Neko Case

When it comes to the art of telling tales, Jim Thompson had it pegged. There are 32 ways to write a story, the noir author famously observed, but only one plot: Things are not as they seem. The story of Neko Case, similarly, could be told a number of different ways; but the facts, as always, yield only a part of the truth.

There is the basic, by now familiar biographical arc: Cases childhood in Washington State, art school in Vancouver, her early baptism into the world of country and gospel music, and contemporary gigs in distaff punk trios Maow and Cub, as well as a longer (and ongoing) stint in powerhouse Canadian pop group the New Pornographers. Since the late 90s, however, the bulk of Cases energies have been devoted to a thriving solo career. Following three critically lauded studio albums, 1997s The Virginian, 2000s Furnace Room Lullaby, and 2002s masterful Blacklisted; a quietly potent kitchen-recorded EP, Canadian Amp; and last years brilliantly conceived concert collection The Tigers Have Spoken, Case reemerges with her latest, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.

Two years in the making from conception to completion, the album is a culmination of sorts, the sound of an artist fully coming into her own and producing a career defining statement. Cases work has always hinted at a uniquely skewed gyroscope at the center of the music: her songs at once playful and heartfelt, artsy yet unpretentious, and capable of shelving offbeat imagery inside of classic compositional structures. Significantly, Fox Confessor is further fueled by Nekos refusal to limit her work along generic boundaries. Her role as producer is profoundly felt, as styles, influences and sonic signatures from dozens of musical traditions thread through the new songs, leaving the echo of their passing but combine to create a sound at once foreign and familiar.