Enjoying the success of last year's sterling The Greatest, a record of confident soul that marked a new, sober chapter in her life, Chan Marshall returns with a second covers album, Jukebox (the first, The Covers Record, was released in 2001). On it, the mercurial singer, famous as much for her unpredictable stage performances as for her gorgeous, melancholic voice, sounds as poised as ever. But unlike Covers, the material on Jukebox (Matador, out January 23), while pleasant, feels relatively safe and lacks the vulnerability that made her previous work so engaging.

The record's sleeve reads like a laundry list of Marshall's greatest influences—Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, and Joni Mitchell are all given the treatment—and sonically the album leans heavily on the classic rhythm-and-blues sound that defined The Greatest. As an added bonus, Marshall tries on several country numbers—Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man," the Highwaymen's "Silver Stallion"—which yield some of Jukebox's finest tracks. And like on Covers, she reimagines some of her own material, covering "Metal Heart" (from 1998's Moon Pix, and, it should be noted, one of this reviewer's all-time favorite songs). Unfortunately, the new version loses almost all of the original's signature gloominess and thus a large portion of its beauty. But that's the purist in us; the devout will argue that its beauty lies elsewhere—and maybe they're right.

This is an underlying issue with Jukebox: Marshall's vocals sound typically wonderful, her languid alto drifting effortlessly atop the instrumentation, but several of the songs don't compel in the way we've come to expect. Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," for instance, is a bizarre choice, and the Holiday, Joplin, and Mitchell numbers—songs we expected more from—often fall flat. On an emotional level, Jukebox lacks some of the darkness that made us fall in love with her older work. Of course, her life is in better shape than when she created those records, which is to be celebrated.

Jukebox is a smooth listen and we wouldn't be the least bit surprised to watch it sell loads of copies or even find its way to the Starbucks racks. And if the added sales numbers keep our girl happy, productive, and on the wagon, we're all for it.