Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

It’s been a long road traveled for the woman who frequently appeared sprawled out on the floor on her album covers:  looking as though taken from behind by surprise, panic stricken and unable to move, to the image that adorns the cover of Neko Case’s sixth CD, Middle Cyclone, who is nobody’s victim.  Sure it’s all a little bit camp, but who doesn’t envy the strength she summons clutching a sword, ready to strike, perched upon the hood of a Cougar.  It’s Barbarella meets Tarantino.  And it’s hot.

The songs are all connected by themes of weather, animals, and loneliness.  And it’s the songs that follow a more traditional verse chorus verse structure that resonate faster:  first single People Got a Lotta Nerve sinks it’s hooks in quickly and by the second round of her proclamation that she’s a “man man man, man eater” you can’t help but find yourself singing along.  The song was written as a foil to The Tigers Have Spoken, a track from Neko’s live album with the same name in which a tiger is shot behind its cage.  However, in PGALON, the animal rises victorious.  Another track, “I’m an Animal” has the same effect and would make a sublime second single.

However, it’s the quieter songs, the ones that swerve and veer that really showcase Neko’s ever-growing skills.  Vocally, she’s a once in a generation voice:  husky and booming, there’s a longing that’s almost tangible in it’s tone, giving everything she sings an authenticity.  “I love your long shadow and your gun powder eyes” she sings on Prison Girls and in it’s phrasing, it becomes the most intense mantra over the course of the song. The Pharoahs is another torchy highlight, and when she threatens to punch someone in the face on The Next Time You Say Forever, It’s more than conversational, it’s a threat.

Vocals aside, the writing is equally powerful, but very different from her previous work, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.  Where that album spoke from the point of view of a woman, this album takes on numerous personalities:  This Tornado Loves You is sung by a Tornado chasing a man down.  Metaphor or not, it’s wonderful imagery she conjures in lines such as, “I have waited/with a glacier’s patience/smashed every transformer/with every trailer/til nothing was standing/65 miles wide”, however, the switching back and forth of characters can be a bit jarring.

When musicians barely get a chance to release two singles before their record label drops them, it’s refreshing to find an artist whose main goal to create good music.  Regardless of the fact that she could fit into several genres, she caters only to herself and her muse and consitently puts out quality music.  Neko doesn’t have the backing of a major label or huge play counts on national radio.  Yet she’s prolific as both a solo-artist and as a member of The New Pornographers.  When people scream of being oversaturated by manufactured celebrities, I can only say that it makes finding a true talent shine like a diamond among lesser stones.  Neko Case reinforces the fact that music needs her through each and every one of her releases.

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