Church of Neko Case

Neko Case is in touch with the dangers of taming a wild nation such as our United States. She knows that the West is still Wild and the Dirty South continues to labor to clean up its act.

Case belongs to that unique breed of singer/songwriters whose music has the strength and vitality to shore up these difficult truths by building on mythologies of regional American folklore and old time religion. Her latest album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood enlists Gospel metaphors and phrasings on a gorgeous secular album with scores of musical influences, which, combined reflect America's cultural and social dissonance.

Like love or greed, Case knows that hope is a drive. As a vocalist she channels the fatalism of a bygone era with an ardor that's both touching and a little scary. Lyrics like those found on Hold On, Hold On and Maybe Sparrow speculate on the hazards of such belief systems. Lion's Jaws toys with its romantic implications.

Fox Confessor's joyful flourishes and sudden fervor create the same sense of displacement I felt recently walking through the Upper West Side, suddenly engulfed in a chorus of church bells belting out "How Great Thou Art" in its enirity, right on to Broadway: an astonishing sonic interlude for a busy New York street.

It's a rare gem of a rock album that successfully surveys the emotional expanse of gospel, blues and folk, particularly one that invites the under-appreciated element of joy on to the aural landscape (emo boys take note). Case bounds past tepid melancholy on her hunt for the most human of traits- desire.

I'm all for being moved by the spirit, even if I'm not ready to convert. Case delivers her homebrew of fractured mysticism with a melodic fervor that easily inspires an Amen.