If you’d previously suspected that Neko Case occupied a niche of one, her fourth studio album made it official. Labels like “alt-country” and “indie-rock” disintegrate when faced with Fox Confessor’s haunting, haunted, half-traditionalist/half-otherworldly vision of Americana. This is where Case definitively establishes herself as a complete original, with admiring friends like Garth Hudson, Howe Gelb, Calexico, and The Sadies lending a hand. Don’t let that voice distract you from the literary depth of the lyric sheet either.