Case, Neko - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

I saw Neko Case live once, many years ago at the Crystal Ballroom here in Portland. She was opening for The Jayhawks, and I don’t remember any of the songs she played, but I vividly remembered her. She seemed larger than her position as an opener. She almost seemed stronger than the stage that held her.

It wasn’t until her stint with The New Pornographers (their name originating from Jerry Falwell’s statement that “rock and roll is the new pornography”) that I really began to appreciate Case’s musical prowess. Onstage, she was a coiled spring, and Mass Romantic, the New Pornographers’ first album, captured the tension on tape. Her lead vocals on the title track and “Letter from an Occupant” are blistering, and her harmonies on the bouncy and danceable “Slow Descent into Alcoholism” are impeccably precise. Blistering, smoldering, and seared into your skull…these are the only ways to describe Neko Case’s vocals, throwbacks to a time before.

Case’s solo work has always been good, especially 2002’s Blacklisted, but her role in The New Pornographers gave her a springboard to further solo success. Case’s latest release, the mysteriously-titled Fox Confessor Brings the Flood exceeds all previous expectations. I can’t deny the brilliance here: Neko’s voice shines and shimmers and glitters like a moon too bright to stare.

Like her presence onstage, Case’s voice is a force. The first track, “Margaret vs. Pauline” showcases this aptly. Neko Case wields a voice so otherwordly (think Roy Orbison’s alien tone) that it is impossible to ask for more. Voices like this are dealt in portions because you can’t handle any extra.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is also cohesive in a way that is difficult to place. Lyrics don’t tie these songs together, their sound does. From the aforementioned “Margaret vs. Pauline” to “Star Witness” (the album’s best track) and the a cappella intro of “A Widow’s Toast” and through into the Biblicism of “John Saw That Number”, each song seems tied intrinsically to its sisters. Most reviews of the album focus on how Case eschews basic verse-chorus song structures, a buzzphrase that brings to mind horribly-conceived musical experiments, but the difference isn’t noticeable: there is plenty of mature pop sensibility to go around.

Emmylou Harris, with her album Wrecking Ball, changed the course of how country music was produced. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood may not quite have the same impact, but it should announce Neko Case as an artist to be reckoned with. Case is commonly referred to as a “country chanteuse”, and while this description is as apt as any other, it still falls far short of words to describe her.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Neko Case: A

Update for April 26!

Okay, I really can’t stop listening to this album…every time i get on a plane or sit in a coffee shop, this album is piping through my ears. So far, it’s the best album of 2006. By far.

Posted on April 15, 2006 12:00 AM