This Blogger Loves You

Neko Case's newest record, "The Middle Cyclone," is easily the best of 2009 because it's simple and genuine, yet beautifully different. In her years as a solo artist, Case has often been classified as alt-country, though her music is too flamboyant and intricate and surprising for that category. In her other band, the New Pornographers, which released four excellent albums of its own in the past decade, she turns what would be a group of nerdy guys playing power pop in their basement into something electric, her vocals jumping up and down next to the music, taking it somewhere it never could go without her.

"This Tornado Loves You," the first song on the "The Middle Cyclone," is told from the first-person perspective of a lovesick tornado that won't stop rampaging until its love is requited -- or at least that's the best I can tell. The acoustic guitars twitch in the background, like this tornado's mind must. Her voice rides through the air triumphantly, but with a twinge of sadness. The song culminates with Case with repeating the title and moaning, probably to the tornado's crush, "Why won't you believe me?" Brilliant. The rest of the record builds subtle and wonderful instrumentation on top of itself, including the "piano choir" of old grands Case has assembled on her Vermont farm (another reason to love her), and joyously rides the long coattails of her voice, which combines tones, moods, harmonics and words like few can. Above is her performance of "This Tornado Loves You" on Letterman, so decide for yourself.

Elsewhere in music I only bought a few new records, but here are two other favorites:

* Do Make Say Think - "Other Truths": Essentially, they're a band that can do no wrong. During their excellent performance at the Middle East in November, there was a moment that the music was so ubiquitous no other thoughts could enter my head.

* Camera Obscura - "My Maudlin Career": I like how they've built a successful yet accidental career out of being shambolic. Many other indie-rock bands have done this before -- perhaps most (in)famously, the Replacements -- but Camera Obscura adds a nice sweetness to it.

And among the songs:

* Animal Collective - "Summertime Clothes": Considering these boys have been such merry pranksters for so many years, when they utter "I want to walk around with you" -- this song's hook -- it actually becomes romantic. And yet, when they performed this song on Letterman, they had alien dancers dressed in full-body suits in the background, subverting all that momentum and adding to it at the same time.

* Girls - "Lust for Life": Catchy, and its unofficial video, with lots of nudity, introduced me to what "NSFW" means. (As in, I now know what the acronym stands for, not that I learned its meaning the hard way by playing it at work and having my boss discover it. It means "Not Safe For Work.") To maintain these pages' PG-13 rating, I won't link to it.

* Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks": The vocal harmony in the chorus is brilliant.

* A.C. Newman - "There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve...": If the rest of his album had been as unexpectedly moving as this song, it would've been a good album.