CD Odyssey Disc 1569: Neko Case

Welcome back to the Odyssey – let’s get to the music!

Disc 1569 is…. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Artist: Neko Case

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? A deer lady (yes, that kind of deer – look at her legs) is having a stern talk with a pack of foxes. I suspect it relates to the head of her friend she’s cradling in one arm.

The foxes’ expressions suggest it won’t be difficult to wrangle a confession out of them. If anything the one behind her looks to be ready to skip further dialogue and add another deer lady head to the collection in short order.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve liked Neko Case a long time, but the reason why is lost in the mists of time. I think I heard a song from around this era (the first album of hers I purchased was 2009’s Middle Cyclone). This one was next, as I began my oft-employed system of drilling into an artist’s back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Neko Case albums. “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” is tied for #1 with the “The Virginian.” I originally gave the latter the edge, but I must revisit this hasty decision and put “Fox Confessor…” out front. It would have taken a perfect record to manage that feat, but…here we are.

Ratings: 5 stars

While Middle Cyclone was the album that first caught my attention, it was “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” that made me realize just what a treasure I had unearthed in Neko Case. This record is a modern classic.

If you seek to define “Fox Confessor…” you’ll find the effort is in vain. Case blends country, folk, pop, and old-time church music together into a genre-defying swoon. The unifying factor is her innovative approach to songwriting and a voice as big and brassy as a steeple bell.

On her first three albums, Case lends her vocals to alt-folk and country, and these albums are all great – some of her best in fact. But on “Fox Confessor” she takes new paths in her approach to music, experimenting fearlessly through genres, delivery, production and arrangement. Despite all these shifts in approach, the songs have a common soul to them that makes the record feel united in something. It is hard to say what that something is, but Case’s approach makes it feel important.

The album opens with “Margaret vs. Pauline” a song that is loosely based on Richard Brautigan’s bizarre novel, “In Watermelon Sugar.” I liked “In Watermelon Sugar” well enough but it never connected with me emotionally. Case takes the story of a couple of those characters and grounds them in their tragedy with a series of deft lines that land with deliberate purpose. The different fates of our two titular characters ultimately summed up with a stark and simple set of images:

“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”

That song is immediately followed on by “Star Witness” which is the best on the record, mixing Case’s bold power through each stanza, matched with a light lilt in the chorus that feels like that breathless moment in a Viennese Waltz when the dancers start gliding across the floor. Yeah, I’ve been watching a bit of So You Think You Can Dance.

The second half of the record isn’t as full of immediately accessible singles as the first, but it is just as powerful as it explores multiple facets of Case’s style and imagination. She is a jubilant southern preacher on “John Saw That Number,” tells a dark and deadly fairy tale on “Dirty Knife” and then wraps herself up in a Patsy Cline-like croon on “Lion’s Jaws”. Every song is different than the last, every one dripping with first rate poetry, brought to life by Case’s vocal prowess.

With all those great lyrics, it was disappointing that the CD’s booklet was just a collection of art projects and photos. If you’re going to go to the trouble of giving me a booklet, putting the lyrics in there is the decent thing to do.

However, that’s my only criticism of a record that is brilliant at every turn. I’ve heard “Fox Confessor…” countless times over the years, and not only do I never grow tired of it, it reveals some new and wonderful beauty to me each time I put it on.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1418: Neko Case

Every now and then the COVID pandemic rises up to punch you in a new an unexpected place.

This week, it was the news that one of my neighbourhood pubs, Logan’s, was closing. I only went there infrequently, but over the years I made some great memories there and seen some great bands. What I was most struck by was how the place could look so gritty and tough from the outside, but be populated with genuine, lovely people (patrons and staff) once you worked up the nerve to go in. Please spare a kind thought to a whole bunch of people now looking for work in a time where it is tough to find any.

In sharing memories of Logan’s, a friend of mine noted he’d seen Neko Case there many years ago, so it is fitting the Odyssey should randomly serve up one of her early albums for my next review.

Disc 1418 is…. Furnace Room Lullaby

Artist: Neko Case & Her Boyfriends

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover? Neko lies on the floor of…the furnace room? This looks less like a lullaby and more like a murder scene. Or maybe there is nothing nefarious going on at all. She just went to check on why the heat wasn’t working, fell down the stairs and broke her neck. I believe this would be a case of being “drop-dead” beautiful, but don’t worry – it’s only pretend.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Case a little over ten years ago, and began digging through her back catalogue. “Furnace Room Lullaby” was one of the gems I unearthed in the process.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Neko Case albums. I’ll put “Furnace Room Lullaby” at #4, bumping the ungainly named “The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You” down one. That record is good but falls just short in the arbitrary game of comparisons we’re playing here.

