Neko Case

As if cosmically enacted, every handful of years Neko Case breaks to the surface with a new album and reminds listeners that she is one of our greatest living songwriters - perpetually becoming more fearless and adventurous. This has been true throughout her more than twenty-five-year career, during which her ferocious indie-rock and country-noir sound has swelled and shrunk to fit the mood, but the walloping impact of the universes she creates has never wavered. Listening to Case’s music will teach you about this world— human nature’s cruelty, perseverance and terrifying beauty, but the natural world as well — the moon and the stars, bees, lions and magpies. Should you encounter a wayward soul who has never heard her music, you might respond, “Well, she once sang from the perspective of a tornado,” as if to say: there’s no physical form that could stop her potent voice and evocative storytelling.

Arriving September 26, the Grammy-nominated iconoclast’s ninth LP, Neon Grey Midnight Green, is self-produced and her biggest-sounding and most intimate-feeling album yet.