Furnace Room Lullaby

"If I knew heartbreak was comin', I woulda set out running," sings Neko Case, my favorite female singer and my age-appropriate imaginary girlfriend, on her 2000 album Furnace Room Lullaby. Case, who began as a drummer, and hopped around North America, recorded this album in one of her stops, Vancouver, and it's almost straight up country, but with an indie rock twist.

For me with Neko it's all about the voice, and then the songwriting. I'm not a huge country fan, in fact I dislike most country, but she wears it well. The song has plenty of steel guitar and mandolin, and has a honky-tonk feel, but the songs are so well written and Case's voice, which can be as loud and penetrating as a foghorn, are what it's all about.

My favorites on the record are the cut-a-rug "Whip the Blankets," the melancholy "We've Never Met," and the devastatingly poignant title track, which ends the album:

"I'm wrapped in the depths of these deeds that have made me
I can't bring a sound from my head though I try
I can't seem to find my way up from the basement
A demon holds my place on earth 'till I die"

My favorite song is a tribute to Tacoma, Washington, which I'm sure there are not too many (Case has two songs on the record about that fair city). "Thrice All American" begins:

"I want to tell you about my hometown
It's a dusty old jewel in the South Puget Sound
Well the factories churn and the timbers all cut down
And life goes by slow in Tacoma"


Over the last 13 years Case has evolved as a songwriter, but this, her second album, is pretty strong. I can just play her records and luxuriate in the warmth of her voice--she could sing the phone book, so to speak--but it's a big plus that her songs are so terrific.