Neko Case

Just prior to hearing this, I was listening to a promo by a Birthday Party-like band, and was lamenting that the whole noir thing is so played out. Then this lands and disproves my point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnCRbKyn1KY&index=2&list=PLtj2p8-HFwiy9o4ciHaat18jl-wv5K54F

I mean..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1qzgDlDlNg&index=1&list=PLtj2p8-HFwiy9o4ciHaat18jl-wv5K54F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1qzgDlDlNg

I'm gonna randomly mention that I've been obsessed for years w/her song "I Missed the Point." I have to sit, transfixed, whenever it's playing... the melody, music & lyrics are all astonishing. If I were the type to pick out "songs to be played at my funeral," that one would top the list -- it's that kind of song, so personal/powerful.

Love seeing Kelly Hogan in that "Bad Luck" clip.

Haven't seen her live in awhile, but it looks like her only upcoming gig near me is opening for Ray LaMontagne at a big outdoor shell with lawn location. Not really a fan of his.

not a lot of space for the song to breathe, makes me feel like I've airplane ears

still not lovin' overcompression

Neko Case is opening for Ray LaMontagne!? Not the other way around? What a world...

^^Reminds me of this time I was watching The Tonight Show when they had Jakob Dylan on and I realized Kelly & Neko were his backing singers AND NOBODY SAID ANYTHING.

Re-listened to Furnace Room Lullaby for the first time in ages. I'd forgotten how great that disc is & just how spectacular her vocals are.

Not sure about any of these new songs tbh - I should be excited for a slow burning seven-minute duet with Mark Lanegan but it's not clicking for me yet

I love her every note but feel the same way about the new one

surprised people don't like this, I do, reminds me of carol keogh actually

New album is more of a grower than an immediate love affair like previously.

One of my favorite singers/solo artists I really never listen to. Always great, weirdly not compelling.

How’s the new one ?

Didn’t read xpost my bad

One of my favorite singers/solo artists I really never listen to. Always great, weirdly not compelling.

I gave the new one a listen - it def seems like it would take some time to reveal itself. (The duet w/ Lanegan has definitely grown on me.) A part of me still misses the unadorned beauty of stuff like "Wish I Was the Moon" and "South Tacoma Way" but she's obviously doing exactly what she wants to do.

I don't reach for Neko's music very often, but I do think she has her own way of writing that is different from anyone else, and thus awesome. I feel like she lives in a different world than the rest of us.

have been listening to middle cyclone a lot this past week
like it a lot more now than i did at the time

I don't reach for Neko's music very often, but I do think she has her own way of writing that is different from anyone else, and thus awesome. I feel like she lives in a different world than the rest of us.

― alpine static, Friday, June 1, 2018 1:53 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, exactly -- I also hear a lot of Kristin Hersh on here, especially on "Gumball Blue" (the melody is kinda like "Cottonmouth," "stain the edges of the nebula gumball blue" is 100% something she would write)

xp middle cyclone is my favorite

She's doing a short tour w/Dan Bejar opening late this year.

That sounds amazing

Your blues rules

first time thru Gumball Blue I thought, well, she should've given this one to the New Pornos ... then learned it's a Newman co-write.

and with that said, it's pretty amazing how much Newman's style infiltrates that song, considering Neko's distinctive (writing) voice.

She's doing a short tour w/Dan Bejar opening late this year.

note that she has 63 dates currently booked in the six months before the leg with Destroyer

I love Middle Cyclone and I listen to it all the time. I pull out Furnace Room and Blacklisted pretty often too.

I really liked the last one but there were just a couple songs I had a hard time listening to (notably the "Nearly Midnight, Honolulu"), which keeps me from putting on the album regularly.

In any case I regard her as one of my very favorite artists. I haven't yet listened to the new one though the singles have been hit and miss for me.

"halls of sarah" is excellent

i think i like this one better than the last one, feels more balanced

somewhat ot but fox confessor increasingly seems like one of the best albums ever made to me

Yeah, probably her best, still feels mysterious and new every time I hear it. The Sadies did a fantastic job backing her up.

fox confessor is absolutely extraordinary

I'm still fan of Middle Cyclone too. This one's good, but her albums take a while, mostly.

"behind the reservoir of collarbones / forms two private lakes" she's also one of the best lyricists going rn

She is a crazy talented writer for sure. "Margaret Vs Pauline" sketches out a whole world in under three minutes.

god yeah, 'one left her sweater sitting on the train / the other lost three fingers at the cannery' is just such a perfectly telling juxtaposition

"star witness" is my favorite lyric of hers, it is just incredibly vivid from line to line. the second verse alone ("trees break the sidewalk and the sidewalk skins my knees / there's glass in my thermos and blood on my jeans / nickels and dimes of the fourth of july / roll off in a crooked line / to the chain-link lots where the red tails dive" breathtaking)

just remembering the way her voice dips when she sings 'dive' there gives me goosebumps, honestly

pro tip: fox confessor is also a great album to fall asleep to

we've never done a fox confessor or albums poll, just sayin'

Heard some of this in someone else's house last night! Sounded even better following that Kanye krap.

'red wine is fast/at the lip of your glass/and I'm going to ruin, everything...' A minute and a half of utter perfection.

this album is extremely good, I rank it highly in her discography. prefer it to the last couple (which i also really love admittedly.) the Crooked Fingers cover/duet is really astonishing.

It's taking longer to sink in than expected; every time I listen to her I have to accustom myself to long verse lines settling into or occasionally fighting the melody, not to mention her sudden key changes. "Gunball Blue" and "Winnie" and "Pitch or Honey" are the standouts. Had no idea she was singing "mercurochrome and merthiolate stains, oh" on "My Uncle's Navy."

she seems to sing about love a lot more on this album than in the past

every time I listen to her I have to accustom myself to long verse lines settling into or occasionally fighting the melody, not to mention her sudden key changes.

^This is very well put...

I am enjoying this more than her last few, on first listen... but she's prob. not the kind of artist to form impressions based on "first listen, at desk while working" (if that's fair to any artist!).

(I dug the Case/Lang/Veirs album, but it felt like Laura Veirs led the charge on that one.)

she definitely did, once it got going. whenever they needed songs, they went to her considerable well. (Veirs writes dozens and dozens of songs per album.)