For the last two weeks i’ve listened only to two albums: Matt Alber and Neko Case. While I had been anticipating Middle Cyclone for months, Hide Nothing was a suprise. Comming from seemingly opposite ends of the musical spectrum they both acheive resonant emotional heights by pairing super-human vocal abilities (Neko has a third lung I swear) with tender poetry (Matt’s ability to capture the excitment and confusion of a first crush stirs long forgotten twinges).

I first heard Matt Alber when my favorite news agregator/blog posted a video for his “End of the World”. Reading about him recording/producing/mixing the album in his apartment filled me with awe and that the video, directed by his brother, features a waltz with two men made me fall in love. The rest of the songs are beautifully instrumented and feature well his warn tenor. The have a timeless classical quality that I suspect comes from his involvement with Chanticlear, a Grammy winning choral group. At first listen I was wowed just by his technique, and have been repeatedly impressed by the song structure and lyricysim.

The themes of love as a natural world phenomenon are everywhere on the album - the opener “Monarch” connects being in a relationship to the migration of butterflies. And like Case he has the ability to bring to mind a prairie field teeming with life.

Many people have noted a fondness for animals in Neko Case’s songs. I came to her first after hearing “Tiger on a chain”, and have been folowing ever since. There is nobody that sounds quite as good with such uncatagorizable a body of work. Earlier in her career she sounded pretty old school country and honkey tonk but over the course of 6 albums has crafted a niche all her own. She seems to be heading in a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot direction but still keeps it all organic. Referencing magpies and killer whales the new set of songs fits in with her earth mother aura (and a cover of the Sparks’ “Mother Nature” adds just a slight bit of hippy granola crunch).

Still I’m glad she’s getting the attention she deserves. Cyclone was even sold at Target. In a few years maybe Matt will be as well known.