Neko Case

Her rich alto has always delivered a visceral gut shot, but with Middle Cyclone Neko Case continues to emerge as a songwriter who truly knows how to wield the commanding instrument. When she sings "My love has never lived indoors/ I had to drag it home by force," on "Vengeance Is Sleeping," it's a nod to this record's salty themes (Mother Nature, a killer whale, and prison girls cameo). As she stomps through the elaborately produced country-inflected rock, the smattering of threats ("I will punch you in your face") disenfranchised come-ons and desperate rage is intoxicating.

"I'm an animal," cries Neko Case on her fifth studio album, and there is something feral about
her voice in full flight: It's a wild, woolly sound, part Patsy Cline, part coyote baying at the
high desert moon. Case is joined here by some New Pornographers bandmates as well as
members of Los Lobos and Calexico. The result is hypnotic alt–country twang, with
reverb–slathered guitars ringing out over music-box plinks and moaning cellos.... More >