Neko Case -Middle Cyclone
3 Mar 2009
Anti- Records
Review by Rachel Coppenhaver

Middle Cyclone is Neko Case's first release in three years, since the critically acclaimed Fox Confessor Brings the Flood in 2006. Inspired by a dream of a tornado, nature definitely plays a main character in this album with track title such as "This Tornado Loves You", "Don't Turn Your Back on Mother Earth", and of course the title track.

"This Tornado Loves You" opens the album and as soon as you hear Case's voice resonate with the first line "My love, I am the speed of sound", you are hooked. And the good news is, this is one of those albums that only makes you appreciate it more with each subsequent listen. The first single release, "People Got a Lotta Nerve" is definitely one of the most 'radio-friendly' tracks on the album, with a chorus speaking of being a maneater.

 While Case's voice is without question the star of the album, it is the subtle music that backs her that makes it so touching. Steve Berlin of Los Lobos brings us a sax piece in "Polar Nettles", and the piano playing in "Vengeance is Sleeping" and the strings in "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" are so hauntingly beautiful that they can give you goosebumps. "I admit I was unfaithful/From now on I'll be more grateful", Case sings in "Mother Earth" which is one of the best of Middle Cyclone. The nature themes continue with more great story-telling songs like "I'm an Animal" and "Red Tide" throughout.

The album ends with a track entitled "Marais la Nuit", meaning the The Night Marsh, which is a field recording of spring peeper frogs... for thirty-one minutes. The sound of all that is left after the tornado comes through? Perhaps. Necessary to the album? Perhaps not, but it is unusual and is strangely calming. My biggest complaint of this album is not it's strange ending, but the fact that it ended all too soon; most of the tracks clock in at two or three minutes.