Middle Cyclone by Neko Case

Middle Cyclone, Neko Case's fifth studio album, blew in on Anti- in March 2009, her first solo record in three years, and she has admitted it was a slow one to finish. Darryl Neudorf produced it, and it is a storm-chaser's record: tornadoes, weather and wild animals run all through the songs, as Case works out how a childhood spent bonding with nature left human love on the back burner, and comes around to admitting she needs it anyway.

The guest list reads like an alt-country block party, with M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer and players from the New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico and the Sadies all pitching in, and she takes a swing at Sparks' "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" and Harry Nilsson's "Don't Forget Me". Critics lined up behind it, that big, clear, flamethrower voice most of all, and it picked up two Grammy nominations, for Best Contemporary Folk Album and, shared with artist Kathleen Judge, Best Recording Package.

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