11 covers on I'll Take Care of You, that allows the album's unique success. Compared to standard cover songs, where there's almost always an obvious disconnect between the song and the band, Lanegan makes these songs his own. See, this is a collection of songs that are of the same origin and landscape as Lanegan's previous works-- a landscape recognizable as the stark, tortured midnight soul of his previous three solo affairs. And while molding classics-- like O.V. Wright's gospel testimony "On Jesus' Program" or the traditional "Little Sadie"-- into this landscape may not seem like a stretch, placing them seamlessly alongside the Gun Club's "Carry Home" and the Leaving Trains' "Creeping Coastline of Lights" definitely is.

Superficially, I'll Take Care of You isn't much of an achievement for Lanegan. After all, he didn't write any of these songs, and he doesn't explore much new sonic territory. It's the type of album artists generally release to fulfill a contract or take a breather. But examined closely, it's much more than that. Because in this collection, Lanegan's managed to tug on the timeless threads that hold the patchwork of American music together. And that's certainly something to consider.

-Neil Lieberman