NEKO CASE, The Tigers Have Spoken

The odd-moment-out on Neko Case’s newest release is an outtake from an improvisational jam session she participated in at a cross-cultural arts conference. She threw it in, she says, to demonstrate the fluidity and facility of music-making, to invite listeners to join her in the fun. But any dreams of superstardom it might inspire are to be foiled by the rest of this album from our favorite “country chanteuse.” Tigers collects upbeat live recordings of new songs, hard-to-find Neko Case and New Pornographers concert favorites, and cover songs from her idols, like the Shangri-Las and Buffy Sainte-Marie. She turned up the volume (i.e., took a drummer on the road) and included nothing from her downer of a previous release, Blacklisted. These days, we’re happy to report, Case seems hell-bent on having herself a good time.