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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Middle Cyclone
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 32 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Anti
Release Date: 03 March 2009
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Country
Summary
The singer's latest album produced with Darryl Neudorf features guests such as M. Ward and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, and Giant Sand.
Also By This Artist: Blacklisted Fox Confessor Brings The Flood The Tigers Have Spoken
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Phoenix
Middle Cyclone is her most fearless and arresting record, ruthlessly composed and beautifully recorded.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
Middle Cyclone is the sound of one of the most interesting, independent, and consistently brilliant artists recording today at the top of their game.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
All of Middle Cyclone is reliably Case-like, in that it seems unpredictable, unless you’ve listened to Case long enough to understand what she understands: that following fleeting impulses can be as rewarding as it is dangerous.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
Neko Case hasn't produced a disappointing solo venture yet, and between "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood" and Middle Cyclone, her recent production is the strongest of her increasingly beautiful catalog.
Read Full Review >Spin
Middle Cyclone carries case's unique vision one step further: here, she truly embraces the beast within.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
It’s really hard to find anything wrong with the way Case has presented everything and it’s evident that she is only beginning to reign in all of her strengths. It’s an exceptional trait when you’ve been able to combine so many tremendous aspects into one supreme collection of songs.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
Less of a departure and more of a confirmation and deepening of everything she’s been exploring over the last 10 years, Case has never sounded quite so compelling as a storyteller, unleashing the full range of her humor, defiance, and despair.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
Middle Cyclone is by far Case's most quixotic album, and that's saying a lot considering the abstract ideas behind her last studio album, 2006's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood." Yet it's also the most revealing and rewarding work in a 12-year recording career that has seen Case evolve from an alt-country siren to a singular songwriter as capricious as a weather vane.
Read Full Review >Uncut
M Ward and Garth Hudson, members of Giant Sand, Los Lobos and Calexico are all present and correct on Middle Cyclone lending their distinctive instrumental hands--but this ultimately Case’s tour de force, and hers alone.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Case's voice sounds even more huskily, verdantly rich than ever, the more so because she uses it so unsentimentally.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Instead of fixed verses or choruses there are two-chord patterns that run as long as Ms. Case wants, or as short; they might add or subtract a beat, suddenly switch chords or support an entirely new tune in mid-song. Subliminally that rhapsodic approach keeps the songs off balance and suspenseful, ready for every possibility of disaster or exaltation.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Indie rock's favorite (and most prolific) red-headed woman has never sounded more assured than she does on this solo-billed set, a soaring, brisk rumination on love and other matters that comes with a dusty tinge befitting its Arizona roots.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
Quirky melodies and unpredictable, anti-country structures make it interesting over repeat listens. A mid-career triumph.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Her high, hard voice invests her most elliptical lines with warmth, longing and other emotions that any human animal can feel.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Moody, cinematic, and engaging throughout, Cyclone is another tour de force from Neko Case, if not as immediately arresting as "Fox Confessor."
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
Singers with powerful voices often gravitate toward material that lets them prove it, but Neko Case demonstrates the power of subtlety on her latest.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Middle Cyclone still stands out as another strong entry from a woman who is more than proving her mettle as a revered indie veteran.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Case is in typically phenomenal voice throughout the record, and her production choices draw from both the dark country of her first few albums and from her work in the New Pornographers.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Middle Cyclone never lets go enough to take flight; nor does it too quickly wear out its welcome. [Apr 2009, p.110]
Alternative Press
Even though Case already pushed the envelope creatively on her previous effort, "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood," she goes one step further, using several homemade instruments resembling a music box and snake charmer's flute. [Apr 2009, p.134]
Pitchfork
Case remains her own best muse, a strong, feminine presence who demands you meet her songs halfway (she calls herself a control freak in every article I've read), but her band deserves credit for creating the ambient, dark-night setting in which her tales of murder and animals sound natural and compelling.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Middle Cyclone is the kind of record it's nearly impossible to hate: a pleasantly swirling strum and twang of guitars, gentle percussion, and That Voice.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
I’d reject the idea that this album is laid-back in favor of saying it’s too light-hearted.
Read Full Review >Blender
Her dream-cinema tales can meander, but Case’s voice will lay you flat, sure as any storm.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
At 42 minutes, Cyclone could still lose a few tunes ('Fever,' 'The Pharaohs'), which elongate a back end that never seals the album properly, but in penning almost all of her own material, Neko Case can even get away with a 31-minute final track of cricket song.
Read Full Review >Filter
Cyclone might lack the raw beauty of her last project, but Case's emotional honesty is surely a sign that more meaningful transformations are in store. [Winter 2009, p.92]
Drowned In Sound
It’s tempting to conflate the fact Middle Cyclone is less outre than her last couple of sets with the fact it last week cracked the US top three, but there’s nothing particularly sell out-ish about it, and certainly with her lyrical gifts and that incredible voice still firmly intact, it’s hard to even really be that disappointed.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Among the standout tracks and few ho-hummers is enough good poetry to overshadow that which is overwrought, and enough personification to light a small town.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
There's the brisk cover of Sparks's 'Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth,' plus a huanting, piano-inspired run through Harry Nilsson's drunkathon 'Don't Forget Me,' but she blows it at the death with the hideous 'Marais La Nuit,' 31 torturous minutes 38 grisly seconds of forest noises. [Apr 2009, p.102]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Rick K gave it a5:
As with the other listener who likened his experience with the cd as 'two ships passing in the night', I too was disappointed that I did not immediately tune to the emotions of the lyrics. This one does not rise high for me, but her voice! What a voice.
Stephen B gave it a10:
MC is a great album. Consistently enchanting and springing new from track to track. Subtle but brassy. Literate but no nonsense. Lyrically she keeps getting better. She reins in her voice, but I think to really great emotional effect. Then she also pulls some great pop choruses out of her bum. What's not to like? At Tim H and all those grumpy reviewers...If having a looping track of spring peepers after 42 minutes of music is lazy, then what do you call leaving the empty space on a CD filled with absolutely nada. That's what everyone else does. The track is in keeping with the spitirt of the album. It also has its purposes. In the deep latter stages of winter I played that track as background noise and my wife instantly got happier without knowing why!
Edouard K gave it a7:
Cyclone is a good album, but thing Ive always like about Neko's music is that theres always some lyrics in her song that I totally identify with. This album didnt have anything like that for me. Since I rank music on what it means to me, I can't give this a ten. Its a good album, but me and it were like two ships passing in the night.
Tim H. gave it a7:
Wait, so no one else is disappointed by an album that has half an hour of crickets in it? How is that not lazy?
Dion B gave it a10:
Best ever! buy it now! lick em twice!
Steve A gave it a10:
I didn't think Neko could surpass the masterpiece that is Fox Confessor. But she did. Middle Cyclone is a fantastic listen. Even the crickets are captivating. Once Ms. Case learns how to properly use Photoshop, she'll become a one-woman powerhouse in the music industry.
Terence M gave it a10:
Far be it for me to label Tim H. an aesthetic retard, but if the the glove fits... to be more charitable, perhaps he's simply tone def. Middle Cyclone is undoubtably Ms. Case's finest effort yet; a collection of song whose melodies and lyrics reveal their complex nuances each time they're played. Any artist should be envious of Neko's skill at embedding these pithy pop passages with such wistful wit and grandure.
