REVIEW -- NEKO CASE: MIDDLE CYCLONE

Neko Case

Middle Cyclone

(Anti-)

Like Jenny Lewis, indie-rock’s other redheaded pinup, Neko Case never seems to have as much fun on her own albums as she does on the ones she makes with her part-time band. Lewis’ two solo records are mostly joyless, airless listens. She saves her spunk for Rilo Kiley. Likewise, Case lets her hair down for the New Pornographers but ties it in a tight, proper knot for her solo albums. On Middle Cyclone, her fifth studio CD, she finally has some fun. She’s still moody, conjuring ghostly spirits and crafting torch-country and splintered pop tunes. But the album’s earthy tone mingles nicely with Case’s big, open-prairie voice. She plays Mother Nature here, becoming a 65-mile-wide twister on the opening “This Tornado Loves You,” an instinctive creature on “I’m an Animal,” and the hippie messenger who warns “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth.” And when she claims “I’m a man eater” on “People Got a Lotta Nerve,” she’s not a love-’em-and-leave-’em vamp; she’s a whale. Swelling strings, acoustic guitars, overlapping pianos, and thick slabs of reverb all figure into Middle Cyclone’s busy but never cluttered mix. The record’s theme of tornadoes, twisters, cyclones, or whatever you want to call them is sucked into this vortex of sound. Case, meanwhile, holds on for dear life and emerges with the best album of her career. --Michael Gallucci