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Neko Case, Hell On

Neko Case, Hell On


Neko Case has called this her poppiest album, and it is certainly her most accessible, but she’s made it without sacrificing character or intricacy. She hasn’t actually changed her sound much, but she has learned to love a good chorus (perhaps her fellow New Pornographers helped), and so about half of these songs use much more traditional radio-friendly song structures than usual. (The other half build and change exquisitely). Unheard of for Case, most of these songs have choruses which she sings more than twice, and every song approaches or exceeds a whopping four minutes! And so the careful, focused composition of the consummate artist Case relaxes just enough to let her genius express itself in new ways. Each song is musically distinct and lives in its own world of brilliance, and the album picks up steam as it goes. Highlights: “Oracle of the Maritimes,” “Dirty Diamond,” “Halls of Sarah”

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