The point at which Neko Case twisted her country sound into something stranger and more magical, notably 2002’s Blacklisted and 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings The Blood, marks her peak. Like 2009’s Middle Cyclone, her latest album is less surprising musically, but the lyrics mark this as her most personal album yet. Finally, she’s allowing us to see the real Neko.
The album’s first half is swamped in confused gender and parental issues. In Wild Creatures, she chooses to be a king because there are “no mother’s hands to quiet me” and the following Night Still Comes asks “Is it ‘cause I’m a girl?” When she’s called a lady on I’m From Nowhere, she’s “surprised, ‘cause I’m still not too sure that’s what I wanna be.” Most overt of all is the punchy, uptempo Man, where Case retorts “You didn’t know what a man was, until I showed you” to a muscular guitar riff from M. Ward.
The real eye-opener here is the acapella centre-piece, Nearly Midnight, Honolulu, where Case recounts an angry parent lashing out at their child at an airport. It’s a forceful gesture, though it soon becomes an easy song to avoid, breaking the flow of an otherwise well track-listed album.
The Worse Things Get… is an album brimming with guests, from Jim James and A. C. Newman to members of Calexico, Mudhoney and Los Lobos. They stay well in the background, however, with Case once again making the stage her own with that stunning voice and continuing willingness to test the boundaries of alternative country music.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
Best track: Night Still Comes
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Warp And Weft LAURA VEIRS, Shut Down The Streets A.C. NEWMAN
In A Word: Hard-Case
