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Neko Case. Fox Confessors Brings The Flood. Anti Records. 2006.
An Alt-Country and Alternative Pop/Rock album. A small masterpiece.
Born Neko Richelle Case, in 1970, to Ukrainian parents, in Alexandria (Virginia), she lived in Tacoma (Washington) and Vancouver, where she graduated in “Art and Design” (in 1994), before moving to Seattle.
A Cow-Punk background, membership in the group/supergroup New Pornographers (Indie Rock inspired by the Power Pop of the eighties), culminating in Alt-Country.
The voice above all.
Her vocal range knows no bounds, it's astonishing. Capable of uncommon power, acrobatic evolutions, and idyllic sweetness. She uses her voice as an instrument. Enchanting and giving goosebumps. Her freedom to explore is beyond the reach of most contemporary Pop performers. She is a chanteuse like Nico, but warm and passionate, not cold, and equally sophisticated. She's a beguiling muse like Grace Slick, she doesn't share the same sensuality, but the same aloof beauty. Her nuances and surges reach great peaks of expressionism. A Joni Mitchell with crisper tones, much more volatile. More intriguing and persistent than Jacqui McShee (of Pentangle). Diligent and incisive like Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs). A tactile and caressing voice, harmonious, gentle, but not ethereal, powerful, yet without harshness or indulgence in roughness. Instinctive, confidential, intimate, uncompromising. That might be enough.
Sound: full-bodied, dynamic, essential.
She is a capable arranger, a composer distinguished by immediacy, cautious impulsiveness, intriguing melodies, never predictable and conventional. A singer-songwriter and storyteller of substance, with texts marked by a wry feminism. She advocates for an Alt-Country throughout her two-decade solo career (since 1997), increasingly rich in formal solutions, diverse, gradually moving it toward Folk Rock and Alternative Pop-Rock. There is no room for baroque elements, redundancies, or lack of style. She is never prosaic. Her passion for Country often leads her to reinterpret the classics (listen above all to the extraordinary “Wayfaring Stranger” in the live album “The Tigers Have Spoken”).
Hosts, here, musicians, naturally inclined to Country, of considerable renown:
Howe Gleb (Giant Sand), Joey Burns and John Convertino (Calexico), Garth Hudson (multi-instrumentalist of the Band) and Kelly Hogan (Indie Rock, Country, and Jazz-Pop singer, of a similar disposition). These musicians, here, draw pastoral and stellar soundscapes.
The tracks.
At least listen to “Star Witness”, a romantic ballad, a “Song to the Siren”, more “Of The Siren”, ideally “against” Tim Buckley (and Elizabeth Fraser). Sharp drum beats. A nocturnal landscape. Guitars and bass sketch a moderately epic atmosphere, with stylistic elements and long chords. The harmony flows smoothly. The backup vocals celestial proclaim a moonlit escape. A voice soothes the fugitive, the beloved, or the traveler. Things go as they should, without distress or bitterness; everything is going the right way, moving forward, or “going away”. The path is the same. Welcoming. The finale is enveloped in a wavering breeze, she resumes singing with unmistakable sweetness; devoid of contradictions, embrace and loss coexist. Indistinguishable. A (childlike) keyboard concludes the piece, as a soft lullaby. The circle closes, poetic, slender, and lucid. The worn-out vocabulary of a summer night, where a proud siren (“in honor and danger”) sings the reality she belongs to, without reflections.
There are also the sobs of violin in “Maybe Sparrow”, an elegy; the tense Country-Western of “Hold On Hold On” (with Morricone-like Twang, and the most elevated verse “The Most Tender Place In My Heart Is For Strangers”); “Margaret vs. Pauline”, jazzy background, then foggy Country Rock; “At Last”, short and concise, outlines Lynchian scenarios (between “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks”); “Dirty Knife” sinister lullaby, not very reassuring; “Fox Confessors Brings The Flood”, starry and night-roving. All the tracks have a great breath and something to tell. Twelve songs, thirty-five minutes in total!
A very pleasurable album; it does not show off, nor does it hide. More arranged, clean, and polished than the excellent and wild predecessor “Blacklisted” from 2002. Case's voice, seductive, amiably captures, ensnares. In “Fox Confessors Brings The Flood” lies, in a state of half-sleep, a small masterpiece. Hidden.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 John Saw That Number (04:06)
Old John the baptist, old John divine
Leather harness round his line
His meat was locust and honey
Wild honey lord, wild honey
John saw that number
Way in the middle of the air
Cryin' holy, holy to the Lord
Old John the baptist, old John divine
Frogs and snakes are gonna get John this time
God told the angel "go see about John"
So he flew from the pit with the moon round his waist
Gathered wind in his fists so the stars round his wrists
Cryin' holy, holy to the lord
Read the revelations, you'll find him there
Third chapter, fourth verse where he said unto me
"There's a beast that rose out of the sea"
Ten crowns, ten crowns
On his horns write "blasphemy"
John couldn't read it (John couldn't read it)
Get on repeat it
John couldn't read it
Holy, holy to the Lord
There was a man, a pharisee
Who came by night to meet him
Said "I know thy teacher came from God cause no man can do such miracles
Without the lord to entreat him"
God told the angel "go see about John"
So he flew from the pit with the moon round his waist
Gathered wind in his fists and the stars round his wrists
Cryin' holy, holy to the Lord
Holy, holy to the Lord
Holy, holy to the Lord...
