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There are men who prefer blondes and women to whom it's better not to tell too many lies (Lorena Bobbitt teaches us). Neko Case is undoubtedly one of them. See it to believe it, the stylish cover of her latest solo episode "Middle Cyclone": a '68 Mercury Cougar and the red-haired chanteuse of the New Pornographers wielding a menacing sword barefoot on the hood, a modern Amazon in a Tarantino-esque pose.
The all-American girl (but Canadian by adoption) seems to assault our frivolous postal worker certainties and some slightly nasty reviewers. Okay, I'll admit to having a soft spot for the wilful and fiery Virginian vixen, beyond her innate melodic talent and a vocal magnetism that today fears no comparisons. You've managed to chisel away at my dusty wandering heart, dear Neko. And I certainly don't resist; on the contrary, I feel convinced and seduced, even if it's a hypocritical illusion, as Jonathan Fuerst was by Ann-Margret.
The Middle Cyclone whispers, surprises, gets angry, and sweeps away. Because Neko Case is the kind of woman who wouldn't have had difficulty entering a dingy macho saloon in the northwest, defending her honor with a Winchester 1873, perhaps singing the rogue notes of alt-country-pop "This Tornado Loves You" with the ukulele. Rusticly recorded inside the barn of her Vermont farm (call her Neko "Granny Goose") and in Tucson, the seasoned, artisanal, and honestly nostalgic sound of this so "American" and timeless music is enriched by contributions from M. Ward and members of Calexico, Giant Sand, Los Lobos, Lilys, Visqueen, the New Pornographers, and the legendary Garth Hudson, organist of the Band.
If you dare to tap your foot repeatedly to the Byrds-like jingle of the single "People Got A Lotta Nerve", don't be ashamed. And it's equally darn complicated to maintain a square jaw and a Marlboro-man gaze when the music box in "The Next Time You Say Forever" starts, during the noir-romanticism of "Prison Girls" or the folk intimacy of "Vengeance Is Sleeping". Dusty Springfield is revived and materializes with the orchestra in Sparks' "Never Turn You Back On Mother Earth", while "Don't Forget Me" languidly covers Harry Nilsson. Then there is the sweet impulse of "I'm An Animal", a vigorous country/pop-rock with new pornographic sauce. "Middle Cyclone" confirms the status of the superb interpreter of the red-headed American singer-songwriter, a work with a more mature and nobly "popular" instrumental approach compared to Case's previous indie outfits. The night smoke sterilizes the old love wounds, the passionate lady seems to tell us. Finally, she flees solo with the pulsating "Red Tide", and closes on the end credits of the next, hypothetical western-cannibal directed by Q.Tarantino.
I believe the Red Tide will take us far tonight, into a deep sleep that will fill some voids.
And we will all be prisoners among its waves.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
08 Fever (03:18)
In an open field at dusk, to footfalls I awoke
Marching ants across my temples, oh
Their feet had no intention
They followed some magnetic drum
Prisoners of their destination
From the slats of the factory come
Where once they did make rails
Old Death's peculiar songs
He didn't know I was listening
So he crowed out nice and long
To the spiders and the lumber
And the dust of his conquest
And his hunger and his lust
I heard his feet rejoice
I heard him tap his cane
As if he had his own review
On stage at the F and M
I caught his words in my open mouth
I gagged and choked and spit them out
I heard him turn his heated hear
My tiny heart beat in his ear
I was already running
Oh, I heard him coming
Shrapnel spitting from his wheels
His sobbing arms raked for my heels
I dove and rolled and hid my face
And I said these magic words:
My dove is home
Her breast is warm
My dove is home
And I said these magic words
And fell down, down the anthill for days
My dove is home
Her breast is warm
My dove is home
My dove is home
Her breast is warm
My dove is home
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