Middle Cyclone | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | March 3, 2009 | |||
Genre | Alternative country, indie folk | |||
Length | 74:29 | |||
Label | ANTI- | |||
Producer | Neko Case and Darryl Neudorf | |||
Neko Case chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Middle Cyclone | ||||
|
Middle Cyclone is the fifth studio album of American alternative country singer-songwriter Neko Case, released on March 3, 2009, on the ANTI- record label. [1] Her first solo effort in three years, Case stated that "it took a very long time to make". [2] 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". [3] [4]
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. [1] 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). [5]
The recording of Middle Cyclone took place in Tucson, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Vermont. [6] Case herself stated that only the "piano orchestra" sessions were recorded in Vermont and that the rest was recorded using WaveLab in Tucson. [7] At the time, Case was transitioning from living in Tucson to a recently purchased farm in Vermont, where she recorded in a barn on the property. [7] Case described how the barn was retrofitted to suit her musical needs, as well as the "piano orchestra" that appears in three of Middle Cyclone's tracks: [8]
I didn't really convert it [the barn] into a studio. Basically the floor was made of dirt, and so I hired a friend of mine to come in and put in a wood floor and build a stage. And it looks amazing, but then we decided it would be really hilarious to see how many free pianos we could get off of—because that's how I got a piano right off the bat, but when I went on I couldn't believe how many free pianos there are on Craigslist. And I was like, well I have a barn. So I ended up with eight, which are playable. That's when I came up with the idea for the piano orchestra. I thought it would just sound so beautiful to have a bunch of people playing piano at once in that barn. [7]
Of the eight pianos that Case rescued, six were playable after two days of tuning by two tuners. [2] One was a broken player piano, which Case decided had the potential to be repurposed. [9]
The open and unconstrained nature of the barn-as-recording studio resulted in several of the tracks on Middle Cyclone having elements akin to a field recording. Case asserted that because of the barn "We ended up with robins on the recording and frogs and all kinds of stuff. And with a barn, you just don't have control, which was another element I really liked." [7] "Polar Nettles" features the aforementioned birdsong 39 seconds into the track, as well as a chorus of spring peeper frogs at the track's end. (The latter fortuitous event was recorded on video and published on ANTI-'s YouTube channel. [9] ) "Don't Forget Me" contains a gust of wind close to the song's end. [10] The final track, "Marais La Nuit" (French for "Marsh at Night"), is an actual field recording of the environs around a pond on Case's farm. [7] When asked about the track in an interview with Paste magazine , Case responded "I actually went down to the pond and recorded that myself." [7]
New material from Middle Cyclone was first widely publicized when Case performed at Bumbershoot in Seattle, WA on Saturday August 30, 2008, from 1–2:15 pm. [11] In addition to older material such as "Favorite", "Margaret vs. Pauline", and "That Teenage Feeling", [12] the set included four songs from the unreleased album, including "I'm an Animal", "The Pharaohs", "Don't Forget Me", and "Vengeance Is Sleeping". [13] Fan-made video recordings of the songs were posted the next day to YouTube [12] and received widespread attention shortly thereafter in early September when the videos were posted to websites such as Stereogum. [13]
The cover art for Middle Cyclone was released in early December 2008. [6] The image of Case, crouched and ready to spring off the hood of her 1967 Mercury Cougar with a sword in hand received enthusiastic responses from Internet-based media. In a news article entitled "Neko Case, Reigning 2009 Album Art Champ", Matthew Solarski of Pitchfork Media, stated "So Fox Confessor Brings the Flood had some awfully lovely, subtle artwork. But this? My friends, pictures created to accompany music just don't come any better than this." [14] "Dear God she is wielding a sword" was the subtitle of the article. [14] Images from the sword-and-muscle car photo shoot were also used in advertisements on the ANTI- blog to encourage preordering of Middle Cyclone. [15]
On December 15, 2008, ANTI- released an Electronic Press Kit for Middle Cyclone in the form of a YouTube video. [9] It features selections of an interview with Case, excerpts from several Middle Cyclone songs, footage of Case and her band performing the songs, and collage art and animation to bridge segments. The video also provided fans a first listen to parts of "Magpie to the Morning", "This Tornado Loves You", "Middle Cyclone", "Polar Nettles", and "Fever" (in addition to two already featured at Bumbershoot: "Don't Forget Me" and "People Got a Lotta Nerve").
