There’s an important but subtle difference between burning love and getting burned. Neko Case explores the effects of toggling that particular four letter word in and out of the equation on her latest album, Middle Cyclone. More aggressive and revealing than her previous solo release, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006), and more straightforward than her New Pornographers material, the flame-haired indie/dixie diva is at her songwriting best. She dances deftly back and forth between vulnerability and vitriol, yarny storytelling and poetic abstraction. On the title track she migrates comfortably between folksy aphorisms (“Can’t give up acting tough/It’s all that I’m made of”) and surrealist narrative (“Can’t scrape together quite enough to get to the outskirts of the fact that I need love”). The album’s sparse instrumentation remains intriguing while also staying out of the way of her alluring wail.

More Like This