Neko Case is one of those artists who can’t quite crack my “must listen” list even though everything she does sounds great.
The major exception is her 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, which broke through to hold a spot among my favorite albums of that decade.
But the albums she’s released before and since just haven’t had the same lasting appeal.
Best Songs of 2013 – #19
On her latest solo album, the annoyingly titled The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, Neko Case delivers another batch of her signature smoky indie blues songs.
Today’s SOTD is one of the simplest, and the one that has stuck with me the most.
Neko Case epitomizes the need to hear an album multiple times before rendering a verdict. Her records are dense and nuanced… they sneak up on you and sometimes risk passing you by.
Case’s 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood remains her best work, and the epitome of her earthy alternative style. That album is so good that it’s hard not to compare her subsequent records to it, to their detriment.
That’s not really fair to the new work, but I guess that’s the curse of success.
#7 – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood – Neko Case
2006 was a strong year, placing four titles in this top ten list. Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood placed fourth at the time and the seven years since have seen it rise up a notch.
More than any record on this list, Fox Confessor typifies the idea of an album as a unified statement, not just a collection of songs.
Now here’s a song that I’d never heard before discovering it through this cover version. ‘Don’t Forget Me’ was originally written and recorded by Harry Nilsson for his 1974 album Pussy Cats.
That album was produced by John Lennon and features a wild cover of Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ as well as gentler fare like this. Apparently Nilsson and Lennon’s hard partying carried over into the studio and resulted in a wild, half-genius, half-WTF album.
Nilsson even ruptured a vocal cord during the sessions but kept it to himself, and you can hear his voice getting progressively more harsh through the record.
Meet Me In Montauk 