Customer Reviews

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Bonus Track)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Neko Case's stock must be on the rise - I saw this CD on the "new releases" page of the weekly Best Buy ad, the page usually reserved for the likes of Christina Aguilera and Matchbox 20. This may be her "crossover" album into mainstream success, and I'd be crazy to say it isn't well-deserved. There are two sides to Neko - the rockin' singer in the New Pornographers (whose popularity also seems on the upswing), and the countrified chanteuse of her solo albums. She's been compared vocally more than once to Patsy Cline, and that's a fair analogy. Her clear, achy voice rings out through all these songs, which seem generally more folky, and even at times jazzy, than on the previous albums, which were more steeped in country tradition. There are hints of gospel too (the traditional "John Saw That Number"). The strongest tracks for me, hearing this for the third time, are "Hold On Hold On" and "Star Witness". "That Teenage Feeling" is another fine song (I love the illustration for it in the booklet: a runaway tractor-trailer with "I love you" painted on the side.) The cover art is a bit odd in an Edward-Gorey kind of way, and some of her lyrics are a bit surreal. Also, the production is "alt-country reverb", an effect also used by bands like My Morning Jacket - I find it a little annoying after a while. But quibbles aside, there's no masking or denying That Voice, one of the most impressive in pop music right now. And I'm glad she's getting the widespread recognition she deserves.

With her flaming red hair and imposing good looks, Neko Case strikes an impressive pose, but that's nothing compared to the development of her singing and songwriting over the past few years. This album bathes her strong voice with echoing reverb, making her tales of love and loss seem even more apocalyptic. Case mixes country, folk and pop with an unusual deftness that sets her apart from the veritable army of female singer songwriters on todays music scene, and with backup from the likes of Calexico, one of the finest roots rock groups around, the music meshes very well with the lyrics.

Songs like "Star Witness" and "Margaret vs. Pauline" tackle working class themes and issues without the slightest smirk and are devastating performances. Surprising, yet equally powerful are the gospel influences in the music, most overtly brought forth in "John Saw That Number." But the theme that most pervades the album is one of hope amidst a great struggle, exemplified by songs like "That Teenage Feeling" and "Maybe Sparrow" which acknowledge the hardships of ordinary life but never give into depression or clinched optimism, just small hard won triumphs. This album itself is a triumph of class, dignity and open minded musicians drawing from many different genres and ideas to create an impressive cohesive whole.

i have been a loyal fan of Neko case ever since her voice stopped me dead in my tracks on the song "Twist The Knife" from the Furnace Room Lullabye album. and i have been set to pounce and devour any new album that comes out with her on it. on her earlier works (like Furnace Room Lullabye), she seemed like she was growing into her role as a solo performer and as a singer with a blessed set of beautiful pipes. the music seemed fit for her voice and most of it seemed as though it were written specifically for her in mind (including the cover songs, strangely enough).

then, when Blacklisted came was released, there was a sense of change in the air. nothing in her overall sound was drastically overhauled, but there was a certain "witchy" way that had crept into the sonic pallete. the songs seemed to grow more ghostly, the lyrics a bit more obscure, and the overall atmosphere had garnered a little bit more fog, and more dust.

in this environment, Neko seemed to really find her voice. not the outer voice, but something channeled from deep inside her.

now, with her excellent Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (is that title obscure enough for ya?) album; all the elements seem to have fallen into place and the results are nothing short of spectacular. the opening salvo of "Margaret Vs. Pauline," "Star Witness," and "Hold On, Hold On" are enough to warrant purchase of the album immedietely. each song seems to be woven from a quilt of country music's past greats and yet infuses them with a disctincly hazy, reverb-soaked haze that would make your average David Lynch fan take notice. within these first three songs, there also seems to be a bit of a harmonic nod to older folky bands such as The Mamas & The Papas and The Byrds. just a touch of that jingle-jangle, like a freshly squeezed lemon over tuna steak.

