Dynamic songstress Neko Case's latest album hits stores this week.

Ever since we heard Neko Case’s haunting, soulful voice — simultaneously tough as nails and smooth as silk — flowing over alt-country rhythms, we’ve been hooked. We also admire the 38-year-old’s fierce protection of her independence, resulting in her turning down major record labels in order to maintain artistic control. Naturally, we’ve been looking forward to the March 3 release of her sixth album, Middle Cyclone (ANTI-, 2009). We even downloaded the track “People Got a Lotta Nerve” before the record’s release from her label’s site — you can download it by clicking here.

Though the liner notes have some impressive cameos — M. Ward, members of Los Lobos and Calexico and some of her bandmates from the New Pornographers — it’s Case that remains the focal point of Middle Cyclone, which showcases her formidable storytelling ability. Case’s voice is beautifully strong, but raw and vulnerable — a juxtaposition also found in the lyrics. In the title track, for example, she sings over an acoustic guitar and strains of a music box, “I can’t give up acting tough / It’s all that I made up / Can’t scrape together quite enough / To ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that I need love.” Yet in “The Next Time You Say Forever,” when she says, “The next time you say forever / I will punch you in your face,” we tend to believe her.

We loved the folksy pop of “Magpie to the Morning,” the retro surf-style guitar sound of “Fever” and the Portishead feel of “Prison Girls.” The cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Don’t Forget Me” features a chorus of 21 salvaged pianos. The record ends with “Marais la Nuit” — more than 30 minutes of crickets chirping — but we expect Middle Cyclone to have a much more enthusiastic reception.

We’re enthralled with the way Case sings and tells a tale. What do you think?

Photo credit: Jason Creps

Tags: Don't Forget Me, Entertainment/Culture, Harry Nilsson, Jason Creps, Los Lobos and Calexico, M. Ward, Middle Cyclone, Music, Neko Case, Portishead