So we're only about a month away from the release of Neko Case's new album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, and since leaking songs on label sites is quickly becoming the new single, here we are: Anti- has offered us an early sample of the record with "Star Witness," which you can very conveniently download here, if you haven't already. And if you haven't, or if somehow this is your first exposure to Neko (head over to the Anti- site, they've also got two of the best tracks from The Tigers Have Spoken), brace yourself. Give her a couple of minutes and she'll drag you in, using one great melody after another to construct an awfully surreal backdrop -- from some sort of drowning in car oil to getting stoned and watching babies to deadly wolves and nightgowns sweeping sidewalks. And blood. Lots of blood.

Like with "Furnace Room Lullaby"/"Make Your Bed"/"Ghost Wiring"/most of her other great songs, there's a balance between a disturbingly cynical underlying tone and a very memorable, very supernatural understanding of melody and atmosphere that makes the track distinctly her own. And sure, most of what you read about Case will be about her vocals, but it has to be stressed; as usual, it goes beyond just basic melody, it launches the thing into another stratosphere with character and range. I mean, come on, that part near the end when the pre-chorus starts blending with the chorus and then lets up so the harmonies can take over? Unbelieveable.

While the formula is about what you'd expect from Neko at this point, so is the effect. With the familiar light, skittering percussion and chorused guitars, with more lyrics mixing dark storytelling and rich, youthful/innocent imagery (she'd done this terrifically with "lollipops in summer" on "Deep Red Bells," and here with the "sidewalk skins my knees" line), it all still sounds thrilling and somehow new -- like a natural extension from Blacklisted instead of a Bejar-ish reaction. It relies on her development as a singer/songwriter/producer instead of a gimmick genre exercise or dramatic shift, and while she might branch out more significantly on other parts of Fox Confessor, it's with her familiar surroundings that she still sounds her most comfortable and potent.

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