Released March 3, 2009
Anti-Records
As recent years have proven nothing can be more devastating than the weather. On the other hand, human love can wield with the same disastrous effect. And Neko Case has chronicled these forces with her fifth, full-length solo studio album, Middle Cyclone. The LP begins in true Case fashion, like the chugging and speed of train wheels. It’s a movement that won’t find the listener with rest until it reaches the end of the line.
Interestingly, Middle Cyclone seems to borrow or echo back to some previous artifacts in the Case catalogue. For instance, “Prison Girls” appears to be, musically, a little sister to “Blacklisted”. As it rings in its first few seconds you can almost hear Case’s croon “Fast train/ where do your passengers wait.” This repetition in musicality offers a welcomed and familiar connection. As if the studio albums; Blacklisted, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, and now Middle Cyclone are more than a trilogy but installments of familial generations.
What could be misinterpreted as amateurish experimentation with digital technology, the application of the 30 minute frog chirping “Marais la Nuit” as the album’s 15th track, compliments and depressurizes the album. The prior 14 tunes are dense in material, fodder for lyrical and tonal archaeology, and needs this repercussion, this antithesis. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. When I read about “Marais la Nuit” in a recent New York Times Magazine article (Wild Thing, Daniel Menaker, February 13, 2009) I was intrigued, fascinated, and eager to get my own listen. Neko Case and her animal attraction has been a part of her output since Furnace Room Lullaby and I knew that she would succeed with such a slice out of the Natural opus.
A true standout would be “The Pharaohs” a song that bounces and skirts legend, myth and Americana and was the first track to capture my full attention. This song could be a true Case example of what makes her music so exciting. She rolls together a beautiful blend of the American unique and, in so doing, counters opinions that America has no culture outside popular culture. While eschewing these pessimisms Case presents her audience with a new and forceful mythology complete with unfathomable weather, the kingdom of animals, and the love one harbors for another.
Anti-Records
As recent years have proven nothing can be more devastating than the weather. On the other hand, human love can wield with the same disastrous effect. And Neko Case has chronicled these forces with her fifth, full-length solo studio album, Middle Cyclone. The LP begins in true Case fashion, like the chugging and speed of train wheels. It’s a movement that won’t find the listener with rest until it reaches the end of the line.
Interestingly, Middle Cyclone seems to borrow or echo back to some previous artifacts in the Case catalogue. For instance, “Prison Girls” appears to be, musically, a little sister to “Blacklisted”. As it rings in its first few seconds you can almost hear Case’s croon “Fast train/ where do your passengers wait.” This repetition in musicality offers a welcomed and familiar connection. As if the studio albums; Blacklisted, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, and now Middle Cyclone are more than a trilogy but installments of familial generations.
What could be misinterpreted as amateurish experimentation with digital technology, the application of the 30 minute frog chirping “Marais la Nuit” as the album’s 15th track, compliments and depressurizes the album. The prior 14 tunes are dense in material, fodder for lyrical and tonal archaeology, and needs this repercussion, this antithesis. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. When I read about “Marais la Nuit” in a recent New York Times Magazine article (Wild Thing, Daniel Menaker, February 13, 2009) I was intrigued, fascinated, and eager to get my own listen. Neko Case and her animal attraction has been a part of her output since Furnace Room Lullaby and I knew that she would succeed with such a slice out of the Natural opus.
A true standout would be “The Pharaohs” a song that bounces and skirts legend, myth and Americana and was the first track to capture my full attention. This song could be a true Case example of what makes her music so exciting. She rolls together a beautiful blend of the American unique and, in so doing, counters opinions that America has no culture outside popular culture. While eschewing these pessimisms Case presents her audience with a new and forceful mythology complete with unfathomable weather, the kingdom of animals, and the love one harbors for another.
1 comment:
A perfect review of "Middle Cyclone." I was forced to write one recently and it transformed into something I was only annoyed by. Nice to read something like this.
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