once we get deeper into the album, things get a little less jangly and a darker hue tends to form (with an exception to the rousing gospel-flecked "John Saw That Number"...surely a future live crowd pleaser). the title track is full of perplexing riddles sung with conviction and with a vague sense of storytelling while ther swampy night air seems to leak forth from the stereo speakers. "Dirty Knife" and "Lion's Jaws" seem like sister songs, attached back to back in the album's tracklisting and both echo the black and white noir of a mysterious late-night exploration. there is something sinister, sad, and thrilling within these songs and they demand my listening attention the more that i hear this album.

my one minor gripe is that a few of these songs seem unfinished. "That Teenage Feeling" for instance careens along with a delicious groove and a wallop of a chorus but then seems to lose steam and the song ends far too quickly. it seems almost like a sketch of a song or a quick intermission before moving onto bigger and more realized cuts from the cd. one more (minor?) gripe is that i'm just not sure if i like the album's artwork. i really looove the drawings and pictures used for the front and back cover...but the layout of these pictures just seems to make the overall thing look bland. I'm not crazy about the colour scheme the inside booklet contains alot of doodles, sketches, and photos; which is cool. but it seems to carry a random awkwardness along with it. there are no lyrics included in the booklet.

these small complaints don't detract from my opinion of the album as a whole. i've been listening to it quite a lot since it was first released and it took me a few listens to fully come to embrace it. but it is without question, a stellar recording and one of my favorite discs released in 2006. seek it out along with Neko case's other fine albums.

This is the most complex album Neko Case has done. Her lyrics, which have always leaned toward obscure personal references, have never been more allegorical. Her music, which showcases elements of country, pop, folk, rockabilly and soul, has never been more multi-layered. My problem with this record is that just when I begin to settle into a song, tap my toes, bob my head...the song is over. The title track, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," mines Neko's particular brand of darkly twisting country pop, with some eerie guitar work by Giant Sand man Howe Gelb. But just as the song doubles back on itself and begins to repeat a theme, it's done. The same could be said of "Dirty Knife." Just as it builds into an eerie, murderous folk ballad (with help from Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino), the song ends. "Lion's Jaws" sighs and sways like a romantic `60s pop ballad, but just as you begin to sway with it, the song's through.

Neko has said in interviews that she believes her songs have more meaning and power if she says what she has to say and gets out, a practice she began on her third record, Blacklisted. But I'd love to hear a few more verses of the lilting "Maybe Sparrow," which clocks in at just over 2 & a half minutes, or the wistful "At Last," which is just over 1 minute, 20 seconds. Each song is an unfinished symphony that hints at only the tip of the iceberg.

When Neko gives a song her full attention and time, she is capable of miracles. She hits it out of the park with "John Saw That Number" (as in John the Baptist), a traditional spiritual she arranged with loving care, and help from her usual supporting cast - Kelly Hogan, Jon Rauhaus, Calexico, and the Sadies' Dallas Good - into a full-fledged country-gospel call-and-response, like the Carter Family went to church. It's an uplifting, hand-slapping song. The opening track, "Margaret vs. Pauline," is countrypolitan Patsy Cline singing in a piano bar. Never mind that you can't quite figure what Neko means by "girl with the parking lot eyes, Margaret is the fragments of a name," or come away with the vague idea that Pauline just might be the goat-legged girl on the album cover, chatting up some foxes with a conspicuous red-haired head under her arm. The song is a harbinger of the multi-layered richness to come.

"Star Witness," my favorite Neko song to date, is a lovely, lilting countrypolitan waltz filled with fairytale imagery ("hey, there's such deadly wolves `round the town tonight"), contrasted with images of urban squalor and violence ("go on, go on and scream and cry, you're miles from where anyone will find you"). Neko has said the song is about the death of a young African-American boy by gunfire that she witnessed in Chicago. In contrast to the almost surreal loveliness of "Star Witness," "Hold On, Hold On" folk-rocks out like the Carter Family hanging out with the Byrds. "That Teenage Feeling" swings into a little `60s garage rock, with girl-group harmonies courtesy of Neko and Rachel Flotard, like the Carter Family, the Shangri-Las and The Animals all got together in the studio. (Ever since the release of The Tigers Have Spoken, Neko's 2004 live CD of covers and originals, featuring a rousing version of "This Little Light," sung in a round with members of alt-country band Jim & Jennie & the Pinetops and her usual supporting cast, Neko's affinity for multi-layered harmonies has grown, as have comparisons to country music's first family, the Carters.)

