Ticket 2 Ride

Neko Case is a bit of an enigma to me. She’s been around for many years yet describing her music is still a problem for me. There’s no easy way to easily capture what she does. Of course, I have the same problem with Nanci Griffith, Rickie Lee Jones and Mary Chapin Carpenter, all strong storytellers who keep you off balance in their presentations. It’s not alt. country, pop, indie rock, folk, blues, Americana – but it has threads of all to changing amounts. If you enjoy the jazzy, hard edges, but the sleek, soaring angelic voice of Rickie Lee Jones, Neko Case has much of the same mix of grit and silk.

Case also records with The New Pornographers, a band she’s collaborated with since the beginning, and with others like The Corn Sisters and The Boyfriends, but her day job is her solo work. I’m less familiar with her work with The New Pornographers, but I can tell you her new solo record has less of the driving indie pop sound and substitutes cellos and oboes for grungy guitars.

The first thing you notice about her is the voice. Even if I don’t quite love the song, her voice has such a wide range and seems to climb to the heavens. The other thing about is the different guitars. She collects them and she often has a tenor guitar (four strings) close by.

Neon Grey Midnight Green (2025, Anti-) is a swirling tapestry of changing styles, rhythms, pace, arrangements. It may take several listens to unpack these songs, there’s a lot going on here. There’s certainly a sense that her tone and direction can change at any moment. Each song embraces a different feel.

Neon Grey Midnight Green is her eighth solo album and first since 2018’s Hell-On. Case writes or co-writes all of the songs and produces this new album. I found the album somewhat uneven, sometimes slickly commercial and other times experimental or uncertain of what it wants to be. That’s not a criticism as much as a warning of an odd assortment of treats.

“Wreck,” is a rousing, vocally soaring song that is over before you know it. “Destination,” is perhaps the best song she’s ever released, it’s instantly memorable, with a big arrangement that’s lush as it is poignant. “An Ice Age” has the swirling mystery of a fever dream.

At age 55, Case is very much the firecracker she’s always been, her voice has not changed by time, if anything, she’s more confident and determined in her songwriting and performance.