At the same time, Case is still keen to her penchant for destruction. On the staggering opener "This Tornado Loves You," she embodies a vengeful cyclone: "Carved your name across three counties/Ground it in with bloody hides." The song, on one level, plays like a coy joke — many are the instances where her voice has been referred to as a "force of nature" — but Case's dedication to her imagery and her inability to be satisfied dispels the notion: "Their souls dangling inside out from their mouths/But it's never enough." On "People Got a Lotta Nerve," she sounds disappointed when she says "I'm a man, man, man, man man man eater/But still you're surprised when I eat you."
Elsewhere, as on the title track's lonely acoustic waltz, Case is reflective ("Can't give up acting tough/It's all that I'm made of") before the song gives way to the sound of a child's music box, longing for simpler comforts ("I choke it back/How much I need love"). "Don't Forget Me"'s array of eight pianos yield to a pained request from a damsel in the Wild West: "You know I think about you/Let me know you think about me too." The album ends in uncomplicated, unfettered nature: "Marais La Nuit" is 32 minutes of crickets chirping frogs croaking around a marsh. On Middle Cyclone, she inches closer, but this is the peace of mind Case can't yet reach on her own.
Christopher Gray can be reached at cgray@phx.com.
CHRISS SUTHERLAND | CD Release with Brown Bird + Christopher Teret | March 20 @ 9 pm | at SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St, Portland | $8 | www.space538.org
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