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Neko Case
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
(Anti-)
The Music Box's #2 album of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, May 2006, Volume 13, #5
Written by John Metzger
Neko Case has a big voice, and from her debut The Virginian through
2002’s Blacklisted, it has towered over her material; garnered her a slew
of comparisons to country legend Patsy Cline; and earned her a sizeable,
cult-like following. In a sense, it was all that mattered, and it effectively
drew attention away from the fact that her abilities as a songwriter and
lyricist lagged behind her talent as a vocalist. After all, The Virginian
blended original compositions with a plethora of country covers, and she had
assistance in crafting all but one of the tunes on the subsequent Furnace
Room Lullaby. Still, there were hints that she had greater aspirations — not
the least of which was a gradual assumption of control that, commensurate with
her development, began to come to fruition within the haunted sparseness of
Blacklisted. Though her albums have been too scattered and unfocused to be
considered anything close to perfect, there always were at least a few, pure
gems lurking inside: Furnace Room Lullaby’s South Tacoma Way and
Blacklisted’s Things that Scare Me, among them. Too often,
however, her finer compositions were lost within a stream of similar sounding
fare. Simply put, Case was good, but she wasn’t, yet, great.
All of this has changed dramatically with the release of her ambitious, new
outing Fox Confessor Brings the Flood because Neko Case finally has made
an album that warrants all of the hype that she has received. Exuding a level of
confidence that previously had been missing from her work, she not only has
taken a giant leap forward, but she also has sculpted a near perfect, 12-song
endeavor that finds her successfully shrugging off the alt-country tag that had
been pinned to her since The Virginian. Building upon the David Lynch-ian
ambience of Blacklisted, Case folded elements of soul, country, folk,
gospel, and pop as well as touches of surf rock and California-bred psychedelia
into the 36-minute affair. The Needle Has Landed, for example, hints at
R.E.M.; That Teenage Feeling evokes The Shangri Las; and taken in full,
the collection expands upon the ghostly world of Jesse Sykes’ Oh, My Girl.
Augmenting Blacklisted’s supporting cast of The Sadies, Jon Rauhouse,
Brian Connelly, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, and Calexico’s Joey Burns and John
Convertino, with Kelly Hogan, Visqueen’s Rachel Fotard, and The Band’s Garth
Hudson, Case concocts for Fox Confessor Brings the Flood boldly textured
music that matches, step-for-step, the power inherent in her vocals. Therefore,
when she does forsake the layered atmospherics in order to revel in the quiet
beauty of a song like The Widow’s Toast, the result becomes all the more
sad, somber, and chilling. Consequently, she no longer appears to be trying to
imitate Patsy Cline. Instead, she now sounds entirely like Neko Case.
Nevertheless, it is as a lyricist that Case has made her greatest strides.
Playing the role of the omnipotent narrator, she keenly provides enough detail
on Fox Confessor Brings the Flood to establish a mood, and by enveloping
the words that she sings within cinematically colored arrangements, she suitably
enhances their effectiveness. Themes of death and fate pervade the endeavor, as
do her frequent references to animals — the title track, for example, is based
upon a Ukranian folk tale. These commonalities combined with her intentionally
vague storylines allow for each song to lend meaning to the next, while also
leaving plenty of room for a myriad of interpretations. Like fragmented
snapshots, her tales unwind with poetic deliberation — at times, drawing to mind
the work of Paul Simon. The jumbled chronology of Star Witness, the
rich-girl/poor-girl dichotomy of Margaret vs. Pauline, and the disturbing
descent into madness that is chronicled on The Dirty Knife are but a few
of the highlights from Case’s gothic American masterpiece. In essence, Fox
Confessor Brings the Flood is not only the pinnacle of Case’s young career,
but it also just may be the album to beat in 2006. At the very least, it’s the outing
that ought to put her on a much bigger map.  ½
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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