Anti-

Neko Case’s first album in four years is a darkly humorous, often disturbing, wide-swing tremolo wall of sound – aggressive in its posture, incisive in its lyricism, and filled with primal images of conjuring masons and feral animals. The opening cut, “Wild Creatures,” is a slow, symphonic tune that weaves thoughts of childhood fears with words of adult hang-ups. “I’m From Nowhere” is a distressing investigation of sexual identity and animal instincts, while “Bracing For Sunday” is angular and abrasive – a narrative of reverberating murderers and symphonic pharaohs. But not every tune on the record is unnerving. The beautiful trumpet lines in the distance behind “Calling Cards” soothes an otherwise arid and desolate song and “Nearly Midnight, Honolulu,” for all of its
a cappella spookiness, has a strangely mollifying quality. Universally, though, The Worse Things Get is more provocative, restless and disconcerting than it is restful and calming.