Ratings: 4 stars

Sometimes the best thing about the evolution of an artist is that moment where they are still mid-mutation. Neko Case’s second album, “Furnace Room Lullaby” still inhabits a lot of the same rockabilly vibe present on 1997’s “The Virginian” but it also shows the beginnings of her move toward the more blues-tinged indie folk-rock that defines her later sound.

Old school crooners like “We’ve Never Met” and the rockabilly jump of “Mood to Burn Bridges” are both equally at home here, but we’re also treated to the ethereal “Porchlight” which features Case singing in a beautiful falsetto. Mixed in with the easy power of her lower register, you get a song that is laden with both ghostly yearning and old-fashioned heartbreak.

And speaking of that easy power, “Furnace Room Lullaby” is once again a showcase of Case’s incredible vocal talent. She drops big brassy notes that fill a room on every song, and many tunes hold a moment where Case’s voice soars so high you’ll swear time is suspended, or maybe just wish it was. On “Twist the Knife” when she sings:

“Tenderly, tenderly
Please take my breath from me”
Into the fountains
And up from the graves”

Her vocals are the living embodiment of that knife twist, stabbed into you in a peal of longing. The record has a lot of songs where her voice tears through your vitals it hurts, but as Case reveals on “Bought and Sold”, “nobody said that love was gonna be kind.”

The musicianship on “Furnace Room Lullaby” is also exceptional. The rockabilly flavoured tunes rely on energetic playing that hangs right at the front edge of the pocket, and Case’s backing band, “the Boyfriends” are up to the task. They also show a lot of depth and subtlety on the slower tunes and know when to take a back seat in service to the song.

The best song on the record (and my favourite Neko Case song of all time) is “Thrice All American.” It is a rust-stained love letter to the run-down neighbourhoods of Tacoma, Washington. This is a song about being from somewhere and how even if you don’t love that somewhere, the grudging admission that it still helps define you. 

“Thrice All American” is the epicenter of the record, a bit of a country sway underpinning a bittersweet folk song of tortured love. Ultimately, it’s just another song among many about a relationship that didn’t work out - in this case, a town - but through Case’s artistry it becomes a steely lullaby, turning a rough world beautiful. If you like those kind of lullabies, then this furnace room is for you.

Best tracks: Guided By Wire, Porchlight, Twist the Knife, Thrice All American, Bought and Sold

CD Odyssey Disc 1384: Neko Case

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey! This next album is one of my favourites, and given how many albums I have, that’s saying something.

Disc 1384 is…. The Virginian

Artist: Neko Case & Her Boyfriends

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover? Neko’s disembodied head floats like an ivory cameo on a black background (well, it is supposed to be black – there’s some glare in my photo).

This album cover was so artfully designed it won first place in photography at the Virginian County Fair. As you can see.

How I Came To Know It: I can’t exactly remember. I think I discovered her around 2009, around the time “Middle Cyclone” came out. “The Virginian” was just me digging back through her catalogue to see what I’d missed.

How It Stacks Up: If you count the 2004 live album “The Tigers Have Spoken” (and I do) I have nine Neko Case albums. Of those nine, I rank “The Virginian” at #1. In many ways it is tied for first place with “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” but the two albums are so different it is hard to compare them.

I realize this is a controversial choice, and invite you to rank it differently when you write your own music blog.

Ratings: 5 stars

If you like women to sing you songs in coy whispers, “The Virginian” is not the album for you. Neko Case’s solo debut is big, bold and brassy. It will blast you across the room with its raw power and you will love every minute of it.

Raw power exactly what this record embodies. The nuance and subtlety that Case would develop on future records isn’t much to be found on “The Virginian.” She blasts these songs out like she’s standing in some Sun Records studio in 1957, vice-grip around one of those big steel toaster-oven microphones, sound pumping out of her diaphragm like a hurricane. While I love that nuance and subtlety she’d develop on later records, I didn’t miss it one bit here.

The style of the record bears only hints of what she would do later. “The Virginian” is a love letter to old-timey music, with homages to fifties and sixties rockabilly, and later country crooners and belters of the late sixties and early seventies. For all that it still feels vibrant and current and filled with a restless energy that will make you want to move.

