I’ve been spending a lot of time with Neko Case’s latest Middle Cyclone this week. I know it came out months ago, but even though I was fairly interested in Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, her previous effort, I didn’t feel terribly compelled to delve too deeply. I ran through the single, “People Got A Lot of Nerve” a few times, in part I’m sure to the somewhat misleading chorus “I’m a man man man, man man man eater / so why are you surprise-prise-prised when I eat ya?”
It might have been the videos of Case with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Bonnarroo, or it could have just been how bad-ass that song title is, but the other day I decided to re-try “This Tornado Loves You,” the opening track. It’s hard to explain the feeling you get when first hearing a song without relying on cliched and vague expressions like “blown away” or “instantly fell in love”, but Case had me from the first lyric on this listen.
my love, i am the speed of sound
i left them motherless, fatherless
their souls dangling inside-out from their mouths
but it’s never enough
“This Tornado Loves You” is literally written from the perspective of a tornado, which, granted, seems pretty gimmicky and lame, but you can’t really front when the lyricism is this good. Middle Cyclone‘s lyrics are actually based almost entirely on themes of nature and animals. Growing up, Case’s favorite place was outside, where she felt a much stronger connection to animals than other kids. Songs like “I’m An Animal,” “Magpie to the Morning” and “Polar Nettles” are similarly based on Case’s experience and reaction to the outdoors.
Case has been haunted by remarks she made in interviews after Fox Confessor where she said she didn’t like writing love songs. In subsequent interviews she admits that she has certainly written songs about love, but not traditional love songs. This seems kind of naive to me. While it’s admirable of Case to write only about her passions, it’s foolish to think you can write a love song about a tornado without people (every person, probably, who doesn’t regularly read interviews with Neko Case) taking the lyrics for metaphor. And while the listener’s failure to properly interpret the lyrics doesn’t really lessen Middle Cyclone‘s worth, even some of the strongest songs end up missing the mark lyrically.
The most important part of any Case album, of course, is her voice. There’s nothing unfamiliar on Cyclone in this reguard. She is still singing strongly, with a sultry twang, and while most of my favorite female voices (Regina Spektor, Julie Doiron, St. Vincent) would fall under the umbrella of ‘cute’, Case’s voice is something more forceful than that – it’s beautiful. She sings with ferocity, but a country ferocity, not Karen O ferocity. By which I mean she kind of asserts her voice on the track, overtaking it. An intro could do anything on this record, but the song never starts until Case’s arresting voice does.
This, of course, is my roundabout way of saying that this album is great. I’ve listened to it probably ten times in the last couple days, simply because it’s been so conjoined with my head. This is absolutely the best Case material I’ve heard, and makes me wish I had considered checking her tour schedule before I made all my summer concert arrangements.
Check “This Tornado Loves You” out here:
This Tornado Loves You
And the video for “People Got A Lotta Nerve”:
