Neko Case Neon Grey Midnight Green
Like many, I’ve been entranced by Neko Case’s voice since the first time I heard it. It really set in when I listened to her 2007 release, Live from Austin, TX, particularly in the two minutes, 15 seconds of guitar strummed perfection, “Knock Loud.” The key to that song, though, was the writing – simple, sparse phrases and images that asked the listener to piece the backstory (in this case, of two former lovers) together. Across her decades-long career, Case has dabbled in any number of genres, but there have been two constants – that voice, and her almost mystical approach to storytelling. Both are present on her ninth album (and first in seven years), Neon Grey Midnight Green. While she dives full-on into the kind of love-and-loss questions present in the mind anyone who’s spent more than 50 years as a sentient being, her approach to the answers is still uniquely Neko Case.
One of the stand-out features of Neon Grey Midnight Green is evident from its first moment – the inclusion of the PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra. The ensemble, a Colorado-based project from Mackenzie Miller (of Denver Violins) and Tom Hagerman (of Colorado legends Devotchka), leads off “Destination” before Case opens the door with “Hello, Stranger/You remind me of someone/A jangling lust” (pretty good opening line). We get descriptive glimpses of this Stranger (“Your fire’s hue/A maraschino cherry,” “Your tongue a chewed straw”), but the images serve to tell us more about what they represent – a refusal to easily capitulate: “A word of advice/From here in the daylight/Stay off the highroad/It’s a sneering code/A lazy border boundary to “I don’t wanna know.” First single “Wreck” throws those same strings and winds into an otherwise-standard Case indie rocker featuring the singer’s shaky confession of love – “Please come back soon/Sooner than you want to/It’s the only thing in this whole world/That will please me.”
It’s the uncertain, almost involuntary acknowledgments of love – the decidedly non-love songs – that form the heart (so to speak) of Neon Grey Midnight Green. The best example is “Rusty Mountain,” an acoustic-and-strings refutation of the silly love songs that have been around even longer than, well, “Silly Love Songs.” Case opens the tune with “Love songs mostly sound the same/An exercise in futility, for me” and even calls out the sap commonly heard on our airwaves – “I round on this chorus with most unholy gorge/Take your radio and shove it!” But it’s not love she wants to dispense with – it’s the dishonesty surrounding it. As she says, “We all deserve better/Than a love song.” Whether it’s her uneasy self from “Wreck” – “I’m a meteor shattering around you/And I’m sorry” – or using her own “divergent insight” (in “Rusty Mountain”) to finally enable herself to put her faith in that erstwhile Stranger – “But now you’re here and you kindly remind me/That I’m not a stranger/If I ever was” – it’s her admitting that she’s been changed by life’s damage, but there’s still room for love. Even when, at some point, it’s no longer something to sing about.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Match-Lit” – The last song on the record contains a dramatic string intro and shimmery guitars, but my favorite moment is her unique description of lighting a match – “It flows out of your arm like a cursive explosion.” No one quite bends the English language like Neko Case does.
Neon Grey Midnight Green was produced by Neko Case, mixed by Case and Tucker Martine, engineered by Jeff Galegher and mastered by Heba Kadry. Songs written by Neko Case and Paul Rigby (“Tomboy Gold,” “Winchester Mansion of Sound” and “Little Gears” written by Case). Musicians on the album include Case (lead and backing vocals, electric guitars, baritone guitars, sleigh bells, acoustic guitar, Nashville guitar), Rigby (guitars), Rachel Flotard (backing vocals), Sebastian Steinberg (bass), Steve Moore (keys, synth), John Convertino (drums), Richard Reed Perry (EBow, bowed upright bass, backing vocals), Adam Schatz (keys, sax, synth, bass clarinet, effects), Steve Berlin (baritone sax), Nora O’Connor (backing vocals), Anna Butterss (bass), Kyle Crane (drums, percussion), Jon Rauhouse (pedal steel), Mark Cisneros (guitars) and the PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Sara Parkinson, arrangements by Tom Hagerman).
Go here to order Neon Grey Midnight Green (out September 26): https://store.nekocase.com/
Check out tour dates here: https://nekocase.com/tour
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Show Review: Neko Case Thrills Crowd in DC’s Lincoln Theatre with Balanced Selection
