Great, in the way that all Neko Case records are. With the benefit of hindsight (and having listened to them all out of order), I can hear this as the big step forward for her - of the studio lps at any rate, while The Virginian was plenty listenable but a bit rough around the edges, Furnace Room Lullaby is much more polished, and better for it, a midday-through-to-late-afternoon (shading into night) precursor to the noirisms of Blacklisted (itself followed by the most fully realised of her records to date, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood).
My heart has lightened as spring has announced itself in the past few weeks; it strikes me that Case's music can be listened to at any time of year. It sounds good in the blazing heat of summer, but likewise in the chill of winter; the resonance it carries is altered but no less poignant in the mezzanine months. I don't tire of it at all.
