Music I (and you!) can enjoy

I've spent my entire spring break battling a fever and bronchitis. I needed something to come along and cheer me up. Luckily, through my steady diet of Halls and prescription drugs, along came a nice little surprise I nearly forgot about.

One of my favorite artists of the past several (or more) years released a new album fairly recently. I'm not sure on the exact date, lately I just download music when I get around to it and not necessarily when it comes out. So to my knowledge, the new Neko Case album has only been out for about eight hours now.

For those of you not familiar with Case, she was a part of the Canadian super group The New Pornographers. If you don't know who they are, then I really can't help you. Just kidding. I'm not going to be a music snob, though my wife will chuckle when she reads that line.

Middle Cyclone builds on what Case reached in her last release Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. The only contrast being Confessor having some more haunting elements laced within it. I guess if you had to put her in a genre, Alt Country would be appropriate. I've always hated that term, and as Case revealed in a new Rolling Stone interview, so does she. I think we are soul mates. Okay, I don't really believe that.

This isn't a review though. I would encourage you to download some of her songs and get acquainted. Case has a rich, broad voice and is powerful like Patsy Cline. If you find that you are saying to yourself "I need to find something new to listen to," this would be a good place to start.