Review: Neko Case gets personal with ‘The Worse Things Get...’

Leave it to Neko Case to pull off a cover of the other great pop-music Nico, and make her version of “Afraid� feel self-aware, witty and totally heartbreaking all at once. The song is one of the centerpieces of the alt-country flamethrower’s new album, “The Worse Things Get…,� which is both her most personal and imaginative record in years.

As always, Case’s voice is a flawless, brassy instrument equally at home in the punk fuzz of “Man� as the lonely sound-art of “Where Did I Leave That Fire.� “Bracing for Sunday� finds a perfect sweet spot between the two, with tumbling drums and the reedy saxophones of a hungover morning walk home in the city.

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But her writing is some of the most evocative of her career. “Man� is a takedown of masculine ego, but it rocks hard enough to feel sympathetic to male pride. On “Night Still Comes,� she sums up the condition of being a successful, fantastically talented singer unable to escape her down dark places — “There’s always someone to say it’s easy for me / but I revenge myself all over myself, there’s nothing you can say to me.�

Much of the album was reportedly written in the throes of deep depression over the death of Case’s grandmother. But she came out the other side with a beautiful, insightful record to show for it.

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Neko Case

‘The Worse Things Get…’

Anti-

Three stars (out of four)