As a songwriter, Neko Case takes her time. The gap between 2018’s Hell-On and this new record, Neon Grey Midnight Green, is a full seven years. Yet it’s not like she’s just sitting around for years at a time. She remains a full-time member of the long-running power-pop group the New Pornographers. She also released a sort of Neko’s “greatest hits” compilation in 2022, Wild Creatures. Maybe most impactfully, 2025 kicked off with the release of her memoir, The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You. As always, though, new music from Case is worth the wait.
Self-produced by Case and co-written mainly with guitarist Paul Rigby, Neon Grey Midnight Green presents Case’s signature blend of achingly beautiful melodies, idiosyncratic songwriting, and, of course, a song about an animal. This time, the track, “Little Gears”, appears relatively late on the album. It has the sparse, slow gothic country sound that Case built her career around. In it, she describes watching a spider build a web and being frustrated to see that it took under an hour. She expected web-building to be, “A three-day event / As intricate as they are.” Adam Schatz adds breathy bass clarinet to the simple piano and percussion arrangement.
This gentle, contemplative song is followed by the striking “Baby, I’m Not (A Werewolf).” Case sets the scene, describing stumbling from her bed and into the bathroom, only to have “My body said to me as if to another / ‘Baby, I’m not / Baby, I’m not a werewolf / But I don’t know about you.'” The opening of the song is filled with scattered backing sounds, but doesn’t lock into a cohesive musical structure until it reaches the chorus. From there, Rigby’s electric guitar and the PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra bring the song to a fully realized orchestral arrangement.
Neko Case begins by featuring a pair of tracks that showcase her songwriting duality. “Destination” opens the album warmly, a lovely song featuring a full backing band and orchestra. It has a hint of melancholy, but only a touch. The use of the orchestra to fill out the sound never overwhelms or intrudes on Case’s singing or even the rest of the instruments. Yet, when the arrangement features the flute and French horns, it’s a noticeable change to her basic sound.
“Tomboy Gold” is almost the polar opposite. It features Case chanting and repeating abstract phrases, such as “Hip check through the crowd to what you think is the center” and “Walk sign is on to cross.” That is done almost exclusively over a pair of saxophones that are playing notes that are just as abstract as Case’s phrasing.
Nothing else is quite as abstract as that, but certain songs feature touches. “Winchester Mansion of Sound” is very loose for a long time, as Neko Case sings at her own pace over the jangly sound of a prepared piano. The song is a tribute to Dexter Romweber of Flat Duo Jets, a group she spoke extremely highly of in her memoir, and the power of music in general. At one point in the song, she openly calls out the listener, “If you think I’m talking about romance / You’re not listening.” It’s only in the song’s final 80 seconds that the rest of the band enter, and she allows a steady beat. The song closes out with Case repeating the old children’s song, “Down down baby / Down by the roller coaster.”
Similarly, “Match-Lit” is another tribute, this time to Dallas Good of the Sadies, a frequent collaborator of Case’s in her early years. Atonal strings introduce the song, followed by the band’s entrance with a slow groove. Ticking along underneath for most of the song is a muted guitar, chunking steadily along and imitating a clock. Case explains in great detail the striking of a match. The song finishes with a long, slow fadeout jam from the band, at which point the ticking guitar resurfaces, playing solo for nearly a minute before Case returns, singing, “Looove / Love is strange.”
A few of the songs appear to be directly inspired by Neko Case’s experience writing her memoir. “An Ice Age” and “Oh, Neglect” both explore themes of trauma. They seem to include references to how Case’s nearly absent and certainly disinterested mother treated her. “An Ice Age” digs into it, and the line “I learned the look that goes right past the ones who love you / As if there’s no one standing there” is almost verbatim from the book.
The orchestra and swirling backing vocals from Case soften the blow of the harsh lyrics somewhat, but it’s an intense song nevertheless. “Oh, Neglect” is similarly orchestrated, featuring big melody swells and expansive string sections. Yet the trauma is also there in the lyrics, “Oh neglect / I worked every second to please you / As if I am possessed.”
It’s not all grim, though. “Rusty Mountain” recalls a passage from the book in which Case explored a rotting pile of junk in her family’s garage, looking for anything interesting to relieve her boredom. Case declares, “We all deserve better than a love song,” and goes on to say, “Tell him you’re not gonna build his house for him / Let the nails in a pile / Form a rusty mountain.” She goes on to admit, though, that love can be worthwhile if you actually find the right person.
“Louise” takes the gothic country sound in a different direction. The music is relaxed and warm, though still sparsely arranged. Lyrically, though, Case fiercely describes a romance with the titular Louise. The title track “Neon Grey Midnight Green” uses a similar sound, at least at first. Rigby’s low electric guitar tone stands out as a complement to Case’s voice here. The song takes a turn at the halfway point, though, as Rigby’s guitar turns gnarly. Case steps aside for a moment to let the band turn up and rock out, then returns with tremendous shouted vocals that match the intensity of the band.
Neon Grey Midnight Green demonstrates that Neko Case remains fully engaged in creating music that is entirely her own. Her production here is especially noteworthy, as she works with the musicians of the PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra, a new sound for her, in seamless harmony with the rest of the group. The push and pull between Case’s desire to use unconventional songwriting ideas but continue to rely heavily on strong melodies makes this a fascinating record. It’s a strong contender for one of the year’s best albums.