Customer Reviews

Blacklisted

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Neko Case is perhaps, along with Kellie Hogan, the most interesting and accomplished vocalist to emerge out of the alternative country scene. Her voice is big and soulful, reminiscent of Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette at their best. But she uses this wonderful instrument in service of some really terrific, dark songs, with arrangements by turns traditional and edgy, to create a truly memorable album.

Case's lyrics impress with their melancholy and their poetry. Her themes are timeless, love, helplessness, breakup, loss.... the very stuff of country music, but as seen through a modern lens. Case's voice delivers her songs with a lovely full-throated sound, with a hint of blues and just the right amount of "twang"...not so much as to be nasal, but enough to give it the right country sound. The arrangements are spectacular. Things That Scare Me starts with an almost Appalachian mountain sound which lends a sense of dread to the song. Other great songs include Deep Red Bells, which has an almost Ghost-Riders-In-The-Sky style baritone guitar riff...Wish I Was the Moon, with it's folk ballad quality and Look For Me (I'll Be Around) which sounds like a modern update of a 1950s rockabilly ballad.

If you have a taste for vocals without the requisite Nashville gloss.... without the over produced arrangement....if you have a taste for sophisticated country music without the pop trappings, Neko Case is for you. She is the best Alternative Country has to offer.

Neko Case's is one of those very rare voices that sound beautiful singing the phone book. Not even the terrific Alice Peacock, intense songwriting genius Shannon Wright or Case's friend Kelly Hogan can lay claim to this. While Hogan's clarity and technique are superior (she sings backing vocals on Blacklisted), Case's singing has an urgency and utter conviction; when she lets her voice soar, it creates an almost transcendental sense of power. This is damn near the best vocal performance I've heard this year.

Her sound is superior, too -- shimmering, dramatic country-rock-torch soundscapes that evoke a dark, hazy but not depressing night in a country cottage, a swinging lantern overhead. Her songwriting is confident and poetic, coupled with terrific performances and recording to present her material in the best light possible. Furnace Room Lullaby, her last album (with her band, as Neko Case and Her Boyfriends), already introduced us to her intoxicating sound, but Blacklisted has even higher-quality material. "Deep Red Bells" is probably her best song yet, tricky time signatures with a big, strong, swelling lead vocal that navigates the twisty melodies deftly; "Lady Pilot" has that driving-along-a-desert-highway grandeur to it, all tremolo guitars, reverbed voices and shuffling beats. "Stinging Velvet"'s chiming acoustic strums literally pulsate with life, while "Pretty Girls" is an enchanting, bluesy lament that creates a mood unlike any other song I've heard in the past while.

Highly recommended. Amidst the current, looks-obsessed, assembly-line-manufactured country music, Neko Case is the shining diamond.

I sure do miss the old days of country and western music. You know, when it was actually called country and western and not "new" country. In fact, I guess I miss a lot about the older days of music, in general. The record industry in the past 10-15 years has been in a downward spiral for the most part, and the fact that independent labels are pushing out artists such as Neko Case has been the saving grace for me. Of these labels, I seem to be listening to a lot of records that move me in profound ways, but nothing that I can instinctively classify as timeless or perfect within a short period of time. I also don't ever find albums that I know within a few listens that I'm going to be spending the rest of my life appreciating.

You see, I've found that there are basically three types of artists. Those who try to push the envelope too far, those who do it simply for the paycheck, and those who make music with the purpose of leaving something great behind once they're gone. Neko fits into the third category, and the contribution of Blacklisted is the ultimate proof of this. With that being said, she has easily joined the ranks of some of America's most timeless and appreciated female country singers of all-time; and all in a very short matter of time. It's unfortunate that more people don't know the name Neko Case, but it's obvious that time is the only thing keeping her from being truly appreciated for her ability to belt out some of the most beautiful sounds around.

By today's standards, Neko Case is as pure and genuine as any singer/songwriter I've heard from any decade of this genre. Blacklisted, her most recent album, is without a doubt her finest work to date. As a whole, it's very cohesive, precise, rounded, and produced immaculately. Incorporating the expertise of musicians from various dusty-road Americana bands like Calexico, Giant Sand, and The Sadies (of which Neko also contributes to), Blacklisted is the resulting child of a great marriage of musicians.