Case’s voice is like a one-woman army. Everyone in the band plays big and brash to match her, but she’s still the obvious star of the show. Her power is undeniable, and the tone feels like its going to lift you off the ground. Every time I listen to the album’s title track, I feel imbued with some kind of otherworldly energy. The melody is tailor-made for Case’s style (I can safely say this, as it is one of the originals). It digs deep into you and lifts you up. The song is about a woman who rejects God, but when you hear Case’s vocals triumphantly belt out:

“She fell away
She fell away
She fell away from the side of the Lord
Then she was free to do what she wanted
With clouds of her own”

You can feel she was saved all the same – albeit by herself. I have tens of thousands of songs in my collection, and “The Virginian” is, and always be, one of my favourites.

Case is equally adept at filling her soul (and yours) with cover songs. She does a version of Scott Walker’s “Duchess” and Loretta Lynn’s “Somebody Led Me Away” with exactly the same transcendent power.

In terms of writing credits, this is the least “Neko Case” record short of her “Canadian Amp” EP. She only cowrote half the twelve songs. The other half are classics ranging from early sixties Ernest Tubb through early eighties Loretta. In every instance (and I mean every instance, Loretta included), Case makes the song better.

On the lighter side, Case takes on up-tempo rockabilly sounds with originals like “Karoline” and “Honky Tonk Hiccups” (the latter by her collaborator Matt Murphy). These songs will make you want to jump up and dance with abandon. I have done so many times over the years and heartily recommend it. She even converts the Queen song “Misfire” into rockabilly. And yes, she makes it better too.

Case only cowrote half the songs, but it doesn’t matter one whit. She makes the classics her own, pushing them to new heights, and her new songs are every bit as good, leaving no downturn regardless of the source.

If you are expecting the more nuanced and soulful folk-rock Neko Case has recorded in recent years, this album may be a shock to your ears. It is a different beast altogether. However, if you can park your expectations at the door you are in for a treat. My biggest problem with this record is I put it on too often, and I’m afraid one day I’m going to wear out my love for it. Not so far.

Best tracks: All tracks, but let’s mention a bunch anyway: Bowling Green, Jettison, High on Cruel, Karoline, Lonely Old Lies, Honky Tonk Hiccups, The Virginian, Duchess, Somebody Led Me Away.

Apologies to the other 4 songs, which are also excellent.

CD Odyssey Disc 1248: MAOW

I know I shouldn’t, but I am again watching American Idol. I am not proud of this. I realize I am only getting 40 minutes of music for every two hours I waste on this stuff, and 30 minutes of it I don’t enjoy, but I can’t help myself. I like watching these kids give it a go and pursue their dreams and a few of them (usually the ones who don’t win) are pretty amazing artists. Also, there is Katy Perry. She gets me through watching Lionel Ritchie awkwardly applaud people.

Most people don’t get their start on American Idol. Hell, most people on American Idol don’t get their start on American Idol. Those people bounce around a few bands before they hit it big. So it was with Neko Case, and this next review is one of those bands.

Disc 1248 is… The Unforgiving Sounds of…MAOW

Artist: MAOW

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? Our band stages what appears to be the worst boxing match in recorded history. This cover combines the amateur qualities of your typical folk music band photo without any of the earnestness that makes those covers forgivable. Sorry, MAOW.

How I Came to Know It: I knew that Neko Case had been in MAOW so gave them a shot.

How It Stacks Up:  MAOW made two albums but this is the only one I have so it can’t really stack up.

Ratings:  2 stars but almost 3

“The Unforgiving Sounds of…MAOW” is raw and uneven, but it has a joyful delivery that lets you forgive its faults and celebrate the fun of it all.

Fresh from drumming for Cub in 1993, three years later our heroine Neko Case was now drumming and singing in MAOW alongside co-vocalist/guitarist Tobey Black and bassist CC Hammond. While this is the second consecutive all girl trio based out of Vancouver, MAOW has a different sound from Cub – actually it has a couple of sounds.

The band is half pop-punk, with those songs tending to be sung by Black. Whereas Cub’s version of punk has a cute melodic core, MAOW is all about the raw energy of a garage band. They do the sound well, reveling in rough-edged topics. “Mommie’s Drunk” explores alcoholism and poor parenting, and “Woman’s Scorn” is about doing violence to a (presumably) deserving man.

Even when they’re dark, though, MAOW has a tongue in cheek, particularly when they are exploring sexually explicit topics, which they do often. “Wank” is a woman teasing someone she’s rejected and imagining him going home to masturbate to her memory.  “One Night Stand”, a song about telling that man you slept with to clear out and stop making such a big deal of it. She was drunk, and you were there. The rhymes are obvious but visceral:

“When I was drunk you really turned me on

But now I’m sober and I wish you were gone

Either go get me a six pack of beer

Or just grab your shit and get out of here.”

