Blacklisted

Neko Case’s first two albums were not exactly what you’d call cheery, but there was a lightness to them that put her grand, artful country-soul bummers in their place. On Blacklisted, though, she lets sadness wash over her, delivering a collection of songs that are as dark and melancholy as they are graceful and engaging. The spooky, Appalachian-tinged opener, “Things That Scare Me,” sounds like it’s being sung from the perspective of a soon-to-be serial killer, setting a disturbing tone for the album. The thing is, Case’s powerful voice serves up dread and misery in a package that’s too alluring to resist. “It looks a lot like engine oil and tastes like being poor and small/And Popsicles in summer,” she sings on “Deep Red Bells,” also showing off her gift for simple, evocative imagery. Later a smoky, bruised cover of the torchy Sarah Vaughan–popularized classic “Look for Me (I’ll Be Around)” imagines Case, scotch in one hand, cigarette in the other, giving lonesome barflies a late-night reason to live. Who knew depression could sound so fuckin’ good?