On February 18, the entirety of Middle Cyclone was streamed by NPR until the album's release on March 3. [16]
On February 24 the ANTI- blog released a free mp3 of Neko Case's song "Middle Cyclone" to commemorate the one year anniversary of the label's blog. [17] The promotion also included a give-away of four autographed copies of the album, with the fifth winner receiving not only a signed copy of Middle Cyclone but also her entire ANTI- catalog: The Tigers Have Spoken , Blacklisted (reissue), Furnace Room Lullaby (reissue), Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (bonus), and Fox Confessor Brings the Flood .
This section possibly contains original research .(May 2010) |
The first single from Middle Cyclone is "People Got a Lotta Nerve", which initially was released as a free download on January 13, 2009, on the ANTI- blog [18] and the day after on their website. [19] In celebration of Best Friends Animal Society's 25th anniversary in 2009, for every blogger that reposted "People Got a Lotta Nerve" or iLike user who added it to their profile, Neko Case and ANTI- made a cash donation to the charity. [18] The promotion ran from January 13 to February 3, 2009, with five dollars donated per blog post and one per iLike profile-add. [18]
On February 24, "People Got a Lotta Nerve" was featured as a downloadable track in the "Alt Country Pack 01" extension for the video game Rock Band 2 . [20]
Case was interviewed and performed "People Got A Lotta Nerve" live for QTV on February 24, accompanied by Paul Rigby on acoustic guitar and Kelly Hogan on backing vocals. [2] [21] On March 4, 2009, Case performed on The Tonight Show . [22]
On March 20 ANTI- released a music video for "People Got A Lotta Nerve" on both MTV2's early-morning show "Subterranean" [23] and its YouTube channel. [24] The animated video, created by brother/sister team Paul and Julie Morstad, [25] depicts a red-headed schoolgirl – ostensibly Case – who is ejected from a killer whale's blowhole onto the grounds of an estate. The red-head witnesses the interactions of a multitude of other girls with animals, but is returned to the belly of the whale when she takes aim at one of the animals with a rifle found in the estate's manor house.
Various types of interactions between humans and animals are presented in the video, including the care, stewardship and play associated with domesticated animals, hunting, animal servitude, and man-eating. Despite the prominent repetition of the lyric "man-eater" the video does not depict men or boys. The schoolgirls' childlike activities (climbing, swinging, walking on stilts, jumping rope, piggy-back riding, pillow fighting, and clapping games) take place near and even on animals such as elephants, greyhounds, tigers, rheas, falcons, and monkeys. Animals are depicted in the video with as much agency as the humans: monkeys read pieces of paper, falcons intervene to prevent the red-head from shooting a monkey, the rhea allows two girls to ride on its back, and the tiger eats the girls brushing him. The video also contains several depictions of Case in the form of a portrait hung in the manor's stairwell and the transposition of one of Case's promotional portraits from Middle Cyclone onto the paper one of the monkeys possesses. The black comic scene in which the tiger has eaten his youthful groomers (their shoes and brushes have been left behind as the animal licks its chops) alludes to Case's song "The Tigers Have Spoken", whose lyrics describe a man-eating tiger driven mad by the isolation of captivity and shot on his chain.
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.4/10 [26] |
Metacritic | 79/100 [27] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [28] |
The A.V. Club | A− [29] |
Entertainment Weekly | B [30] |
The Guardian | [31] |
The Independent | [32] |
Mojo | [33] |
Pitchfork | 7.9/10 [34] |
Rolling Stone | [35] |
Spin | 9/10 [36] |
Uncut | [37] |
Middle Cyclone received generally positive reviews from critics. [27] NPR praised the album's songs as "heartbreakingly-beautiful and, at times, comical" and praised Case's voice as "one of the most memorable and seductive voices in music." [16] The New York Times ' Daniel Menaker praised her "real richness and body," writing that "She has often been described as a belter, a force of nature, a kind of vocal tornado. So this increased admixture of playfulness, delicacy and orchestral effects strikes you as the kind of variegation that artists — and species — make in order to survive and thrive." [10]
Middle Cyclone debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 albums chart in its first week of release, making it Case's first album to reach the top ten in the United States. [38]
As of 2013, sales in the United States have exceeded 223,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. [39] As of 2010 it has sold 17,000 copies in Canada. [40]
The Europe February 2009 Tour, described as "a sneak peak[ sic ] of the new album", began in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday February 18, 2009, and ended on the 23rd in London, England. [41]