Nice to know there is still at least one way back into her heart…

These are the Tobey Black songs, but they only represent half of the album’s sound. “The Unforgiving Sounds…” is just as much rockabilly as it is punk, particular on songs where Neko Case takes the lead. Case even does a cover of rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson’s “Mean Mean Man” with good results. Case’s country vocals also juxtapose well with Black’s punk growl. Case never unloads the full power of those pipes, but on “Very Missionary” you can hear the first hints of the big brassy vocals that would come fully into their own a year later on her first solo album, the classic “The Virginian.”

“The Unforgiving Sounds…” is no Virginian, and I wished I could hear Case just fully belt out one song, but it is cool to hear her starting to find her voice.

Overall, you can feel the punk seeping into the rockabilly songs and the rockabilly songs seep into the punk ones. The tracks are short and it sometimes makes for a toxic marriage, like two ex-lovers living in a house too small for their anger. Other times that tension makes the songs even better. “Showpie” is a good example of both, awkwardly fusing what feels like two totally different songs. It is disjointed but you forgive it because the two songs involved in the unholy union are both good.

I like MAOW’s bravery, and the album has an undeniable energy. At 16 songs and only 20 minutes long I would have preferred a few fewer songs that lasted a bit longer, but hey – that’s the nature of this style of punk. Get in, get on it, and get out. I didn’t do that as a listener, though. The record was so short I gave it about 8 solid listens over the last two days. Despite the repetition, the record held up well so I’m giving it the honour of some shelf space in my collection after all.

Best tracks: Wank, Sucker, Rock ‘n’ Roll Boy, Very Missionary, Showpie, One Night Stand

CD Odyssey Disc 1215: Neko Case

I’m still curating my “best of 2018” album list but – spoiler alert – this next album will be on it.

Disc 1215 is… Hell-On

Artist: Neko Case

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? Neko Case, smokin’ hot as always. This cover also answers that age-old question, “should I put a fire out with human hair?” The answer is no.

How I Came To Know It: Neko Case is a brilliant singer-songwriter. I love all her other albums and bought this one the day it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  I have nine Neko Case albums but despite the odds, this is only my second one reviewed. Despite fierce competition, “Hell-On” is one of the best. I rank it third overall.

Ratings:  4 stars

“Hell-On” is a bouquet of a dozen black roses, each song a moody beauty that holds wisdom, insight into the human condition and a thorn or two to prick the unwary.

As ever, Case’s vocals are big brassy and powerful in the low register, and almost hymnal when she climbs up into her head-voice. I could listen to Neko Case sing the phone book and be happy. On my first listen to “Hell-On” I found myself in an unfamiliar position; being carried away on the tone at the expense of what she was saying. Usually, I am drawn strongly to lyrics, and while “Hell-On” features some amazing songwriting from that perspective, I was initially drawn to the tune alone.

Contributing to this is some inspired production decisions, which is layered and rich without ever feeling busy. Instead, it gives the songs an echo, like Case is singing in an abandoned church or sea-cave rather than in front of studio mic.

Part of that is that the songs are composed to have a haunting quality. Case essentially admits this on “Pitch or Honey” where she sings:

“I use major chords
To make this a sadder song
An effective manipulation
Moonlight reflected is many times stronger”

That moonlight imagery is evocative of the whole record, combining the mystery of the moon, with the eerie reflection of its power off water. I didn’t feel a lot of fire on “Hell-On” but I felt plenty of restless contemplation carried along on oceanic metaphor.

Despite the dark themes, Case’s delivery is triumphant, reaching out across the sunless seascapes she creates a beacon. You feel discomfited and reassured at the same time. The effect is energizing.

Once I was drawn into the narrative quality of the songs, “Hell-On” was replete with lines that jump out at you, often evoking the ocean in the process. The self-aware regret of the character on “Curse of the I-5 Corridor” sings:

 You were a good man before you knew it
And I’m not vain enough to think
That I’d have been good for you if I’d stayed
In the current of your life
I was an eyelash in the shipping lanes.”

The reckless love on “Winnie”:

“That's when I met Winnie
I wanted to be her sailor's tattoo”

And the romantic wonder of “Oracle of the Maritimes”:

“The oracle of the Maritimes
He said ‘come on, sweet girl, let's find you an ocean
That goes with your eyes’”

In each case the rich lyrical content is melded to brilliant melodic structures that underscore their dark themes and hidden strength.

