Click to watch

Neko Case performs "Margaret Vs. Pauline" from "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"

It’s been four years since Neko Case released her last studio album. Last time around, critics designated the songwriter as the reincarnation of one of the first ladies of the Grand Ole Opry. So, understandably, the anticipation and expectation heaped on Fox Confessor Brings The Flood has been great. At first, the brevity of Case’s latest album could cause consternation among fans that have waited so long for it. But after a few listens it becomes apparent that the disc’s length attests to its pith, and proves Case is able to convey more in 35 minutes than most current artists can in hours. From the intriguingly eerie Edward Gorey-esque cover drawings by Julie Morstad to the trailing notes of cello and hammer dulcimer on the final track, “The Needle Has Landed,” Fox Confessor is a striking piece of work. Many of its songs evoke the kind of simple, surreal, and vaguely sinister images depicted in the album’s packaging. Musically, it’s still the classic country and ’50s pop mixture listeners have come to expect from Case, with a bit more emphasis on the pop component in “That Teenage Feeling,” “Hold On Hold On” and “Lion’s Jaws,” all sweetened with dreamy washes of backing and harmony vocals. Over the varied, atmospheric backdrop of instrumentation, including tenor guitar, violin, cello, piano and banjo, provided by a rotating band of ringers—The Band’s Garth Hudson, Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Covertino, Kelly Hogan, Giant Sand’s Howie Gelb, and Dexter Romweber of The Flat Duo Jets, among others—the constant, captivating element is Case’s deeply and indescribably sensual and seductive voice. It takes a few listens through for Fox Confessor to work its magic, mainly due to the fleeting quality of some of the tracks and the way Case ignores generally accepted models of song structure, but those repeated listenings evenually end up being time that is well invested.