Neko Case

Neko Case
Middle Cyclone
(Anti-, 2009)

Everyone knows Neko Case is an incredibly skilled singer. However, what often gets overlooked is her skill as a songwriter. Her vocal chops have always gotten all the praise, yet over her past two albums, her lyricism has taken a deeply engrossing turn. She serves as narrator, storyteller, and now protagonist, using vivid details to describe ambiguously complex circumstances that are often as opaque as a dream.

On Middle Cyclone, her voice, as always, is booming and velvety rich, but this time around the songs are more deeply rooted in the natural world, yet with a contemporary psychological twist. Her brand of melancholy-contorted Americana speaks to the mythos of a past that never existed—those dusty countryside roads and the poor wayfaring strangers who may or may not have made it. The guitar chimes and the pedal steel wails as the gritty stories of prison girls and adulterous affairs ring on with haunting ambiguity.

The opening fury of “This Tornado Loves You” sets the stage for the rest of the album to come—a passion-fueled work of unrelenting gorgeousness. Neko yearns with a whirlwind desire that’s among the sultriest of sentiments ever voiced by the chanteuse. In many an interview, she’s actively expressed her disdain for traditional love songs, so it’s no surprise that the ones on Cyclone are entrenched in twisted, almost menacing atmospherics.

However, it is Case’s powerful vocal control that allows her to convincingly take on various roles among the spectrum of relationship dynamics. On “Vengeance Is Sleeping”, she vulnerably sings of a love for a man who is “certifiably married.” And then, on “People Got a Lotta Nerve”, she’s a bona fide maneater. Later, on “The Pharaohs”, she’s pining away for a man who’s better then the one she’s got, as she “wander[s] the halls all the night time… want[ing] the pharaohs, but there’s only men.” Regardless of her varied perspectives, one thing remains true: Case knows the unrequited complications, disappointments, and manipulations of the heart make for far more compelling, realistic tales than your clichéd happily ever after.

Even her choice of cover songs make sense. Harry Nilsson’s caustic kiss-off “Don’t Forget Me” is given a twangy twist. She nails the punch line, “I’ll miss you when I’m lonely / I’ll miss the alimony, too.” Sparks’ “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” also sounds like a Case original, given her countrified take on the source material.

If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that many of the songs are too brief, with several clocking in at less than three minutes. And while it would be unfair to call them underdeveloped given her penchant for lyrical complexity and layered arrangements, they do leave you wanting more, like an extra chorus or verse to round out the song, rather then an abrupt end. “Prison Girls” is the lone exception, and probably the best track on the album for that reason. With its lingering oh-oh-oh chorus and refrain of “I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes,” it sounds downright sinister and unfurls over five glorious minutes. Overall, Case excels with another album doing what she does best, captivating us with her wondrous voice and words.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

Tags: Neko Case, Middle Cyclone, Anti- Records, New Pornographers