Current Magazine March 2009 Review superioryouareinferior
Rae Spoon vs. Neko Case – The Battle of the Alt-Country Canadian “Chanteuse”
Yes, the new Neko Case has hit stores, hooray. But do yourself a favor and pass on it because there’s another alt-country chanteuse that has rode into town: Calgary’s Rae Spoon, a transgendered country singer born on the Canadian prairies in the 80’s. While touring Europe, his identity created controversy, so he hid away in an East German town and wrote Superior You Are Inferior, an account of his “darker” experiences in Canada, from the Yukon to Newfoundland. His voice is haunting and bitter- sweet, about 70% cocoa, with a trill in his pipes that’ll melt away any wound. Similar to Sinead O’ Connor, you can’t ignore Rae Spoon’s endearing style and delivery, and the subtle electronics only make Superior You Are Inferior even more of a treat. Yes, you don’t usually hear electronic sounds on an alt-country/folk record, but he traded his banjo for a computer while in Europe. This album is so artfully engineered that you probably won’t woven into the fabric of the songs themselves.
If you let it, Superior You Are Inferior will take hold of you and won’t let go; it gets frequent spin on my show. I’m not big on ballads, but Rae Spoon takes me far away in songs like “Bones in a Museum” accompanied by violin, cello, steel guitar, and electronics, or when he croons the mysterious chorus against the electronic glitch in “Strength from Within”: “We’ve gotta find a way to get the ocean on our side.” Perhaps my favorite track is “Off the Grid, Underground,” as
he sings “Off the grid, underground/All the best
songs are never found.” So true! Sounds like a
New Spin mantra if I ever heard one. And it is
true with this album, Rae Spoon is obviously a
fan of “experimenting,” and he should be
rewarded for it. Rae Spoon makes Neko Case’s
latest effort look like “lukewarm brown water that looks
like gnat’s pee.” (Masters of Reality…) Rae Spoon is cur-
rently on a massive tour, and this is his fourth solo album,
www.raespoon.com. — Dashiell Brown hosts The New Spin, “the best music
you’ve never heard” Thursdays 9-11 P.M. on CHMR-FM,
www.thenewspin.ca
