Middle Cyclone

So, I’m one of those people who have a tendency to get really into a band or artist and download/buy the entire back catalogue and then not really listen to it ever again. Leaving me then with a pile of music and hardly any plays. Who doesn’t do that though? A band you liked puts out a new record and you like it, but the back catalogue is better and then you just don’t care anymore? I can name like 40,000 times that’s happened to me (No, I cannot actually name them all). So, naturally I was interested when my good friend Fred Knittel (WKDU music director) was ecstatic about the new Neko Case record, Middle Cyclone.

Neko Case is a serious veteran of the indie/alt-country/folk world. She has a 10+ year career and 14 records (with various projects as well, most notably The New Pornographers). Neko is one of those people who if you want your record to be perfect in ever single way…. You talk to her and have her sing. Her hauntingly beautiful voice fills ever little section of your ears and slowly sneaks it’s way into your brain and then throttles it like it’s trying to choke you out. She is the true vertan of the scene, holding firm with her staunch DIY ethic.

She writes beautiful, haunting music with a voice to back it up. The record starts out strong with ‘This Tornado Loves You’, a more alternative country song, with the perfect amount of singer-songwriter twang to her voice. The record immediately picks up again on track 3 and throws you face first into awe with ‘People Got A Lotta Nerve’ with the lead guitar filling your head (well, hopefully yours too when you go buy the record. Yes, I said buy. And yes, I mean you) with a meandering path begging you to follow into the chorus that is nothing but golden. The following track is again, nothing but brilliant, a perfect example of her brilliance; the song opening with a bare minimum of instrumentation, letting her voice shine through as the track picks up a downtrodden feel, her voice shines through and gives it a bright light. The record keeps going with more hauntingly beautiful tracks like ‘Vengeance is Sleeping’, ‘Middle Cyclone’, ‘Magpie to the Moring’, ‘I’m An Animal’, and ‘Don’t Forget Me’; most notably, the record ends with a beautifully calming 32 minutes of marsh noises, primarily the sounds of crickets chirping… I don’t know about you, but, that’s the coolest thing ever (Okay, maybe sliced bread might be better or Girl Scout cookies, but, I think you get my drift). I listened to the record twice through before I even knew it was over.

Over all this record is a perfect example of the true singer songwriter prowerss that is Neko Case. She has created another amazing record, trumping 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.