Case has always been a great collaborator (she is 1/3 of case/lang/veirs and 1/8 of the New Pornographers). Here she brings in Crooked Fingers’ lead singer Eric Bachmann for a duet on “Sleep All Summer.” This song is the pretties little duet about dying love I’ve heard in a while. This is a song set to a sway that’ll make you think of high school proms and weddings. You’ll find yourself slow-dancing and only halfway through realize Case is singing about loss, not commitment.

“Hell-On” works equally well as a single mood piece or a series of crowd-pleasing singles you can pull from the record as needed. I pulled one for a recent New Year’s Eve setlist (“Last Lion of Albion”) and it is just as beautiful separated from its bouquet. My only regret is not choosing “Gumball Blue” – a song that actually references New Year’s Eve. I made the same mistake passing over on St. Vincent’s “Happy Birthday, Johnny”. I’ll have to remedy those oversights.

However, there is nothing to remedy about the record itself, and the reason it was represented on playlist was because it is one of the best albums of 2018. Make yourself a resolution to go buy it.

Best tracks: Hell-On, Last Lion of Albion, Curse of the I-5 Corridor, Oracle of the Maritimes, Winnie, Sleep All Summer, Pitch or Honey

CD Odyssey Disc 882: Case, Lang and Veirs

This next album got inserted into the lineup as a new album. I don’t do that much, but I will if it means I can line it up with a review of the live show as well. That live show review follows below, but first the record…

Disc 882 is….Case/Lang/Veirs

Artist: Neko Case, kd lang and Laura Veirs

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover? A picture by artist Elliott Green. Ordinarily I don’t like this collage-like style of painting, but I find the colours soothing here.

How I Came To Know It: I found out about this project when I heard the three artists involved were doing a show in Victoria. I’m a huge Neko Case fan, and kd lang rarely lets me down, so I decided to take a chance on Laura Veirs rounding out the trio.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only album by this particular combination of artists, so it doesn’t really stack up. It holds up favourably against the Case and Lang albums in our collection, though.

Ratings: 4 stars

When I heard that Neko Case, kd lang and Laura Veirs had teamed up to make a record I really wanted it to be good. It was.

I’m a huge (if relatively recent) fan of Neko Case and have voraciously been digging through her music for the past several years. I’m a bit pickier when it comes to kd lang, but every time I review one of her records she wows me. Laura Veirs was new to me, which gave the album the flair of discovery and novelty that a music collector like me is always craving.

The opening track, “Atomic Number” is one of the album’s stronger songs, and gives you a good idea of what to expect. Each singer gets a chance to showcase the pure quality in their voice, before they three of them land the first of the record’s many exquisite harmonies.

The song also begins with a refutation of what the singers are not. Not a freckled maid, or a fair-haired girl, or a pan of milk. The three singers are clear (but gentle) in noting this is a new project, to be taken on its own terms, based on the internal spark of talent each of them is bringing to the table. At least that’s how I took it.

Not surprisingly on an album made by three talented singer-songwriters, the album is a celebration of the artistic process. The tender “Song for Judee” is about Judee Sill, a folk singer who died too young of a drug overdose, but is lovingly remembered by Laura Veirs in the song. On “Best Kept Secret” and “I Want To Be Here” Veirs also takes the lead on songs about artists, with the first song being an up-tempo celebration and the second, a resolute and stoic stand in favour art for art’s sake. These lines really appeal to me:

“The hungry fools who rule the world can’t catch us

Surely they can’t ruin everything.

I just want to be here with you

Not bracing for what comes next.”

Written down they lose something, but in the tight harmonic embrace of these three voices, they’ll give you a shiver.

I didn’t know Veirs before this. In anticipation of the concert, I checked out some of her earlier solo stuff and honestly didn’t love it. That said, there is no denying she is the glue that holds the record together, grounding the slightly wild Case and Lang in a folk foundation the record needs to gain traction.

Of all three voices showcased on this record, my favourite will always be the big brassy range of Neko Case. Two of the songs she is featured on (“Behind the Armory,” “Down I-5”) are already favourites. On “Behind the Armory” Case goes from big power vocals down to a sweet and soft as she sings the refrain of “still I want you to love me” with a tender and vulnerable tone that will break your heart.

Everytime kd lang takes the driver’s seat, the record takes on a delightful smoky lounge feel. “Honey and Smoke” “Blue Fires” and “Why Do We Fight” all have a crooner quality that gives the album a nice range of style, without ever feeling discordant.

The album had me thinking of Sarah McLachlan, and I can feel her influence pouring down through the ages. There is a neo-nineties echo and layering of piano and strings in places, but it is kept stripped down and reserved, and so rarely feels intrusive.

