A rock music favorite is making a highly anticipated comeback with a new album after a seven-year hiatus.
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Neko Case, who is also known for her work in the band The New Pornographers, has announced the solo album Neon Grey Midnight Green, the follow-up to 2018’s Hell-On, will be released on Sept. 26 via Anti-.
The album, recorded at Carnassial Sound—Case’s personal studio in Vermont—was produced by Case herself.
“There are so few producers who are women, nonbinary, or trans,” Case explained in a press statement. “People don’t think of us as an option. I’m proud to say I produced this record. It is my vision. It is my veto power, my taste.”
The album kicks off with its debut single, “Wreck,” a vibrant tribute to the all-consuming power of new love. The track’s upbeat and electrifying sound reflects the storyteller’s emotions as she wonders if her feelings are mutual. “But maybe you want this too?/Do I look like the sun to you?/Do I blaze freckles onto your face/I bet I, bet I, bet I do,” Case sings.
Case’s New Album Pays Tribute to Music Collaborators Who Have Passed Away in Recent Years
Neon Grey Midnight Green “pays tribute to the musicians, producers, and activists who have passed away in recent years, all artists Neko was lucky enough to call not just influences but close friends.” One track, “Winchester Mansion of Sound,” was inspired by Dexter Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets. He was a close friend and collaborator of Case, who passed away in 2024.
Another track, “Match-Lit,” includes a snippet of the Mickey and Sylvia classic “Love Is Strange,” as a tribute to Dallas Good of the Sadies, who died in 2022. Case and Good often sang the song together. “He really loved women and treated me the same as other musicians,” said Case in a statement. “I was a peer, and that was something I really needed.”
Neko Case Released a Memoir Earlier This Year
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Case released her memoir, The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You. The book offered a vivid account of her challenging and often surreal upbringing in Washington state.
For nearly a decade, Case has also been working on songs for a musical adaptation of Ridley Scott’s 1991 film Thelma & Louise with stage director Callie Khouri, who wrote the show’s book. “I was the target audience for that movie,” Case recently told the New York Times. “I was exactly the right age; I saw it trillions of times.”
While a potential Broadway run is on the horizon, Case will kick off a national tour for Neon Grey Midnight Green in Woodstock, New York, on Oct. 1.