The career retrospective album ‘Wild Creatures’ pulls together the high points of feral joy from over twenty years of solo work by Neko Case. Debuting last year digitally, a physical 2 LP set on limited edition colored vinyl and a CD version is now going to be released on June 30. Pre-order it HERE.
Nominated for Best Re-Issue at this year’s A2IM Libera Awards, the twenty-three song ‘Wild Creatures’ compilation is accompanied by an immersive website containing animated artwork by Laura Plansker and features short essays and track-by-track commentary celebrating Neko’s two decades of solo work.
Contributors include long time collaborators A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar and M. Ward, culture-defining contemporaries David Byrne, Shirley Manson, Jeff Tweedy and Rosanne Cash and new generations of artists like Waxahatchee, Julien Baker, Kevin Morby, Allison Russell and Margo Price. In addition, folklorist Adrienne Mayor, ANTI- Records president Andy Kaulkin, and longtime New Yorker staff writer & author Susan Orlean also contributed pieces, among many others. Read about ‘Wild Creatures’ at https://nekocase.com/. The album’s one new song “Oh, Shadowless” features an animated music video created by Laura Plansker. Watch it below.
Watch + Listen to “Oh, Shadowless”:
Gathering power year after year, Neko sings with the fierce abandon of a newborn infant crying in a basket in the woods. Since escaping the labels of country and Americana, the gorgeous train-whistle vocals of her early career sit submerged in her later style, where their ghost can appear any minute. When her voice jumps an octave, it’s almost visible, like sparks at night. “I never knew where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do with my voice,” she says, “but I just wanted to do it so bad.”
In the studio, Neko obsesses over sound. Always involved with how her albums were recorded, she’s seized and embraced the role of producer. Standing halfway up a half-built stairway, she hammers nails into place as she goes along. Despite blowing every deadline she’s ever been given, Neko feels in her bones when a song or a project is done.
“Music is so weird,” she says, “because you never arrive where you’re going.” If her career were mapped, it might be a choose-your-own-adventure book. She hasn’t masterminded each album with some absolute endpoint in mind. “I’ve never been afraid to ask for help. I’m able to trust myself in the moments where I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Neko Case – Wild Creatures vinyl
Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz
‘Wild Creatures’ Track List
1. I’m An Animal
2. Lady Pilot
3. Halls of Sarah
4. Man
5. Star Witness
6. I Wish I Was The Moon
7. The Next Time You Say Forever
8. Favorite
9. Hell-On
10. Hold On, Hold On
11. Polar Nettles
12. Wild Creatures
13. Furnace Room Lullaby
14. A Widow’s Toast
15. Deep Red Bells
16. This Tornado Loves You
17. Winnie
18. Night Still Comes
19. Maybe Sparrow
20. Things That Scare Me
21. The Tigers Have Spoken
22. Set Out Running
23. Oh, Shadowless
U.S. SUMMER TOUR DATES BEGIN JUNE 20,
INCLUDING CO-HEADLINING SETS WITH INDIGO GIRLS
Neko will begin a leg of summer U.S. West coast tour dates on June 20, which will include a run of co-headlining shows with the Indigo Girls. All upcoming dates are listed below.
TOUR DATES
6/20 – Denver, CO @ Denver Botanic Gardens
6/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre#
6/22 – 6/25 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Live Oak Music Festival 2023
6/24 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace Of Spades#
6/27 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Holmes Amphitheater%
6/28 – Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Zoo%
6/29 – Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Zoo%
7/1 – Canby, OR @ Clackamas County Events Center%
# – with Nora O’Connor
% – with Indigo Girls