Overall, this is a solid record that after four straight listens only became more and more enjoyable. If you like any of these three artists and don’t know the other two, then this is a great way to branch out.

Best tracks:  Atomic Number, Song for Judee, Behind the Armory, Best Kept Secret, I Want to be Here, Down I-5, Why Do We Fight

THE CONCERT – June 28, 2016 at the Royal Theatre, Victoria

It feels like forever since I’d been to a show at the Royal Theatre, which is one of my favourite Victoria venues to see a concert. It beats out the Alix Goolden Hall for one simple reason: assigned seating.

Before the show Sheila and I did the customary checking out of our fellow concert goers. It was an older crowd, some of whom seemed more like Jazz Fest illuminati than folk fans. I suspect the high ticket price kept a lot of younger fans away, and that was a bit of a shame, but when you’ve got three superstars in one venue, it is going to be costly.

The opening act was an indie folk singer named Andy Schauf. I’m told he is a multi-instrumental phenom, but this venue did him no favours. His performance put the room on Beige Alert. The sound was terrible, and his tunes sounded like mud. I couldn’t understand a word he sang, nor did he hold my attention. If anything, he made me a bit drowsy. The crowd applauded politely, and I joined in. He seemed like a nice kid, so what the hell.

Schauf’s best song was “Early to the Party” so I decided to check out the studio version and give him a second chance but nope, I didn’t like that either.

Then it was time for the main event, which stirred the crowd immediately out of its lethargy. For a crowd as ‘vintage’ as this one, they did a fine job of keeping the energy up, without ever being rude. I give the crowd an A (I’d give them an A+ if they hadn’t started yelling for the painfully over-covered “Hallelujah” during the encore).

After a hilarious joke from Lang about how this act was supposedly part of Jazz Fest (Jazz Fest is not picky about the genre of their headliner each year), both the band and the sound got off to an awkward start. Usually, the sound at the Royal is over-amplified but this time they were too low, and it was really hard to get into it. Fortunately the sound guy quickly fixed it, and the show’s audio got progressively better as the night went on.

As for the band, you can see these three gifted performers are still taking each other’s measure in the live experience. Case and Lang are both alpha dogs, and it took them a few songs to find the middle ground. Laura Veirs was the unsung hero throughout, and deserves a lot of the credit for making this thing work. Just like on the album, she is the glue that held the performance together, and by three or four songs in Neko and kd had found each other and were shining and – just as importantly – helping each other shine.

Lang is one hell of a performer, and has an almost child-like delight in music and being on stage that is infectious as hell. She dances around, barefoot in oversized pajamas having such a good time you can’t help but join in. It is like the world’s best trip to band camp. Her rendition of Neil Young’s “Helpless” was stunning, and earned her a deserved mid-show standing ovation. Her stories were funny, and the only down-note was her rendition of “Constant Craving” in the encore, where it felt like she was tired of singing that song, and desperate to change the phrasing somehow just to make it fresh again.

It was obvious that the crowd was overwhelmingly there to see Lang, but I was mostly interested in Neko Case, and she didn’t disappoint. She even had the good grace to set up her mic on my side of the stage. She played a couple of her own tracks, and really showed her punk soul on “I’m a Man” viscerally shouting “I am the man in the fucking moon!” at the Jazz Fest crowd, who seemed to really enjoy a good swear. She also played her guitar like a woman possessed. Case is obviously “the cool one” in the group, and gave the show a rock edge that completed the triangle of the folksy Veirs and the loungey Lang.

Despite each woman pulling 2-3 tracks from their solo work, the show was mostly a celebration of the new collaborative record, which made me happy because (as I’ve noted above) there is plenty of great material to draw on. Highlights for me included Case belting out “Behind the Armory” and the encore performance of “I Want To Be Here” which had solid harmonies. Regrettably, “Atomic Number” which is a great song, got performed early on in the show when the sound and the vibe weren’t quite established, but it is a minor quibble.

While the show took a while to get going, it ended up being a great celebration of music by three great artists. I would wholeheartedly see them again, and hope they make a second album together.

CD Odyssey Disc 745: Neko Case

My week of indolence and relaxation is over. Even so, this week holds a lot of social engagements as well as the inevitable catch up that is always required after you leave your office untouched for a week. The time off did its magic though; I’m feeling relaxed and carefree despite having plenty to do.

