I’ve been raised with certain distrust towards country music. Even today I really just don’t get it. It tends to have simple whiny melodies, dumb lyrics and to not even mention the fashion. So when I listened to one of the albums Chris got me for xmass, The Tigers have Spoken by Neko Case, I was appalled that it was country.

I try to be open minded and I have a rule that I must listen to an album until I irrevocably and definitively decide that I don’t like it and would rather listen to CFRA (an outrageously bad radio station in Ottawa) than to listen to it. So I have been listening to ‘The Tigers have Spoken” over the last week and despite its handicap for being a country music album, it is quite good. It took me a few listens to get over the lyrics. Only in country music would you talk about how you want your jerk ex-boyfriend to come back with a straight face. She has about three songs on this topic and tries out different strategies such as telling him how his new girlfriend is evil, getting a dress maker to make her a very pretty dress and even putting a spell on the guy. It completely eludes her that even if he comes back, she is still stuck with a third rate bum who is liable to ditch her as soon as the spell wears off. Once you get over rolling your eyes at the lyrics it is quite an enjoyable album though.