Track Listing

1. This Tornado Loves You
2. The Next Time You Say "Forever"
3. People Got A Lotta Nerve
4. Polar Nettles
5. Vengeance Is Sleeping
6. Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth
7. Middle Cyclone
8. Fever
9. Magpie To The Morning
10. I'm An Animal
11. Prison Girls
12. Don't Forget Me
13. The Pharaohs
14. Red Tide
15. Marais La Nuit

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2114 in Music
• Released on: 2009-03-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: CD

CD Description
'Middle Cyclone' is the sixth solo album from American singer/songwriter Neko Case. Produced by Case and Darryl Neudorf(The Sadies, The New Pornographers) and mainly recorded at the Wavelab studios in Tucson and in a barn on her Vermont farm, the album sees Case continue with the mix of alt-country and indie pop that graced her well received 2006 album 'Fox Confessor Brings The Flood'. Joined by her regular backingband, Case also enlists the help of M. Ward and Sarah Harmer as well as various members of Calexico, Los Lobos and The Sadies.

Customer Reviews

Probably her best album to date!
Neko Case's Middle Cyclone, is probably her best album to date after Furnish Room Lullaby. This album is more commercial than any of her previous offerings and thats not to say that she has sold out in any shape or form. With luck this will bring her some commercial success she deserves. Neko has come of age, its lost some of the edge her earlier albums had, maybe more mature, certainly an easier listen, its pretty well produced too. Kelly Hogan features on 9 of the songs, and as fans of Neko know, Neko and Kelly have one of the best female harmonies in existence. Neko penned all but two of the songs, "Never Turn your back on Mother earth" and a Harry Nilson song, "Dont Forget Me".
I would be playing this more, but for the fact I cannot get the Hazards of Love, by the Decemberists off the turntable.
If you are already a fan of Neko Case, you will love this, if you are not, then this is probably the best place to start, followed by Furnace Room Lullaby, which is a bit edgier.
The last track with its bird tweetering is a pain in the rear end and I have no idea why its been included. When you insert the cd, it looks as if you have a 75 minutes long CD, you dont, you get 40 minutes of 5 star music, then a 30 minute long track at the end (whatever you do, dont purchase this track on i-tunes) with birds and crickets cheeping and doing their thing. Its a waste, and be warned there is no hidden track at the end to make listening to it even remotely worthwhile. I am sure Neko knows the reason its been included, but its left me clueless! Great CD up until that point, and please dont let it put you off buying this album, its really rather good!

A Case Of Breaking The Rules ( Again )
2006's 'Fox Confessor Brings The Flood' broke a few rules.
'Middle Cyclone' breaks a few more. Ms Case just can't help herself.

This is an entirely good thing of course. The generous 14 tracks
on her latest release are a treat worth tucking into.

Perhaps it's the unpredictable chord progressions; the wonderfully
wayward melodies; the sharp focus and strength of her voice;
the quirky transgressions of her warm and witty lyrics.

Probably it's all four and more.

Were you only to hear 'Vengeance Is Sleeping' you would know that
you were in the presence of a hugely talented singer/songwriter.
The soaring vocal; the gorgeously restrained instrumental arrangement;
the ethereal disembodied harmonic interjections; the truncated ending.
This is truly intoxicating stuff.

Title track 'Middle Cyclone' is a grown-up musical box of a song.
Stripped down to almost nothing and deeply affecting in it's
slow stepping uncertainty.

'People Got A Lotta Nerve' plays havoc with both tempo and rhyme.
Rock and roll doesn't get much more uplifting than this. Pure joy!

'Prison Girls' is an altogether darker construction. The angular
density of her fine band's performance transform the sombre melody
into one of the album's real highlights. Knockout.

The creative use of reverb in 'Don't Forget Me' enhances the bleak
optimism of the composition's subject. Hope born out of uncertainty.

The fanciful twitterings of the 30 minute plus outro
'Marais La Nuit' are a tad unnecessary but within the
context of the greater good are easily forgiven.

This album is the work of a mature artist flexing her creative muscles
and making more than a reasonable bid for posterity.
Co-production with Mr Neudorf is never less than impeccable.
So too the fine musical support provided by her empathic cohorts.

Highly Recommended.

Fantastic except for the 30 minutes of birds twittering
I was very excited when I saw MC was coming out. I got into Ms Case's music later than most (after Fox Confessor was out and she'd finished her UK concert dates :-O).

Even after going through the back catalogue it seemed like an age until the new material came out.

If you love her other material, you should love this. There are some Spector-esque overtones (unless I'm imagining it ;-D) giving some of the material a lighter but equally haunting vibe.

However, the 30 odd minutes of birds twittering on track 15 is a bit too abstract for me and probably only for the hardened ornithologist or tripped out hippy. It's a reasonably pleasant sound so I can't say it's bad but it does seem like a bit of a waste of space.

Track 1-14: 5 stars
Track 15: 2.5 stars