Neko Case - Wild Creatures [2LP Eco Mix]

Wild Creatures gathers more than two decades of Neko Case into one sprawling, gorgeous 2LP set, pressed on Eco Mix colored vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket.

Case has never been easy to pin down. She came up through alt-country and the Canadian indie scene, sang with The New Pornographers, and spent her solo career writing songs that feel like folk tales with teeth. This 2022 retrospective on ANTI- draws from nearly every solo record she has made, from Furnace Room Lullaby through Hell-On, and adds a previously unreleased song, Oh, Shadowless, to the twenty-three track run.

The sequencing jumps across the years rather than marching in order, which lets the songs talk to each other in surprising ways. I'm an Animal snarls and sways, Hold On, Hold On remains one of her most cathartic choruses, and This Tornado Loves You turns a natural disaster into a love song with real menace. Through it all, that voice lands with the force of weather rolling across open country, equally at home in a whisper or a full-throated howl.

Longtime fans get the full sweep of her work in one sitting, sequenced with real care and a sense of adventure. Newcomers could not ask for a better front door.