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Track List
01) This Tornado Loves You
02) The Next Time You Say Forever
03) People Got a Lotta Nerve
04) Polar Nettles
05) Vengeance Is Sleeping
06) Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth
07) Middle Cyclone
08) Fever
09) 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
01) This Tornado Loves You
02) The Next Time You Say Forever
03) People Got a Lotta Nerve
04) Polar Nettles
05) Vengeance Is Sleeping
06) Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth
07) Middle Cyclone
08) Fever
09) 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
3:20
1:46
2:33
2:26
3:22
2:14
3:05
3:18
2:44
2:21
5:25
3:09
3:37
2:53
31:39
Data Complete
40%
Total Rating
40%Total Rating
(2 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2009
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Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Middle Cyclone is the fifth studio album of American alternative country singer-songwriter Neko Case, released on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 on the ANTI- record label. Her first solo effort in three years, Case stated that "it took a very long time to make." As the title of the album suggests, the record's lyrics are permeated with imagery of tornadoes and, more generally, nature. Thematically Middle Cyclone concerns how Case's upbringing socialized her to form strong emotional attachments to nature and animals, to the neglect of human relationships, and her reconciling "the fact that I need love".
Middle Cyclone features a variety of guest performers, including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer, and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, Kurt Heasley of Lilys, and Giant Sand. It also features two prominent covers: "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" by Sparks and "Don't Forget Me" by Harry Nilsson.
Middle Cyclone debuted to strong reviews from contemporary mainstream and independent music critics. In particular, Case's voice garnered unanimous praise for its strength, clarity, and emotional range. In December 2009 Case was nominated for two Grammys for her work on Middle Cyclone: Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Recording Package (the latter nomination shared with artist Kathleen Judge).
Neko Case - vocals, guitar, piano
Paul Rigby - guitars
Tom V. Ray - bass
Kelly Hogan - backing vocals
Lucy Wainwright Roche - backing vocals
Jon Rauhouse - various instruments
Barry Mirochnick - drums
Kurt Heasley - guitars, various instruments
Sarah Harmer - backing vocals
Carolyn Mark - backing vocals
Howe Gelb - piano, guitar
Garth Hudson - organ, piano
Dallas Good - guitar
Travis Good - guitar
M. Ward - acoustic and electric guitar
Nora O'Connor - backing vocals
User Album Review
Much could be read into the fact that on the cover of Middle Cyclone alt country leading light, Neko Case, has herself portrayed as a sword wielding valkyrie on the hood of a Ford Mercury. Also, on the first track, This Tornado Loves You, she takes the role of a twister that wants to, ''carve your name across three counties''. But the truth is that Middle Cyclone is a disarmingly simple collection of country pop that should finally win her broad approval.
When we say 'pop' keep in mind that this is still an album recorded in a Vermont barn filled with eight pianos and ending with a 30-minute field recording of the surrounding countryside. Yet most of the songs do tread more approachable ground than her last album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. People Got A Lotta Nerve, with its killer whale metaphors, sounds not unlike the best work of Kirsty MacColl, a woman who also blended country and pop with barbed effect.
Case is now adept at expressing yearning in all its forms from bestial (''I'm an animal, you're an animal too... pick up that stone, drink from that lake'' - I'm An Animal) to the metaphorical. If her delivery sometimes falls short of the real legends of country it's more than compensated for by her prowess with words. These are songs that have a light touch but a dark heart. The shifting time signatures of the album's best track, Polar Nettles, contain lines such as "She is the centrifuge that throws the spires from the sun/The Sistine Chapel painted with a Gatling gun".
The Lynchian dark twang that was present on albums like Blacklisted returns on Prison Girls but is derailed by the tenderly sung refrain ''I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes''. And she knows how to pick a good cover version. Her version of Sparks' Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth fits the album's theme of nature as a mercurial, fickle force perfectly, while Nilsson's Don't Forget Me benefits from her 'piano' orchestra' approach.