02 Star Witness (05:16)
My true love drowned in a dirty old pan
Of oil that did run from the block
Of a Falcon sedan 1969
The paper said '75
There were no survivors
None found alive
Trees break the sidewalk
And the sidewalk skins my knees
There's glass in my thermos
And blood on my jeans
Nickels and dimes of the Fourth of July
Roll off in a crooked line
To the chain-link lots where the red tails dive
Oh how I forgot what it's like
Hey when she sings, when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves, when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey pretty baby get high with me,
We can go to my sister's if we say we'll watch the baby
The look on your face yanks my neck on the chain
And I would do anything
To see you again
So I've fallen behind:
Hey when she sings, when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves, when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Go on, go on scream and cry
You're miles from where anyone will find you
This is nothing new, no television crew
They don't even put on the sirens
My nightgown sweeps the pavement
Please don't let him die
Oh how I forgot...
04 The Needle Has Landed (03:45)
Here I am in traffic's slow flow
Where the needle touched down
Carbon planes draw a cage round the air force base
Where the needle touched down
My foot on the brake it's ok to fly low
Over poor Spanaway
An eagle swooped down from a semi-trailer
Took the name of your town from a sharp-toothed freighter
The needle's the same that recorded and played
When you left me at the greyhound the year I moved away
And if I knew then what's so obvious now
You'd still be here baby
My baby, baby
So that's why I never come back here
That's why they spit out my name
Your ex's have clawed up the bible
Trying to keep me away
With the sledge of tectonic fever
The needle has landed again
Let it play
And the needle touched down
The needle is landing
And the needle touched down
The needle is landing
An eagle swooped down from a semi-trailer
Took the name of your town
From a sharp-toothed freighter
And if I knew then what's so obvious now
You'd still be here
06 Margaret vs. Pauline (02:52)
Everything's so easy for Pauline
Everything's so easy for Pauline
Ancient strings set feet a light to speed to her such mild grace
No monument of tacky gold
They smoothed her hair with cinnamon waves
And they placed an ingot in her breast to burn cool and collected
Fate holds her firm in its cradle and then rolls her for a tender pause to savor
Everything's so easy for Pauline
Girl with the parking lot eyes
Margaret is the fragments of a name
Her bravery is mistaken for the thrashing in the lake
Of the make-believe monster whose picture was faked
Margaret is the fragments of a name
Her love pours like a fountain
Her love steams like rage
Her jaw aches from wanting and she's sick from chlorine
But she'll never be as clean
As the cool side of satin, Pauline
Two girls ride the blue line
Two girls walk down the same street
One left her sweater sittin' on the train
The other lost three fingers at the cannery
Everything's so easy for Pauline
07 That Teenage Feeling (02:42)
Now that we've met
We can only laugh at these regrets
Common as a winter cold
They're telephone poles
They follow each other
One, after another, after another
But now my heart is green as weeds
Grown to outlive their season
And nothing comforts me the same
As my brave friend who says,
"I don't care if forever never comes
'Cause I'm holding out for that teenage feeling
I'm holding out for that teenage feeling"
All the loves we had
All we ever knew
Did they fill me with so many secrets
That keep me from loving you
'Cause it's hard, hard
08 At Last (01:35)
I can say that I've lived here in honor and danger
But I'm just an animal and cannot explain a life
Down this chain of days I wished to stay among my people
Relation now means nothing, having chosen so defined
And if death should smell my breathing
As it pass beneath my window
Let it lead me trembling, trembling
I own every bell that tolls me
09 Maybe Sparrow (02:37)
Maybe sparrow you should wait
The hawks alight till morning
You'll never pass beyond the gate
If you don't hear my warning
Notes are hung so effortless
With the rise and fall of sparrow's breast
It's a drowning dive and back to the chorus
La di da di da di da
La di da di da di da
Oh my sparrow it's too late
Your body limp beneath my feet
Your dusty eyes cold as clay
You didn't hear my warning
Maybe sparrow it's too late
Moonlight glanced off metal wings
In a thunderstorm above the clouds
The engine hums a sparrow's phrase
For those who cannot hear the words
For those who cannot hear the words
For those who will not hear the words
La di da di da di da
La di da di da di da
Maybe sparrow
Maybe sparrow
Maybe sparrow
10 Hold On, Hold On (02:46)
The most tender place in my heart is for strangers
I know it's unkind but my own blood is much too dangerous
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time
Compared to some I've been around
But I really tried so hard
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"
In the end I was the mean girl
Or somebody's in-between girl
Now it's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love
I leave the party at three a.m.
Alone, thank God
With a valium from the bride
It's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love
And that's as real as true love
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"
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