Disc 745 is….The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You

Artist: Neko Case

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover?  Neko prepares to fight off some animated eels with the help of an animated sword (naturally). Like so many fantasy sword-maidens before her, Neko has decided to enter battle wearing some sort of shirt/underwear combination.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from Neko Case so this was just me buying her new album without a second thought.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Neko Case albums. “The Worse Things Get, etc.” is a good one up against a strong field. I put it somewhere in the middle. I’ll say fourth.

Ratings: 4 stars

A few years ago I got heavily into Neko Case and since that time I’ve been champing at the bit to review one of her albums. Finally, the day has arrived, in the form of her most recent release, The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You” – and I won’t be typing that again.

Despite the ridiculous title, “The Worse Things Get…” is a quality entry into the discography of an artist that consistently wows me with both her songwriting and the power of her voice.

First – that voice. I’ve mentioned it before on reviews for New Pornographers records, where Case is sadly underemployed. On “The Worse Things Get…” as with her previous solo efforts, she is able to unleash its power for a full record.

Big and brassy, Case’s voice is a force of nature. She is like a chorus of bells, all in perfect tune, ringing off the walls of the room, rich and glorious. You’d think it was divinely inspired, except that Case’s voice is so deep and grounded it clearly has its origins here on earth.

The production decisions on “The Worse Things Get…” show Case off to full effect. The album has an echo-like quality that is reminiscent of Daniel Lanois, except stripped down to its bare essentials.

The album had me thinking of how Nick Cave has put his records together recently; rich lyrics hanging bright against sparse arrangements, each word dripped with greater import, if for no other reason than everything drives you to listen to them.

This comes together on “Nearly Midnight, Honolulu” a song about the casual cruelty some mothers pass along to their children. For all those people who have mothers who never loved you, this song is for you. I am lucky to have a great mom who loves me to the end of the earth, but “Nearly Midnight, Honolulu” lets us peek into the unfortunate world of people who aren’t so lucky without having to live there.

Thematically, the album also reminded me a lot of Jenny Lewis’ recent record “The Voyager”.  Like Lewis, Case is a now-established female singer who has enjoyed the shared fame of a band, as well as the individual stardom that can leave you feeling both exposed and empowered at the same time. “I’m From Nowhere” speaks to Case’s refusal to be gender stereotyped in her success:

“I was surprised

When you called me a lady

Cause I'm still not so sure that that's what I wanna be

Cause I remember the 80's

And I remember its puffy sleeves

You say I'm lucky to be here,

Then maybe you can take this over

And I'll gladly wear the pants into the next century

Past the scanners with ease.”

In some places, Case over-reaches, such as on “Where Did I Leave That Fire?” which has overly clever lyrics as well as an electronically-generated effect designed to sound like water but that is just distracting. Even on this song I couldn’t get too angry; Case almost pulls it off and besides, I could listen to her sing the alphabet and enjoy it.

My copy of the album is the ‘special edition’ CD which is known for having a slightly different cover (on which Neko doesn’t have a sword to fight off the eels), a bunch of amateur ‘art’ photography in a booklet which didn’t appeal to me, and three bonus songs.

These songs are a mixed bag. The remake of Robyn Hitchcock’s “Madonna of the Wasps” is awesome – better than the original. Case then inexplicably does a new version of “Magpie to the Morning” which was on her previous album, “Middle Cyclone.” Here, I preferred the earlier version. Finally, we have “Yon Ferrets Return” which at 1:16 feels like underdeveloped filler.

Overall, I could probably live with the regular version, but even with the extra tracks “The Worse Things Get…” is still only 15 songs and 42 minutes of playing time, and never feels bloated. This is a record from an accomplished singer/songwriter who has learned her craft well, and continues to forge her own musical direction.

Best tracks:  Wild Creatures, Night Still Comes, Man, I’m From Nowhere, Nearly Midnight Honolulu, Calling Cards, Local Girl, 

CD Odyssey Disc 648: New Pornographers

I’ve been buying a lot of new music lately, and this next album was one of them. Despite it being new, it was randomly rolled. Because I’d only listened to it once through when I rolled it, this review was a bit delayed, since I wanted to give it a proper chance to settle into my ears. Three more listens later, I think I’m there.

Disc 648 is….Together

Artist: The New Pornographers

Year of Release: 2010

What’s up with the Cover? Miniatures! Careful readers of this blog will know I have a penchant for modeling myself. This cover is pretty cool overall, and catches a vibe of both separation and community that the record also reflects. That said, these figurines need better paint jobs. I suppose that’s the effect they were going for, but I would add a little highlighting and shading if it were up to me.

How I Came To Know It: In the last two years I have become a sudden but fervent fan of Neko Case’s solo work. Once I had mined that to exhaustion, I started looking at her other projects and the logical place to start was the New Pornographers.

