Album Stream: Neko Case's 'Middle Cyclone'

Neko Case

With a 9-out-of-10 from SPIN, it's clear that Neko Case's fifth studio record, Middle Cyclone, is already among the year's finest -- and you can hear the whole thing right now in advance of its release March 3.

In SPIN's March issue (on newsstands now), Case provides insight into the record's creation and lyrical themes. Recorded in an 18-century barn on her Vermont farm, Middle Cyclone is full countrified guitars and piano, love songs, and references to tornadoes, with which she became obsessed with after an intense dream. "This tornado was a living, breathing thing," she says. "And he asked me to read him a book because he couldn't hold it in his hands. It was a diary of someone he was looking for, but he couldn't read their diary to find out where they were."

Click here to read a preview of the feature.

To hear the entirety of Case's SPIN-approved Middle Cyclone, click here.

Is it one of 2009's best so far? Sound off in the comment section.