Her ability to glide with the aid of lushly effected microphone reverb, Neko's voice soars over the beautiful imagery created by her backing band mates. There are about twenty different instruments used here, and most are strongly indicative of country and western music, which include: banjo, steel guitar, Hawaiian guitar, bass, cello, and organ. The combination of these instruments vibrantly paints colors of many small towns across this country.

With an album like Blacklisted, I could go on for several pages detailing every moment of its beauty. I could talk about how perfectly subtle the steel guitar is placed in a song like "I Wish I Was the Moon." I could go on about how incredibly well put together a song like "Deep Red Bells" is. I could also talk about how the entire album makes me want to buy an old pick-up truck to drive down country roads at dusk on a warm summer evening with only this album and the road in front of me. It'd be pretty pointless, though, as this is quite simply a timeless album that doesn't need over-inspection. I know it may seem like I'm taking the easy way out of this review, but believe me; I've listened to this album so many times since its release that I can only generalize my thoughts as a whole. Hopefully it'll suffice to say that you should just get a copy of this album and decide for yourself just how beautiful it is. Some of the best things in life speak for themselves, and Neko Case's Blacklisted is one of them.

Although I've read her work typified as "alt-country," a better way to describe Neko Case on BLACKLISTED is "country noir." Her beautiful voice drifts over rootsy, poignant, and even desolate arrangements with a haunting quality. And those lyrics... she is just a very talented woman.

Besides the great arrangements, Case's voice is a source of wonderment. She can whisper her melancholy or she can belt out poetry, and it sounds great either way. I particularly liked "Deep Red Bells," "I Wish I Was the Moon," and the strangely soulful "Runnin' Out of Fools."

SIDELIGHT: Just as cool jazz always sounds better at night, so does Neko Case's music. Try listening to any of BLACKLISTED's songs at different times and see if you agree.

Fred Rudofsky says: A full length followup to (and extension of) 2001's EP, CANADIAN AMP, BLACKLISTED is a mesmerizing, edgy and rewarding album worthy of repeat listenings. Featuring a dozen strkingly original compositions (wait about a minute after the cd's track listing ends and you'll get the hidden track) and two choice covers, the album lyrically and sonically explores the liminal territories between consciousness and sleep, love and loss, fact and fiction. It's got an overall sound that can best be described as the Grand Ole Opry (which ludicrously banned Neko for life--see this month's MAGNET magazine for details) if it were set in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. More so than on her previous works, Neko also plays more instruments-- various kinds of guitars, piano, and her first instrument, drums-- throughout the song cycle. Along the way, she's helped by musicians from Calexico, The Sadies and others from the Mint/Bloodshot sphere. The songs on BLACKLISTED that I've found myself coming back to today on the day of its release include the surreal "Lady Pilot", the menacing "Pretty Girls" (which was featured in the film THE GIFT), the existential blues of "I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight" (a song that evokes for me the intense ongoing loneliness of American life that Fitzgerald explores in THE GREAT GATSBY), and the stunning Aretha Franklin cover, "Running Out of Fools" which features a cry from Neko that's certain to give you goosebumps. I can't say enough about this album except that I plan to get copies for family and friends, ASAP. Like the work of Tom Waits, Evan Johns, and Toni Price, Neko Case's BLACKLISTED transcends genre labels and is utterly distinctive. In short, Neko Case is an extraordinary talent, one who has moved into the upper ranks of the singer-songwriters with this masterwork. BLACKLISTED will appeal not only to hardcore Neko fans but also to first-time listeners as well.

To limit Neko Case to the category of country or alt-country would, I think, miss the point. Her work with New Pornographers should indicate that her musical interests and influences are more wide-ranging and, consequently, deserving of broader attention. Which is not to diminish the quality of the country-inflections of this album, for they are country in mood and timbre, not in artifice or image. The result is one of authenticity--personal authenticity, that is, not an "authentic" recasting of something someone else has done before.

It's tempting to state that she possesses the best voice going, but that's a matter of taste and opinion. Objectively, though, she uses her voice to communicate the message of her songs to great effect, which at once demonstrates the unquestionable talent, emotional maturity, and sonorous depth that many strive for but few achieve. I go back to the word 'authentic.'

The sound of her voice is not unfamiliar, maybe because her range demonstrates vocal similarities with other well-known vocalists, but what Neko Case lacks is a quality that could ever cause her voice to become tiresome. Other singers with comparable talent, such as Natalie Merchant (though I don't mean to be unkind), seem to believe their hype or go to the well one too many times and end up infusing every performance with an exploitation of the vocal quirks that first caught our attention. After a while, it becomes cloying, like an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo.