More than any of Neko's previous albums, Fox Confessor is as complex and layered as a Vidalia onion. With lyrics like, "The most tender place in my heart is for strangers; I know it's unkind, but my own blood is much too dangerous; hanging `round the ceiling half the time," it's nearly as inscrutable. And being the music-loving perfectionist Neko is, she's crafted it with utmost care. If you want a more straightforward Neko album, check out Canadian Amp, the mini-album she released to coincide with her 2005 tour. Check out 2000's Furnace Room Lullaby, or even 2002's Blacklisted - both definitely worth any discerning music listener's time. And then get into Fox Confessor. You'll see how Neko has grown as a composer, a musician, and, when she really takes the time, as a songwriter unlike any other songwriter out there. Glory, hallelujah.

I saw Neko Case play live a few years ago, and the only way I can describe it is "N*pple-bursting good." When her voice washed over me, my skin tightened, my hair stood up, and my soul started searching for a way out of my flesh, it wanted so badly to soar out over the crowd to join her in the muscial creations she fashioned. So I bought every one of her then-available albums. And have continued to do so. I never thought I would hear a song as incredible as "Deep Red Bells," which I play every time I want to be terrified and inspired, but the tunes on this new album are all equally fine. What's funny is that when I put it on for the first time, I was unsure of it, ready to be disappointed, because I was so unsettled by the unexpected directions each song took off in. As my boyfriend said, it's impossible to anticipate where she's going, but somehow inevitable once she's gotten there. And it's true. By the second time I played this album (two minutes after the first time!) I was in love all over again. The musicians who collaborate with her are all incredibly talented and whether they chime in on vocals or provide the sensational guitar and piano (I think this is the first time I've heard piano in Case's collection) or dark, frightening cello, they set a fascinating mood. I just wish she'd included the song lyrics in the liner notes (which contain some awesome photos and drawings she did herself). And I wish she'd lingered a bit more over some of the songs - I don't mind a lack of traditional structure, but I did want them to reach their maximum potential, that aching, lonely, glorious rapture of which she's uniquely capable. Overall, this album is an uplifting, sometimes chilling, always undeniable reaffirmation that there's still a great deal of talent out there. In some ways it's a shame more people don't know about this artist, but in other ways, I think the lack of industry fame preserves the integrity of what she's doing. In any 'Case', I'm so glad I found her music!

This CD didn't grab me at first -- but somehow, I kind of knew right from the start that it would. I got it to my car. The first song ("Margaret vs. Pauline") started, the music starts off with some innocent strumming, and then all at once hits the most haunting chord progression -- not the innocent kind of anthem I expected from anything with "country" in its description. That's what sat sour the first couple listens: the chord progressions did what they wanted, the songs seemed ready to conform to expectations but then didn't, the melodies changed at will, the production was shimmering and almost too-clean.... It's awkward at first, like a first date or something; it's later that these things precisely, these incongruities, mold it into perfection........

It's all right there, in that first most-unpredictable song, though; all the complexities and paradoxes that come together to, after a little adjusting, make this album a collective masterpiece. First there's the voice: spectacular, evocative, emotive....... Almost too good, at first; the kind of voice that breeds walking puppets, like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. It anticipates flimsy songwriting propped up by indiscriminate wailing -- another cliché of music that is hard to get past at first. Only here, it is used for its own devices... with a nostalgia and respect for tradition, but a startling independence to go with it that gives weight to every note.

