Like a photograph of a movie star’s good side, Neko Case’s last studio album, Blacklisted (2002), was a perfect but incomplete picture of her outsize talent. The noirish production on the album spotlighted her dynamic, expressive vocals and emphasized an atmosphere of unease, but it also gave short shrift to the earthy humor and unbridled energy that make her concerts such a blast. Her new album, The Tigers Have Spoken (Anti-), was recorded live in Chicago and Toronto, and it thankfully leaves some blemishes unretouched. Backed by an alt-country who’s who (including vocalists Carolyn Mark and Kelly Hogan, pedal steel guitarist Jon Rauhouse, and the Sadies), Case conjures up some cool and spooky moments a la Blacklisted, but just as often the songs are bracing and exultant; the band rocks out on the Nervous Eaters’ “Loretta” like they think they’re the Velvet Underground and turns the gospel tune “This Little Light” into a jubilant rave-up.
