Neko Case is out with her 7th solo album today, the latest milestone in a career that's spanned more than two decades.
Case hails from Tacoma, as sung on the 18-year-old track “Trice All American.” The song starts off with the lyrics:
I want to tell you about my hometown
It’s a dusty old jewel in the south Puget Sound
Well the factories churn and the timber’s all cut down
And life goes by slow in Tacoma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AXVBtBJjLw
Case's latest album also touches on her local roots with the song "Curse of the I-5 Corridor." It's about heartbreak, growing up and leaving home.
Some of the lyrics seems to be inspired by the waters of Puget Sound, such as: “In the current of your life/ I was an eyelash in the shipping lanes.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67SYzn4lmt8
Case has a way of bringing the animate to the inanimate in her lyrics. The most obvious example is a song off her 2009 album Middle Cyclone. The main character is a tornado that has human feelings and emotions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ubXQvxDp8
Case does this again in her latest album with lyrics like “I wanted to be her sailor's tattoo” in the song "Winnie." In the new track "Halls of Sarah," Case flips the formula and uses the inanimate to describe the animate, including this lyric: “You are a silent movie, Sarah.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx0xX9ax-yI
To hear some of the new songs off Neko Case’s latest album, follow KUOW’s Spotify playlist called “PNW Music Fridays with Emily Fox.”