Then there are the lyrics which give the voice that weight. Like any good country, they tell stories; only these stories, like the voice, embrace the tradition but leave out the stereotypes. "Margaret and Pauline" for instance: a "story" miles removed from one too many at the bar. Case, instead, uses the voice to give the imagery of two women, "rivals" who probably don't even know each other: one a sex goddess, the other luckless. The lyrics, superficially, say nothing: "The girl with the parking lot eyes / Margaret is the fragments of a name." But emotively, they say everything a create an image that seems to go right to the heart of the matter. Along with the wonderful line of the hard-luck girl's (who had three fingers chopped off) bravery and courage being turned into a spectacle, as fake pictures of the Lochness monster. Who can't relate to stuff like that? It's so profoundly human...... there is nothing political here (I think the religious song is a wonderful touch, on that note), just slightly skewed stories about people and living, and capturing all of the depth of living.

The music is next. It is silky clean, also in the country tradition. Here, indeed, it takes the best of country: relaxed instruments giving each other space, nothing frantic nor hurried nor self-serving about any of it. But, as not really a country fan, this is one aspect of the CD that I did not like at first, until I observed how well it suited Case; how much space it gave to her voice and imagery, how it created a perfect backdrop, like a scene at a musical. But where the music itself is calm, the songwriting is incredibly adventurous for "country." The songs go wherever they want. This is frustrating at first, as it seems to undermine fluidity; but in the long run, after a number of listens, comes the ability to anticipate the changes...... then they no longer throw one off, but do what they are supposed to: give the album a vibrancy, and an ability to adapt and not get bogged down in melodies that lose their spark -- even within a song.

Out of this whole a few highlights stand out ("State Witness," "Hold On, Hold On," etc), But ultimately, it's great songs contributing to an eclectic whole, with songs that stand well both alone and in the wider context. The time spent assembling this masterpiece was well used.

One moment kind of sums of the perfection of this album, the perfect mix of tradition and innovation, for me. It's in the two-chord ballad "At Last". Case sings some gorgeous lines ("Down this chain of days, I wish to stay among my people") and dares death to meet her, not denying that she would be in fear of it, but not bending either. Ordinarily, a powerful song. But it becomes a spectacular song when an electric guitar joins her acoustic and hits the most awful, out of place note........ and yet the two-chords of the guitar plow on through it and regain the drive times five.

Some artists go out to destroy tradition. Some add to tradition, make it even deeper.

2006 has been off to a slow start, as far as music goes (for me, at least). But the sweet voice from The New Pornographers, Neko Case, has taken care of things, pushing her new "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood" into stratosphere. Her fantastic voice and engaging work draw you in like few other artists (somehow Natalie Merchant and Annie DiFranco come to mind -and not necessarily because they sound alike).

To call her music country would be too limiting, but it is true that there's a definite country feel to the overall album. However, her voice lends so much more to all 12 songs that you are all of a sudden faced with an album that that spells out a happy surprise every step of the way. Though the entire album is a jewel, she seems to leave the best for last, with "Dirty Knife", "Maybe Sparrow" and "At Last" among the greatest songs I've heard in quite a while.

So far, this is the best album to have been released so far in 2006.

Having gotten onboard the Neko Case bandwagon with her excellent last studio album BLACKLISTED, I anxiously awaited this release. Having gotten my hands on it, I am both happy and perplexed.

FOX CONFESSOR is a consistanly strong album, featuring good songs, interesting arrangements and of course, strong vocals. While I would say overal, that this is a more consistant collection than BLACKLISTED, but I am perplexed that I don't like it more than that 2002 album. Is it that I prefer the earlier album because it had the shock of the new, or something else?

I think, more than likely, BLACKLISTED had a handful of songs that took my breathe away with their brilliance. Yes, it did have some that seemed less than essential, but those great songs (I WISH I WERE THE MOON, DEEP RED BELLS, THINGS THAT SCARE ME and LOOK FOR ME) just kept pulling me back for further listening.

FOX CONFESSOR on the other hand, while of consistant high standards, does not contain any song that I would grant classic status to (at least not yet). Some of FOX'S songs do stand out such as the opener MARGARET V. PAULINE, STAR WITNESS and the closing THE NEEDLE HAS LANDED. I also enjoy her vocal workout of the old standard JOHN SAW THAT NUMBER.

