Neko Case delivers another powerful album
NEKO CASE “HELL-ON” (ANTI)
In the song “Bad Luck,” Neko Case makes a self-deprecating comment about “trying to pass riddles as poetry.” Which is something she’s never done. Because she doesn’t have to.
Last year, I wrote a book about Gord Downie. While contemplating his lyrics, I tried to think of other songwriters with a similar sense of oblique wordplay and metaphor — not just people like Bob Dylan or Beck or other obfuscators, but people who were closest to Downie on several levels. I could think of only two: Paul Simon post “Graceland,” and Neko Case.
Case is not just an incredible singer (which is obvious) and an evocative sound sculptor as a producer (which is not as obvious to most people), but it’s her words that truly set her apart: she is one of those rare songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Vic Chesnutt) who are just as interesting to read on the page as poetry as they are to listen to. Even when the music falters, there is usually a great poem still remaining.
With Case, as her writing gets better, her music becomes less immediate, less obvious. There are pop songs here, including “Bad Luck” and a cover of the timeless Crooked Fingers ballad, “Sleep All Summer,” which she sings with the song’s composer (and her occasional touring guitarist) Eric Bachmann. There’s a duet with Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age). She co-writes two songs with her New Pornographers bandmate Carl Newman, and co-produces a few tracks with Björn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John. Beth Ditto and k.d. lang show up, because Amazonian warriors travel in packs. But make no mistake, Case is not bending in anyone’s direction: “Hell-On” is full of sad waltzes, rich sonic textures and very few visceral thrills. It’s a heady record, on every level. Read a few interviews with Case, and she’ll send you down wormholes of historical exploration to contextualize her writing, though she’s also more than capable of writing a straight-up narrative (“Curse of the I-5 Corridor”).
“I just wanted to feel music … We just wanted to be music,” she sings on “Winnie.” With everything Neko Case does, one can hear every intention behind every note. She doesn’t take her job lightly. Neither should you.
Stream: “Sleep All Summer,” “Bad Luck,” “Winnie”
TAMI NEILSON “SASSAFRASS!” (OUTSIDE)
It’s not clear what this North American tree has to do with any of the songs on the new Tami Neilson album, unless she’s a big fan of traditional root beer or Indigenous medicine. More than likely, it’s a fun way of saying, “Sassy!” Which Ms. Neilson most definitely is.
Neilson is a Canadian expat living in New Zealand, where she’s become a country music star with her decidedly retro vibe à la Patsy Cline or Wanda Jackson, but with the vocal pipes of a gospel singer — one track here, “Miss Jones,” pays direct tribute to the R&B singer Sharon Jones. She must be truly seen to be believed. (she’s playing this year’s Mariposa Festival, on the July 6 weekend.) But her records aren’t too shabby either.
Neilson’s last record, “Don’t Be Afraid,” was her most personal, and her most bluesy. Here, she gets topical: “Kitty Cat” and particularly “Smoking Gun” appear to be written after the #MeToo movement broke. Further feminism appears in a song with the chorus, “This whole world turns on a woman’s pain.”
Musically, “SASSAFRASS!” is her most diverse: there are plenty of almost campy rockabilly rave-ups, several nods to soul music and dramatic ballads guaranteed to be heartbreakers, notably “Manitoba Sunrise at Motel 6,” a song that should be loaned out to k.d. lang — although she’d have her work cut out for her after Neilson’s version.
Stream: “Diamond Ring,” “A Woman’s Pain,” “Manitoba Sunrise at Motel 6”
CARLO “CARLO” (MAGNEPHONIC)
Here’s your summer BBQ soundtrack right here. Carlo is a trio from Ottawa and Toronto who, despite apparent geographic challenges, are an incredibly tight instrumental funk band that bring back the best memories of the Meters and Booker T and the MGs. Led by Kelsey McNulty on keyboards, with James Taylor (no, not that one) on guitar and Scott McCannell on bass — no fewer than five drummers fill that chair on this record — and with occasional slight excursions into spaghetti Western, surf and reggae territory, along with some songs could be TV game-show themes from the ’60s, Carlo is ready to play your next beach party. And if you know any old-school soul singers looking for a backup band, point them in Carlo’s direction. But if that doesn’t happen, they’re more than just fine on their own.
Stream: “Ride,” “Corolla,” “Meathead”