Neko, on the other hand, is unique but not merely quirky, and seems to be intent on sharing her musical journey through life by refusing to be anything but genuine about her personal shortcomings with a voice that apparently has none. I have a wicked crush....

BLACKLISTED is a superb collection of songs sung to the extreme by alt-county chantreuse Neko Case. She has created a masterpeice that I would describe as Patsy Cline produced by David Lynch. A collection of haunted performances that linger long after the disk is done. On top of that, I WISH I WERE THE MOON is a song of shear poetry and beauty, DEEP RED BELLS close behind.

After quenching her pop thirst with The New Pornographers last year, one might have thought that Neko Case would go on back to the country. Instead, she ditched her backing band of "boyfriends" on a dusty highway and headed towards the desert where she hooked up with the men from Calexico (Joey Burns & John Covertino) and Giant Sand (Howe Gelb). She rounded out the core of this lineup by drafting label mate Dallas Good from the Sadies, as well as adding steel guitarist Jon Rauhouse and ex-Bottle Rocket bassist, Tom V. Ray, to her gang. With this posse of sharp shooters backing her, she recorded Blacklisted: an album full of top-notch country noir and ghostly torch songs that has the same dusty juke box timelessness as Dylan's Time Out of Mind.
Although the "guys" deserve a lot of credit for their deft musicianship and willingness to pull out their collection of antique instruments (including Wurlitzer, accordion, vibes, pump organ, baritone and tenor guitars), the star of this show is definitely Ms. Case. Her improved songwriting skills are apparent on the 11 originals she's penned for this album. Her voice, bathed in reverb, has never sounded better. This record finally validates those comparisons with country greats like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Like them, she has a strong, emotive voice that snaps heads to attention with the unique ability to sound both tough and vulnerable at the same time. How could one not fall to pieces hearing the lonely laments of tracks like "Tightly" or "I Wish I Was The Moon?"

Similarly, few vocalists could match the booming strength of Case's voice on the second track, "Deep Red Bells." Like Cline, her voice is full of arresting heartache. And while these comparisons certainly ring true, Case's music has a spooky, otherworldly glow that is all her own. Each track is a cinematic vignette of Lynchian proportions, as she sings of being "haunted by American dreams" and "murder on the interstate." Talk about songs of the lost highway.

Also like Lynch, Case seems hell-bent on committing sacrilege in her respected field. How else can one explain the brass it takes to cover the legendary jazz diva, Sarah Vaughn, and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, on the same album? Yet, she pulls both of them off with startling success. Vaughn's "Look For Me (I'll be Around)" and Franklin's "Runnin' Out of Fools," are so gorgeously sung that Case could claim them as her own. That is to say that these covers more than stand up to the originals, which is no small feat when considering the size of Vaughn and Franklin's shoes.

The album wraps up with a hidden track reprise of "Outro With Bees," made to sound like an old AM radio broadcast being tuned in. Though it's not stated, I'd be willing to bet that this is the work of Howe Gelb since it has the same experimental crackle that he's known for on his own records. It works well here, and reminds listeners of the random beauty that can sometimes drift out of the radio on bleary-eyed midnight drives.

In the end, it's pretty clear what I think about this record. It admittedly caught me by surprise, as I had prematurely dismissed Neko Case as part of the alt-country gold rush back in 1997. If any readers were similarly inclined, it may be time for a re-evaluation. This coal miner's daughter has cut a diamond of a record.

Barin McGrath
Junkmedia Review

Neko Case is a little lady with a great big voice. Unlike most female singers in "country" music, Neko writes her own material, so this album should be judged as much by the material as the performance. Fortunately, Blacklisted is a triumph on both scores. Upon first listening, I found it a bit remote and less accessible than Furnace Room Lullaby, a truly great album. But as Rubber Soul gave way to Revolver, which gave way to Sergeant Pepper, it's sometimes uncomfortable as an artist grows. And this album has indeed grown on me. The album begins with "Things That Scare Me", a song that would fit right into Furnace Room Lullaby, but from there the journey grows darker from "Deep Red Bells" with it's imagery of death on the interstate to the deeply disturbing "Lady Pilot" who's not afraid to die. The title track "Blacklisted" could be the theme song to a David Lynch film noir, or even a James Bond film over the opening credits, as red blood covers the screen. The song ends with the lyrics "slow down fast train, take me with you", and the last track "Ghost Wiring" repeats the themes of loneliness and loss. For my money, the best performances go to the two cover songs "Runnin' Out of Fools" and the straight-ahead torch song "Look for Me, (I'll Be Around)." In person, Neko comes across as happy, or at least cheerful. I think she exorcises her demons in her music, and you know, she exorcises mine too. I always feel better after hearing her.

