Product Description

More subdued than its predecessor (FURNACE ROOM LULLABY), Neko Case's 2002 album, BLACKLISTED, is the singer/songwriter's first outing not co-billed to "Her Boyfriends." Backed by a cadre of intuitive musicians that includes multi-instrumentalist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino (both of Calexico) and their Giant Sand peer Howe Gelb (on various keys), Case offers up a largely down-tempo set that's steeped in a dreamy, noir-like atmosphere. The haunting "Deep Red Bells" masterfully showcases the range of Case's resonant voice, while "Look for Me (I'll Be Around)" evokes the cinematic mood of a vintage black-&-white thriller as narrated from the perspective of the femme fatale. Even BLACKLISTED's most upbeat moments--the soaring "Lady Pilot" and the twangy "Stinging Velvet"--carry a palpable sense of melancholy, resulting in a record that's in line with Nick Cave's dark aesthetic. (In fact, Case would go on to open for Cave on tour, and the two would become label-mates on Anti- with subsequent releases.) Arguably Case's most focused and consistent album, BLACKLISTED is the perfect portal into her gorgeously half-lit world.

Track Listing

1. Things That Scare Me
2. Deep Red Bells
3. Outro with Bees
4. Lady Pilot
5. Tightly
6. Look for Me (I'll Be Around)
7. Stinging Velvet
8. Pretty Girls
9. I Missed the Point
10. Blacklisted
11. I Wish I Was the Moon
12. Runnin' Out of Fools
13. Ghost Wiring

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2871 in Music
• Brand: CASE,NEKO
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .17 pounds

Customer Reviews

My favorite Neko release
For my money, this is my favorite Neko Case release. The songs "Things That Scare Me", "Look For Me" and "Deep Red Bells" are some of my favorite Neko songs, and she usually plays them live (we've seen her live several times over the years...always great shows).

This remastered version would be the perfect disc to start your Neko Case collection with. Her voice is in top form here, and the backing musicians are top notch. You can't go wrong here. Just the beautifully haunting and dark songs "Things That Scare Me" and "Deep Red Bells" are worth the price of admission alone. Highly recommended.

Neko's Masterpiece
From the opening banjo-driven "Things That Scare Me" played over the verse of a child's fear of birds on wires, my ears perked up to all the possiblilites that country storytelling played on traditional instruments could still be. Even on lesser releases, Neko can always grab my attention on the lead track. "Deep Red Bells" follows, based on a true story of a serial killer of young girls. Her songwriting is superb here : "It looks a lot a lot like engine oil/and tastes like being poor and small/and popsicles in summer." The imagery is precise and perfect. She lets her enormous voice wrap around the chorus to insure this dark little story stays with us a long time.

The other tune that really grabbed me was "I Wish I Was The Moon". A very original idea that suddenly makes sense out of nonsense. "I'm so tired/I wish I was the moon tonight". What does it mean? Who cares? Somehow I found it instantly believable.

The idea of the story-song in popular music is not a new one. It simply hasn't been done this well in a long time. On "Blacklisted", Neko shows us that she has much more in common with the back-porch yearnings of Bobbie Gentry than the claptrap abstractions of singer/songwriter types such as Sarah Mclaughlin.

This is a smart, confident, precise exercise that holds up to many listens, songs about the things that go bump in the night, things that don't go away after childhood, as Neko obviously knows too well.

Cut my heart right out!
I started with Middle Cyclone, after knowing just a little bit about her from the Pornographers. So I went backwards, through Fox Confessor, back to the older stuff, including this one. You know what you see from that perspective? Depth! Nothing but depth!

Another reviewer mentioned "Things That Scare Me" (love the title, btw) It wasn't the opening notes that got me. It was the opening lines - "Flourescent lights engage, like birds frying on a wire." Whoa. The snarl. The bite. I could feel the knife from that second on. The first five songs are simply a beautiful, ripping, tearing, dash to oblivion. "Deep Red Bells" - haunting, aching, wonder. "Outro With Bees", "Lady Pilot", "Tightly" -- these are the little songs, for God's sake. But there are no little songs. They're my favorites. They each have so many little turned phrases, vocal caresses, drag-out, knock-down twists. I love the lesser known songs even more than the "big" ones.

From "Tightly", I love "All the Lonely Houses Stand Like Monuments...to Thieves" Not sure if she meant targets of thieves, but I like to think it means trophies of the thieves living inside (my living in an overly prosperous, sheltered, self-absorbed area during this financial meltdown). That's the coolest thing about Neko, she gives you room to interpret the music your own way.

Same song -- "New Moon's in the Alley, and its Madness...Calls to Me." I don't know what else to say. That's the whole story. You dive into her catalog, into her backstory, and you're doomed. She's the absolute coolest little sister you could ever imagine, or better. The madness -- more please, just give me more.