I have had this for only one week, and my tastes and preferences do change over time, so someday I may appreciate FOX'S consistant quality over BLACKLISTED's peaks and valleys. In the meantime, I certainly am not suffering buyer's remorse.

For years, I've read about this woman with her big, straight-out voice and how she'd surely knock my socks off and, for no reason I can recall at this moment, I resisted. She can't be THAT good, I always thought. I figured she was yet another singer working the old-school chanteuse thing. I'd heard that before. But after taking in a few snippets of tracks off this album at a local music store, I picked it up thinking I might like it a bit and then I'd have an informed opinion about Neko Case. Well, after ten days of playing this disc relentlessly, I will admit I am swayed, I am seduced, I am completely in heartbroken love with THE VOICE. I won't make attempts to describe it, since it's been done over and over. Suffice it to say it's an incredible thing. On top of that, Case's songwriting evokes such novel images: in the opening track "Pauline vs. Margaret", to illustrate the disparity in luck between the girls, Case sings "one left a sweater, sittin on the train, and the other lost three fingers at the cannery." Such a chilling thought and so beautifully sung. "Dirty Knives" is another stunner that can be enjoyed on a superficial level, but after you really listen to it, it's staggering: full of cellos and other-wordly harmonies it's an epic thing. As mentioned previously, there are a couple of tracks that seem nearly unfinished, they stop so suddenly, almost mid-thought, but as a whole, they blend in beautifully with the rest of the tracks. If you like music and can appreciate a phenomenal singer, please, pick this up and go spread the word. Neko Case is the real deal!

Simply in a class of her own. I've said it before and yes, I'll say it again... Neko Case's voice can invoke a power capable of levelling anything in its path emotionally and maybe even physically too -- leaving some hearts melted, some empowered and some broken. That said, this lady knows that you must wield such a force responsibly and wisely, and over the years she's attained full mastery of its might. On Fox Confessor Brings The Flood as on her past albums, an ample serving of reverb in the recording process has ensured that her voice embraces your ears with utterly dreamy warmth, but it doesn't overpower its characteristic nuances. We all know (no doubt herself included) that she could floor you just by singing the alphabet or a grocery list, but we (and she) know that there's more to *it* than that.

With each album she's steered clear of trends, reinvented herself subtly and honed a different facet of her craft. Here its her songwriting inkwell which has been given a thorough loving and it runneth over with the deepest indigos and the reds of blood and rubies. Yes, the most noticeable shift / development on Fox Confessor is definitely in the lyrics department. An ever-evolving and maturing lyricist, Case has honed her lyrical imagery into what very well are her least literal, but most poetic and vivid to date.

The songs are definitely less immediate with fewer obvious hooks than those of her last three albums, but Fox Confessor inhabits a different realm, and is so very deeply moving and enchantingly special in its own ways. Indeed, it comes across much more as the work of a wise, seasoned storyteller than a flavor of the day pop songstress. Certainly not one to rest on her laurels, for her fourth album Case raises the bar once again, challenging both herself and her fans. Plus with the support of her revolving cast of supremely talented players, her musical tapestry has never been more lushly and intricately detailed. This time she's invited Garth Hudson of The Band into her collaborative fold/family which already shines with the likes of The Sadies, Giant Sand's Howe Gelb, Ms Kelly Hogan, Tom Ray, Jon Rauhouse, Brian Connelly, Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino. Each of her albums has been lauded as "her best yet", but with Fox Confessor I'd dare to say she's taken things to a whole 'nother spine-tingling level.

A side note for fans of her live show... you'll be pleased to find that "John Saw That Number" (or perhaps you might know it as that "holy to the world" song) makes a rousing appearance midway through the proceedings. With its soaring rounds of choruses, it's a particular crowd favorite at her shows she shares with her singin' pals Kelly Hogan and Carolyn Mark ('tho the latter is sadly missing this time around). Need I say? Highly recommended.