Neko Case
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

THE REVIEW

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.