Neko Case albums are a love it or leave it proposition. Since retooling her sound with 2006’s
watershed “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”, you more or less know what you are
getting: that clarion call voice singing oddly metered lines over generally
reverbed backing that mixes the alt-country of her earlier albums with a more
bent take on what Greil Marcus dubbed “the old, weird America”. Sister-in arms
Kelly Hogan provides the harmonies on most songs. It’s affecting and well-written, with
interesting and unique imagery. At first listen, “The Worse Things Get…” sounds
not too dissimilar from “Fox Confessor” or 2009’s great follow-up “Middle
Cyclone” and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
The difference, however, lies in the details. Case sounds angrier than ever on searing lead
single, “Man”, spitting out lines and dropping F-bombs against a fuzzed-out
backing that hews closer to indie rock than she has in quite some time (credit
fully given to M. Ward for the biting guitar work). Playing with gender has long been a tactic in
Case’s wheelhouse, but never has she been as upfront about her insistence that
she be treated as an equal: “I'm a man / You'll have to deal with me
/ My proxy is mine /You'll deal with me directly”. Likewise, she employs background vocals and
brass in different and intriguing ways. The
honking horns on “Bracing For Sunday” push the song into Tom Waits territory
while the fanfare on album closer “Ragtime” serves as cheerful reinforcement of
the lyrics’ call for rebirth.
There is nothing here as devastating as “Star Witness” or as absolutely
melodic as “This Tornado Loves You”, but Case still sings the hell out of it all
and delivers enough chills on tracks like “Local Girl” or the Nico cover “Afraid”
to justify the trip. Consistency is an
underrated quality, and the world could do far worse than receiving a
good-to-great Neko Case album every few years.
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