Neko Case
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
(Anti)
Neko Case is the American backbone of power-pop crusaders the New Pornographers and a flock of other acts who fight fashion by playing any good music that comes their way. Which isn't to say she's a nostalgia merchant. If only.
The reviewer's job would be much easier if we could simply say she's an alt.country siren. There's no easy access to Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. The only way in is through repeated listening. Case isn't crying out to be loved. She wants you to work a little to appreciate her baroque country music and dense, poetically ambitious lyrics. Keeping you company during this labour is her clear, sweeping voice and the musicianship of the Band pianist Garth Hudson, along with members of Canadian country rockers the Sadies and Calexico.
The album is full of references to folk tales from Ukraine and Russia. But the best songs deal with strong, lonely women looking for love but unwilling to fake it. Hold On, Hold On, the most hook-heavy of the songs, opens with: 'The most tender place in my heart is for strangers.'