19. Sings Greatest Palace Music (2004)

I’m not entirely sure what the point of Sings Greatest Palace Music is. In lieu of a Greatest Hits album, Oldham rerecorded a selection of songs from his lo-fi 1993-1997 Palace Music days, adding higher production values and more instruments. Some of the songs work — “Riding” benefits from the addition of vocal harmonies and eerie Western movie strings. And I dig the honky-tonk version of “I Am a Cinematographer” a little. I mean, how many honky-tonk songs are there about cinematography?

But other tracks, particularly those off of “Viva Last Blues,” which only the most pop-obsessed production snobs would call “lo-fi,” lose their authenticity when ground through this weird Nashville hit-maker machine, where slide guitar and fiddle are added arbitrarily for no other reason than maybe those were the session musicians that showed up that day?

It all reminds me of the Gus Van Sant remake of Psycho, where the words and angles are the same, but it’s in color and stars Vince Vaughn. Replace Vince Vaughn with Tim McGraw and you’ve got a good idea of why Sings Greatest Palace Music is the least essential album on this list.