I read an article about 2007’s “Challengers” and bought it and loved it, so it was a question of how far down the rabbit hole I wanted to go. I let Youtube decide me, and I listened to every album they had put out song by song to see what I thought. I didn’t care for their first three albums (“Mass Romantic”, “Electric Version” and “Twin Cinema”) at all, despite the rave reviews they received. I was about to give up hope when I heard “Together.” It is no “Challengers” but it was certainly good enough to buy. And so I did.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two New Pornographers albums. They have six albums, but pending a listen to the 2014 release “Brill Bruisers” I am good with the two I have. Of those two, “Together” is second, but having listened to their first three albums as well, I’m comfortable saying it is my second favourite overall as well.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

“Together” is an apt title for a record that fuses this many different sounds and notions into each song. Most of the time it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I generally appreciated the effort throughout.

The band itself is an amalgam of eight different musicians that lend their talents to both the New Pornographers and a variety of solo projects and other bands. This can sometimes be a hot mess (my one and only experiment with Broken Social Scene was an example of this) and I was a bit nervous about the NP after so many failed attempts to like them (see “How I Came to Know It” above).

Fortunately, “Together” sticks mostly to the approach followed on their previous masterpiece, “Challenger” letting the melodies shine through and keeping all the various contributions to the sound complementary, yet distinct. In short, they keep it together.

I particularly like how they work in the horn and string sections, using little flourishes here and there to punctuate a song emotionally without overwhelming it. On “Crash Years” they even work in some whimsical whistling. At times there can be too many little riffs competing with one another in a single song, but for the most part they hold the curse of the song through choppy waters of their own making.

And on the horn front, full credit for employing the Dap-Kings. These guys can really play, and their soul revival feel infuses the indie constructions with a vitality they might not have managed on their own.

This record is solidly in the modern indie movement, and it suffers from a lot of the common malaises that strike that style. Most notably, lyrics tend to paint small distinct scenes, which prevent a narrative quality I tend to like in a song.

Neko Case is the star of the show, even though she willingly takes a back seat in favour of the collaborative feel of the record. While the production and song construction don’t give these songs the same emotional impact as her solo work, Case still elevates “Together” whenever she gets the chance. “My Shepherd” soars under her vocal leadership and no matter how much of her I get, I always find myself wanting more.

Unfortunately the majority of the vocal leads go to Dan Bejar. Bejar is the Blake Sennett to Neko Case’s Jenny Lewis. Fortunately Bejar’s voice is much better than Sennett’s in Rilo Kiley, the latter of whom often finds me skipping to the next track on casual listens. Despite generally liking Bejar’s voice, and how it holds loose and pretty harmonies with Case, it still suffers from a common indie malaise: ironic detachment. Ironic detachment may be the sound of our times, but that doesn’t mean I have to love it.

The album feels heavily influenced by Belle and Sebastian in places, particularly on “If You Can’t See My Mirrors” featuring lines like “pissed up Sunday morning” which seemed a bit too British Isles for the Vancouver based New Pornographers. Much worse is the song's reference to  “Honourable discharge abord the HMS Pinafore” which made me see the song through the lens of a musical.

I can’t stand the cutesy quality in most musicals, and just referencing HMS Pinafore made me start hearing that quality in a bunch of the other songs, with their light and bouncy style. Fortunately the general excellence of the record dispelled the bad taste by the time I reached the end.

The record has great songs throughout and they often flow together so seamlessly that I can’t remember at the end of listening which is which. This could be a function of me only having four total listens to the record, but even if the feeling persists, it isn’t a bad thing. The same thing happens on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” which is, you know, pretty good.

Lyrically, my favourite song is “Valkyrie in the Roller Disco” which had me remembering what it was like to be young and filled with vain hope of love at a teen skate (ice, mind you), enthralled with all the girls that in those days were a foot taller than me. Never have I wanted to die in battle more. “Valkyrie don’t go home” indeed.

Ahem. Back to the record, which ties all its themes together in a nice bow for the final song, “We End Up Together.” This song pulls together a lot of different sounds, most notably a delightful little cello flourish and some back and forth min-choruses. Each element on its own would sound clunky or unfinished. Combined they are a complex layering of sounds that creates a symphony of small. With so much going on as the song (and the record) heads into the final turn you are certain the whole thing is going to hits a wall of production and wash out. Instead, as promised, it ends up together.

Best tracks:   Moves, Crash Years, Silver Jenny Dollar, My Shepherd, Valkyrie in the Roller Disco, We End Up Together