Any time I put this CD in the stereo, it stays for weeks. Any CD by Neko Case, really. It takes hold of my life and I'm unable to listen to anything else until I've gotten it out of my system for the hundredth time. But this one especially. With backing from such alt-folk/country luminaries as Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino, the Sadies' Dallas Good, and Giant Sand man Howe Gelb, there's just something special about Blacklisted.

Building on the twangy country-pop of her second album, Furnace Room Lullaby, Blacklisted is more complex and soulful, with more inscrutable lyrics. Opening with the words, "florescent lights engage black birds, fryin' on a wire; same birds that followed me to school when I was young," and Jon Rauhaus' banjo picking stirring up images of Deliverance, the opening track, "Things That Scare Me," introduces a thread of anxiety into the country-folk stew. "Deep Red Bells" ups the anxiety quotient with lyrical imagery of highway deaths causing untold emotional damage, and Dallas Good's eerie, loping guitar lines. Neko's canyon-filling voice has never been bigger. "Lady Pilot" hints at airplane crashes, and the title track spins a lyrical metaphor of Neko's desire for escape - "fast train," she cries over Dallas Good's darkly twanging guitar, "where do your passengers wait? What's at the heart of your engine's rage?"

Not every Neko metaphor is so easily understood. "Red wine is fast at the lip of your glass, and I'm gonna ruin everything," she coos over Howe Gelb's saloon piano tinkling on "Outro With Bees." It sounds like Neko's the scorned mistress, but lasting only a minute, 30 seconds, it's hard to tell what she means by the song. Another shorty (barely 2 minutes) is the lilting, Patsy Cline-ish "Tightly," with such inscrutable lyrics as "When I'm walking under trees, I'm free to covet all I please; new moon's in the alley and it's madness." I'd love to hear another verse or two, as I would of the swinging country two-step, "Stinging Velvet" (just under 3 minutes), but on this record, Neko seems to be practicing her ability to say and play what she wants in a shorter amount of time.

She makes up for it in a big way with her cover of "Runnin' Out of Fools," the one Aretha had a hit with. Neko slinks around the verses and wails on every high note with perfect pitch. I've seen her do it live and can attest to the chills she never fails to produce every time she sings this song. Her other cover, the classic "Look For Me (I'll Be Around)" showcases another slinky vocal performance and Joey Burns' cool touch on the vibes. Not to mention, it has some of my favorite lyrics about girls who wait in the wings.

Neko has her own message for women, too. "Pretty Girls" is her cautionary tale for...well, pretty girls, a song Loretta Lynn might have written had she grown up contending with modern standards of beauty. With lyrics like "wind your flimsy blue gowns tight around you, around curves so comely and sinister; they blame it on you pretty girls," Neko's caring advice seems to mask a touch of venom. "I Wish I Was the Moon," a lilting tearjerker featuring Joey Burns' subtle accordion and Jon Rauhaus' weeping pedal steel, seems to express Neko's weariness of the dating game. But her wry humor hasn't left her, as she openly states, "How will you know when you've found me at last? I'll be the one with my heart in my lap."

Blacklisted comes full circle with the `60s-influenced album closer, "Ghost Wiring," like Patsy or Loretta hanging out with The Animals in the studio. Images of schoolgirl anxiety introduced on "Things That Scare Me" return ("wet shoes drag you off to school, shoes that never dry; crows curse and beat their wings"). And Neko scores a major coup, convincing reclusive Canadian singer Mary Margaret O'Hara to join her in the studio and sing a few lines in her eerie, quavery voice. Being a true lover of so many styles of great music, its no surprise Neko crafted Blacklisted with loving care. She must have a thing for lying down in album photos, though. She's tucked under the bumper of her moving van on the cover, and flopped out with some deer and hay on the back. Inscrutable as always, but deeply engrossing nonetheless.