In the press release that accompanies
Neko Case
's 2004 live album,
The Tigers Have Spoken
, the singer (and her record company) insist quite strongly that this isn't meant to be a stopgap release on the way to her next studio project. To be blunt,
Case
protests a bit much on this issue -- an album featuring two re-recorded originals and five covers out of 11 tracks is carrying an awful lot of padding for something intended to be a proper "new" release. But if
is really intended to keep fans occupied until
finishes her next project, she thankfully hasn't abandoned her standards of quality control along the way, and delivers some splendid music on this disc. Recorded over the course of three gigs in the spring of 2004,
features
backed by
the Sadies
, whose web of deep, lonesome twang fits
's repertoire like a glove, with
Jon Rauhouse
sitting in on pedal steel with his usual grace and flawless feel, and
Kelly Hogan
and
Carolyn Mark
contributing backing vocals that are little short of glorious. But the reason
is headlining over this stellar cast is because she has one of the finest voices to emerge from
pop
music in recent memory, and she's in firm command of her instrument on these performances. Allowing herself more room to rock than on 2002's
Blacklisted
,
rips it up on covers of classic tunes by
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Loretta Lynn
, and
the Shangri-Las
"The Tigers Have Spoken"
"Hex"
show
isn't saving all her good new songs for the next album. Maybe
is biding her time with
, but she sure isn't wasting it -- if it's a relatively minor effort, it still sounds like the work of a major artist, and there's lots of pleasure to be found in it. ~ Mark Deming