Neko Case was on top of her game, her fifth album debuting at No.3 in US Billboard Chart, when she was struck by an overwhelming depression, prompted by a series of family bereavements. It was so bad, she claims not to remember writing many of the songs on her sixth album, the marvelously titled The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You.
Whatever its genesis, The Worse Things Get is no run of the mill, cathartic song cycle, but a complex and nuanced exposition of the life of an artist under pressure. At times, Case’s lyrics are surreal, funny and challenging. “Did they poison my food?,” she asks in a jaunty croon on ‘Night Still Comes’. “Is it cause I’m a girl? If I puked up some sonnets, would you call me a miracle?”
The single ‘Man’ brilliantly illuminates Case’s expansive take on feminism. “I’m a man’s man. Always been. Make no mistake. I’ve invested in a woman’s heart. It’s the watermark of which I measure everything.” It’s strange to think Case was once pigeon-holed as a country singer. Her songwriting palette is full of melancholy. She’s been through the mill and come out not only fighting, but winning.