Middle Cyclone also joins all the dots that connect both old and new variants on country music that refuses to toe Nashville's traditionalist line. Joining her are not only her own new Pornographers and M.Ward but Calexico, Giant Sand, and even Garth Hudson from the Band. In the end Middle Cyclone is a perfect album title. It soothes while blowing you away.
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
Available in:
Middle Cyclone is the fifth studio album of American alternative country singer-songwriter Neko Case, released on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 on the ANTI- record label. Her first solo effort in three years, Case stated that "it took a very long time to make." As the title of the album suggests, the record's lyrics are permeated with imagery of tornadoes and, more generally, nature. Thematically Middle Cyclone concerns how Case's upbringing socialized her to form strong emotional attachments to nature and animals, to the neglect of human relationships, and her reconciling "the fact that I need love".
Middle Cyclone features a variety of guest performers, including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer, and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, Kurt Heasley of Lilys, and Giant Sand. It also features two prominent covers: "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" by Sparks and "Don't Forget Me" by Harry Nilsson.
Middle Cyclone debuted to strong reviews from contemporary mainstream and independent music critics. In particular, Case's voice garnered unanimous praise for its strength, clarity, and emotional range. In December 2009 Case was nominated for two Grammys for her work on Middle Cyclone: Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Recording Package (the latter nomination shared with artist Kathleen Judge).
Neko Case - vocals, guitar, piano
Paul Rigby - guitars
Tom V. Ray - bass
Kelly Hogan - backing vocals
Lucy Wainwright Roche - backing vocals
Jon Rauhouse - various instruments
Barry Mirochnick - drums
Kurt Heasley - guitars, various instruments
Sarah Harmer - backing vocals
Carolyn Mark - backing vocals
Howe Gelb - piano, guitar
Garth Hudson - organ, piano
Dallas Good - guitar
Travis Good - guitar
M. Ward - acoustic and electric guitar
Nora O'Connor - backing vocals
User Album Review
Much could be read into the fact that on the cover of Middle Cyclone alt country leading light, Neko Case, has herself portrayed as a sword wielding valkyrie on the hood of a Ford Mercury. Also, on the first track, This Tornado Loves You, she takes the role of a twister that wants to, ''carve your name across three counties''. But the truth is that Middle Cyclone is a disarmingly simple collection of country pop that should finally win her broad approval.
When we say 'pop' keep in mind that this is still an album recorded in a Vermont barn filled with eight pianos and ending with a 30-minute field recording of the surrounding countryside. Yet most of the songs do tread more approachable ground than her last album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. People Got A Lotta Nerve, with its killer whale metaphors, sounds not unlike the best work of Kirsty MacColl, a woman who also blended country and pop with barbed effect.
Case is now adept at expressing yearning in all its forms from bestial (''I'm an animal, you're an animal too... pick up that stone, drink from that lake'' - I'm An Animal) to the metaphorical. If her delivery sometimes falls short of the real legends of country it's more than compensated for by her prowess with words. These are songs that have a light touch but a dark heart. The shifting time signatures of the album's best track, Polar Nettles, contain lines such as "She is the centrifuge that throws the spires from the sun/The Sistine Chapel painted with a Gatling gun".
The Lynchian dark twang that was present on albums like Blacklisted returns on Prison Girls but is derailed by the tenderly sung refrain ''I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes''. And she knows how to pick a good cover version. Her version of Sparks' Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth fits the album's theme of nature as a mercurial, fickle force perfectly, while Nilsson's Don't Forget Me benefits from her 'piano' orchestra' approach.
Middle Cyclone also joins all the dots that connect both old and new variants on country music that refuses to toe Nashville's traditionalist line. Joining her are not only her own new Pornographers and M.Ward but Calexico, Giant Sand, and even Garth Hudson from the Band. In the end Middle Cyclone is a perfect album title. It soothes while blowing you away.
External Album Reviews
None...
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