Album Review: case/lang/veirs - self-titled
Neko Case is one of the musicians that I follow on Twitter,
and for the last few months, she’s been heavily on the promotional trail for
her collaborative album with k.d. lang and Laura Veirs.
And despite how much I enjoyed Case’s last solo effort from 2013, for some reason, I didn’t find myself exceptionally interested in
listening to the trio’s aptly titled debut, case/lang/veirs—however
following its release, and following sampling of, like, 20 seconds of “Atomic
Weight,” in the iTunes store, I realized I had made a huge mistake in not
investing in this sooner.
Formed seemingly on a whim with an email sent from lang to
the others, the group itself grew organically into what was finally committed
to tape—Veirs and lang handling a bulk of the heavy lifting on the songwriting
duties, and all three working together on incredibly haunting and impressive
harmony vocals as well as providing each member a time to shine by taking the
lead throughout the course of the album’s 14 tracks.
case/lang/veirs
smolders from the get go—the aforementioned “Atomic Weight” slowly burns, and
right out of the gate, showcases the impressive vocal arrangements of the trio
on its opening sequence: “I’m not the
freckled maid; I’m not the fair-haired girl; I’m not a pail of milk for you to
spoil,” they sing, each voice layering itself upon the other radiantly;
equally as slow burning and smoldering is its follow up track, “Honey and
Smoke,” on which lang takes the lead, as the song sways hazily and beautifully
in a 60s-esq girl-group aesthetic.
Elsewhere, as the album hits its second half, it sparkles
and shimmers brightly with the sun-soaked sounding “Best Kept Secret,” it
shuffles and skitters strongly on “Down,” and it gets down soulfully with the
lang-led “Why Do We Fight?”
As the album unfolds, it allows the trio to explore a
variety of evocative musical atmospheres, and what’s most impressive about case/lang/veirs is that even with three
names “headlining” the effort, as it were, it’s never pulled three different
directions; by working together and combining strengths, the album has a
remarkably cohesive feeling.
The grouping of k.d. lang, Neko Case, and Laura Veirs is an interesting one
to say the least. One is, for certain, a household name—k.d. lang received
widespread acclaim in the early 90s with her radio-ready hit “Constant
Craving”; Case has a long running solo career with a cult following, and clocks
time as a member of the Canadian “super group” The New Pornographers; then
there’s Veirs, the youngest of the three and probably the least widely known, who
is a bit of an idiosyncratic folk singer-songwriter that I was first made aware
of around seven years ago with her contributions to a Mark Mulcahy tribute
album.
The pairing of the three, and an album like this is a dream
for the NPR-set—but it’s able to transcend its middle class, middle age,
Caucasian audience. It’s a strong set of songs; structured to ebb and flow in
such a way that it never loses its momentum. It also is a relatively short
album—only one the songs is over four minutes in length, so even if this wasn’t
an idea that worked out, it never overstays its welcome.
Thankfully for you and me, this was an idea that worked out—case/lang/veirs is a thought provoking
and accessible listen that showcases the talents of three very diverse
performers in contemporary popular music.
case/lang/veirs is out now via Anti-.
case/lang/veirs is out now via Anti-.
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