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Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood Audio CD

A fair review of the Neko Case "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Neko Case reviews here, or go back to the Neko Case tabs.

Band: Neko Case
Title: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Rating:

Release Date: 2006-03-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Margaret vs. Pauline 2: Star Witness 3: Hold on, Hold On 4: Widow's Toast 5: That Teenage Feeling 6: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood 7: John Saw That Number 8: Dirty Knife 9: Lion's Jaws 10: Maybe Sparrow 11: At Last 12: Needle Has Landed

Funny as Hell
I heard her first in the New Pornographers, where there was just something different and entrancing about the female lead vocals. Ok, maybe not the songs themselves, but Neko herself. Then I bought Middle Cyclone this year, on a whim (hearing part of "This Tornado Loves You" in a Starbucks). From there, I was swallowed up, buying everything she had done. My favorite trilogy of albums is the obvious set: this one, Middle Cyclone and Blacklisted, all with very different but endlessly repeatable sounds and feelings. My favorites on Fox Confessor are "Lion's Jaws", "Maybe Sparrow" and "Dirty Knife", but all of them are great.

Now, the real point of my comment. Neko is Funny as Hell! She's also smart, thoughtful, a bit shy, self-deprecating, irreverent, kind, and overall very, very nice. Learn more about her. Listen to her interviews and concerts through NPR. Look at her blog and website. Get to know her. She has a fascinating back story, one that a lot of people can relate to, in many ways. Her songs have back stories. There's a lot more meaning in the music if you know a bit more of the context. She's prone to throwing out a vulgarity or two, depending on context, but she also can do the sweetest, most reflective interview, conveying a completely honest appreciation that the interviewer and listener are being so kind to her as to spend their time listening to what she has to say. I've missed a couple of chances to see her live, but still have that to look forward to (I hope). Don't stop, Neko!.

American soul
Lord knows I have, and with good reason. It is easy to go gaga over Nekos voice. She's one of the preeminent singers of her generation. But what is more impressive about this album is the immersive quality of the music and lyrics that reveals itself upon repeated listing. The sound of the album is so coherent, that it actually put me off at first. But eventually Fox Confessor was all I could listen to for quite a while. I still listen to it often after several years.

What's the trick? Her technique has been developing ever since that final haunting howl of Furnace Room Lullabye (Her 2nd album) and continued through the DIY anthem to her foster country, Canadian Amp, in which she started laying the foundations of her trademark sound. It's spacious, even other-worldly; distinctly american (in the broad sense) but hard to locate exactly in a particular time or place. With its sparse instrumentation, loose rhythms and open spaces it seems to drift in from the ether, like jumbled up strains of old AM radio stations that have been reflected off the moon and back to us. In Blacklisted, while folding musical influences outside of country into her sound more, she also began developing her lyrical technique, in which she stitches together vivid sequences of images, still-lifes and dramatic scenes without spelling out the connections.

From front to finish, Neko commands these techniques in Fox Confessor more consistently and with greater imagination and maturity than ever before. She adds to the effect by compulsively ignoring typical song structures, which then forces the listener to engage even more and leaves the songs even more open ended. While the music references a wide range of past american sounds, the results is more coherent across songs than on Blacklisted, which prevents the spell from breaking between songs. The lyrical technique has been finely honed as well. In her images are echoes of violence, trust, misunderstanding, defiance, fear, loss, hope and regret. Reflexively you follow those echoes (all the while with that voice reaching out like a strong, comforting hand on your arm) down paths of your own choosing, filling in the narrative and backstory for yourself. It's almost as if you came upon Galadriels Mirror perched on a garbage can along side a gas station in a down-and-out part of a midwestern industrial town. (Neko's fascination for fairy tales and how they work may explain why this odd comparison came to me!).

As others have pointed out, there are great songs on this album. But for my money, Fox Confessor really stands out most as a great piece of art (yes, I'll use that word) when you listen all the way through. Only then can you get transported fully. Just as in a really good fairy tale, once you finally look up, the world and its people somehow look different, and maybe also a bit more precious. .

Ive never really had a thing for 'country'...

I'd heard this several times and it piqued my interest. sure Johnny Cash was THE MAN and add a few others to the list.
Folk. . . . . well maybe. . . country. . . ? But one look at the cover, and I thought,
"here is someone who doesnt care for the conventions of 'country' -or cover art-how could it in any way reflect or give a clue as to what lie hidden inside?
This should be a cover for some eurotrash encentric goth band. . . (or close to)
well, maybe not. There is a sense of irony on the cover-and to the music-she is on her own path, for sure

And then the hand drawn cover is just the art-no artist/title/rca logo, very unconventional (at least mine didnt after it came out of the cardboard O-ring) Her label is with the logo of a B 52 bomber presumably represents a strong anti war statement
I think thats really cool and brave. Americans usually have to be hit over the head in consumerland-
IF the CD was put out by a major, im sure this act alone would have the top execs taking constant Valiums along with double scotches and having a nurse and defibrulator nearby.

If this were country-folk-it was some one with a sense of macabre humor.
And then I found the 2 CD version-and couldnt resist-
This became too good to pass up after hearing a haunting song on the FM
For me it took some getting used to. But that commanding voice takes you into another world-and leads you back again
I cant yet make objective comments since it is still so new.
FCBTF-what a strange title-and another risk
(On the back cover of BLACKLISTED an arrow points to the UPC/EAN code where she wryly notes "The numerals 6-8-6-4. . . etc really ruin the cover. . . " (as well as FBI and EXPLICIT! warnings embedded into cover art. )
Why dont the idiots pend the extra $1. 00 pro-rated, per thousand and put STICKERS on the front wrapper?
But I still cant get over the cover and some of the inside drawings.
Good work, Neko!.

Wonderful!
Neko Case has a unique voice, both in terms of sound and writing and perspective.

Incredible
Neko Case gets the nod as one of the most gifted American singers with a voice like silk and a delivery that is welcomely unusual. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is a wonderful example of a brilliant singer. The album is painfully short, though, clocking in at just under 38 minutes. One has to wonder why.

You can see a complete list of all Neko Case discography, or go back to the Neko Case tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.