Quickly reviewing Middle Cyclone, by Neko Case.I am particularly attracted to her song
Vengeance is Sleeping, (<--Listen) as well as
Prison Girls (<--Listen) and The Pharoahs, perhaps three of the darker songs on the album. This is just a first approximation review of the album. I've only run through the whole thing twice now, but really, if anyone is going to listen and subsequently buy an album, they usually do after a first or second very quick listen. I hope I am being fair. I first fell in love with Neko Case three years ago, after the release of her last full length album, (2006)
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. That album was strange, dark, melodic and also accessible enough to send to your artsy-fartsy 67 year old aunt (at least I did, and she appreciated it).
In any case,
Middle Cyclone may be slightly less edgy, slightly less effective than Fox Confessor, but to any serious Neko fan, it will be adorned and could be brought kindly into your music rotation. If you have time, I prescribe listening to her chronologically. Begin perhaps with
Blacklisted (or listen to her other albums too, of course) see:
discography, then listen to Fox Confessor, and finally Middle Cyclone. You may agree with me, that with each subsequent album release she seems to soften, but is nonetheless brilliant throughout.
The right atmosphere to listen this album may be on a Sunday evening, after you've spent yourself out in the elements. I once had had her album Blacklisted playing while I was working on a winter geophysics contract up in the Athabasca Basin. I was walking across vast open planes of icy lakes, and her music was perfectly haunting--the right soundtrack for a solo-walk in the wilderness.
Anyways, for Middle Cyclone, come in from the outdoors, make a delicious meal and have Neko sing to you in the background. The album ends with a 30 minute long recording of crickets and other natural symphonic creatures that hum away kindly, I think it's a great way to end an album, especially for those of us who love to fall asleep to music in the background.
I love Yahoo Answers, people ask the dumbest--subsequently, the awesomest shit. Sometimes I peruse Yahoo Answers just to see the dialogue unfurl.
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