Middle Cyclone's Spring 2009 Tour began at Stubb's BBQ in Austin, Texas on March 31, 2009. It then snaked through the Southeast, US East Coast, Canada, and Midwest through the end of April. [42] It was expanded to include locales in the Southwest, US West Coast, other locales across North America, and eventually expanded to other countries such as Australia. [43] The band Crooked Fingers opened for the majority of Case's spring 2009 shows. [42]
Middle Cyclone tour itinerary | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | City | Country | Venue | ||
Europe February 2009 Tour [41] | |||||
February 18, 2009 | Berlin | Germany | Roter Salon | ||
February 19, 2009 | Munich | Germany | Orange House | ||
February 21, 2009 | Paris | France | Nouveau Casino | ||
February 22, 2009 | Amsterdam | Netherlands | Paradisio (Cancelled) [44] | ||
February 23, 2009 | London | England | Bush Hall | ||
Spring 2009 Tour [42] | |||||
March 31, 2009 | Austin, Texas | United States | Stubb's BBQ | ||
April 2, 2009 | Atlanta | United States | Variety Playhouse · | ||
April 3, 2009 | Savannah, Georgia | United States | Trustees Theatre · | ||
April 4, 2009 | Birmingham, Alabama | United States | Workplay · | ||
April 6, 2009 | Richmond, Virginia | United States | Toad's Place · | ||
April 7, 2009 | Raleigh, NC | United States | Meymandi Concert Hall · | ||
April 8, 2009 | Washington, D.C. | United States | 9:30 Club · | ||
April 9, 2009 | Washington, DC | United States | 9:30 Club · | ||
April 10, 2009 | Glenside, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) | United States | Keswick Theatre | ||
April 11, 2009 | Boston | United States | Berklee Performance Center · | ||
April 13, 2009 | New York City | United States | Nokia Theatre Times Square · | ||
April 14, 2009 | New York City | United States | Nokia Theatre Times Square | ||
April 16, 2009 | Montreal | Canada | Le National · | ||
April 17, 2009 | Toronto | Canada | Trinity-St. Paul's United Church · | ||
April 18, 2009 | Toronto | Canada | Trinity-St. Paul's United Church | ||
April 20, 2009 | Ithaca, New York | United States | State Theatre of Ithaca · | ||
April 21, 2009 | Cleveland | United States | Allen Theatre · | ||
April 22, 2009 | Charleston, West Virginia | United States | Charleston Civic Center Little Theatre · | ||
April 23, 2009 | Columbus, Ohio | United States | Newport Music Hall · | ||
April 24, 2009 | Chicago | United States | Chicago Theatre · | ||
April 25, 2009 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | United States | Riverside Theater · | ||
April 26, 2009 | Minneapolis | United States | State Theatre · | ||
· with Crooked Fingers |
All songs written by Neko Case, except where noted.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "This Tornado Loves You" | 3:21 | |
2. | "The Next Time You Say Forever" | 1:46 | |
3. | "People Got a Lotta Nerve" | 2:33 | |
4. | "Polar Nettles" | 2:26 | |
5. | "Vengeance Is Sleeping" | 3:22 | |
6. | "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" | Ron Mael | 2:14 |
7. | "Middle Cyclone" | 3:05 | |
8. | "Fever" | 3:18 | |
9. | "Magpie to the Morning" | 2:44 | |
10. | "I'm an Animal" |
| 2:21 |
11. | "Prison Girls" | 5:25 | |
12. | "Don't Forget Me" | Harry Nilsson | 3:09 |
13. | "The Pharaohs" |
| 3:37 |
14. | "Red Tide" | 2:53 | |
15. | "Marais la nuit" | 31:39 | |
Total length: | 74:29 |
Note
Neko Richelle Case is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case' contralto voice has been described by contemporaries and critics as a "flamethrower", "a powerhouse [which] seems like it might level buildings," "a 120-mph fastball," and a "vocal tornado". Critics also note her idiosyncratic, "cryptic," "imagistic" lyrics, and credit her as a significant figure in the early 21st-century American revival of the tenor guitar. Case's body of work has spanned and drawn on a range of traditions including country, folk, art rock, indie rock, and pop and is frequently described as defying or avoiding easy generic classification.
The Streets is an English musical project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner. The project was founded in the early 90s, while Skinner was still a teenager; however, no music would formally eventuate until the early 2000s. In the initial run of The Streets, the project released five studio albums: Original Pirate Material (2002), A Grand Don't Come for Free (2004), The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (2006), Everything Is Borrowed (2008) and Computers and Blues (2011). The Streets also released a string of successful singles during this time, which reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles chart – including "Has It Come to This?", "Fit but You Know It", "Dry Your Eyes", "When You Wasn't Famous" and "Prangin' Out". After disbanding The Streets in 2011, Skinner pursued several other musical projects before ultimately reviving the moniker in 2017. A mixtape, None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive, was released in 2020. The Streets' sixth studio album, The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light, was released in September 2023.
