Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood [ANTI]

Why you'll love it

This ANTI- pressing brings back the record many critics called Case's most stunning yet, a fixture on that year's best-of lists. The Sadies, Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino, Howe Gelb and Garth Hudson of The Band all play on it.

This edition

• Original 12-track album
• ANTI- Records edition

About the album

Toronto turns up in some unexpected places on this record. Most of it was cut at Wave Lab Studios in Tucson, Arizona, but the opening of "John Saw That Number" was recorded in a stairwell at the Horseshoe Tavern on Queen West, and "At Last" was tracked at Toronto's Iguana studio. Neko Case co-produced with longtime collaborator Darryl Neudorf.

Case called the style country-noir, blending gospel, early rock and a bit of 1950s pop into stories that hint more than they tell. "Margaret vs. Pauline" opens with a sharp contrast of two lives, "Star Witness" is a slow, haunted epic, "Hold On, Hold On" sees her slipping away from a wedding reception, and "That Teenage Feeling" is a swooning ballad. "John Saw That Number" mixes an old American spiritual with a musical idea from India, with Kelly Hogan's harmonies throughout.

Case has said she wrote lots of words and then pared them back so the songs never got too literal, leaving room for the listener's imagination. The Horseshoe is a few minutes' walk from our Queen St. store, so this one counts as practically local.

Also at Kops: more Neko Case on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter

Tracklist

Listen

On ANTI- (cat# 86777-1), a reissue of the 2006 album.