The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band, formed in 1997 in Vancouver. Presented as a musical collective and supergroup of singer-songwriters and musicians from multiple projects, the band has released nine studio albums to date. The band have received critical acclaim for their use of multiple vocalists and songwriters, as well as for the elements of power pop incorporated into their music. Pitchfork has described the band's sound as "peppy, gleeful, headstrong guitar pop", while Stereogum has retrospectively praised the band's debut album Mass Romantic as "one of the greatest and most immediate power pop albums ever rendered".
Blacklisted is the third studio album by American musician Neko Case, released on August 20, 2002.
"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released as a single in 1969 in several countries; as with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was released in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it became their first hit and was certified gold. Parts of the song's lyrics were adapted from Willie Dixon's "You Need Love", recorded by Muddy Waters in 1962; originally uncredited to Dixon, a lawsuit in 1985 was settled with a payment to Dixon and credit on subsequent releases.
Pussy Cats is the tenth album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records in 1974. It was produced by John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" period. The album title was inspired by the bad press Nilsson and Lennon were getting at the time for being drunk and rowdy in Los Angeles. They also included an inside joke on the cover – children's letter blocks "D" and "S" on either side of a rug under a table − to spell out "drugs under the table" as a rebus.
"Man in the Box" is a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released as a single in January 1991 after being featured on the group's debut studio album, Facelift (1990). It peaked at No. 18 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1992. The song was included on the compilation albums Nothing Safe: Best of the Box (1999), Music Bank (1999), Greatest Hits (2001), and The Essential Alice in Chains (2006). "Man in the Box" was the second most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio between 2010 and 2019.
Campfire Songs is the debut and only album by the American band Campfire Songs, released in March 2003. A collaborative work between Dave Portner, Noah Lennox, and Josh Dibb, it was later retroactively classified as the third studio album by their band Animal Collective.
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is the fourth solo album by American alt-country musician Neko Case, released March 7, 2006 by ANTI- Records. The album was found on many “Best of” lists that year and had a bonus disc released by ANTI- in November of the following year.
"Everytime You Go Away" is a song written by American musician Daryl Hall. It was first recorded in 1980 by his duo Hall & Oates but was not released as a single. A cover version of the song by Paul Young became an international hit in 1985, reaching No. 1 in the US and No. 4 in the UK.
"Mr. Blue Sky" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), featured on the band's seventh studio album Out of the Blue (1977). Written and produced by frontman Jeff Lynne, the song forms the fourth and final track of the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" suite on side three of the original double album. "Mr. Blue Sky" was the second single to be taken from Out of the Blue, peaking at number 6 in the UK Singles Chart and number 35 in the US Billboard Charts.
Red Riders were an indie rock band from Sydney, Australia. After releasing two EPs and a single, the band released their debut album, Replica Replica in October 2006. The band announced that they would be splitting up via their Facebook page on 5 April 2011.
"Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" is a song by the American rock group Sparks. The song was recorded by the group's mid-1970s glam line-up. It was released in late 1974 as the first single from the group's fourth album, Propaganda.
Brent Weinbach is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and pianist based in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his experimental style and abstract, deadpan delivery. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and was formerly a professional jazz pianist and substitute teacher.
The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You is the sixth studio album by American musician Neko Case. It was released on September 3, 2013 under Anti Records. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
"Trouble's Lament" is a song by American singer/songwriter Tori Amos from her 14th studio album, Unrepentant Geraldines (2014). It was released as the album's lead promotional single on March 28, 2014, by Universal/Mercury Classics as a digital download only.
Greta Simone Kline, also known by the stage name Frankie Cosmos, is an American musician and singer-songwriter. She is known for her independent releases, inspired by Frank O'Hara's poetry, DIY ethics of K Records and the early 2000s New York City's anti-folk scene. She is the daughter of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. Her former stage name "Frankie Cosmos" is now the name of her band.
Phantogram is an American music duo from Greenwich, New York, formed in 2007 and consisting of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter.
The Sidekicks were an American indie rock band from Cleveland, Ohio.
Hell-On is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Neko Case, released by record label Anti- on June 1, 2018. It was largely recorded in Stockholm, and Case co-produced six of the album's twelve tracks with Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John.