The heartbreaking irony behind the Neko Case track ‘Bad Luck’
Whether it be in indie rockers The New Pornographers, or as a solo artist, Neko Case has long been considered one of her generation’s most original songwriters. She’s in possession of a unique form of vocal delivery that’s had fans wrapped around her finger since she broke through with the Canadian band at the end of the 1990s.
Over her career, she’s crafted songs that draw on The Replacements-style power pop as well as Americana, delivering refreshingly modern takes on these already-established forms. Using her most potent weapon in her arsenal, her voice, Case is rightly attributed to cult classic status.
As a solo artist, Case has six studio albums to her name. They’ve seen her build on her work with The New Pornographers and push the boundaries of her artistry even more, refining her songwriting by drawing on more expansive musical textures and production techniques.
Arguably, of the collection, her last solo effort, 2018’s Hell-On is her best. In addition to the exciting musical elements, lyrically, it draws with more severe themes than anything else in her oeuvre, recorded at a time when she was experiencing problems caused by stalkers. This tumultuous time in her life was exacerbated during the recording of the album in Stockholm, Sweden, when she was locked away in the studio with Bjorn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John.
When in Scandinavia, her home in rural Vermont was destroyed by a fire. Ironically though, this tragedy would give the album its best piece, ‘Bad Luck’. Only six hours after receiving the call in the dead of the night that informed her of what had happened, she was in the booth tracking the vocals, which ends with the sarcastic line: “So I died and went to work.”
When sitting down with The Independent, the publication asked her how it was to record a song about bad luck when she’d just experienced a great degree of it. Case responded: “‘Bad Luck’ had already been written before the fire, and I did find some humour in the situation. My studio mate Bjorn Yttling was very supportive and made fun of me, and told me jokes. It made me feel so much better, it was like, let’s have some levity here. No one is hurt, but your house is f—ing gone.”
Later in a 2018 interview with Billboard, Case expanded on the witty aspects of the song. She told the interviewer that she wanted it to have a similar style to the traditional piece ‘Ring Around the Rosie’, which has long been believed to be about the bubonic plague, despite the cheery nature of the melody.
Case explained: “‘Bad Luck’ isn’t so dark as ‘Ring Around The Rosie,’ but that’s not a superstition specifically; it’s in English folklore and it’s not that old, but I just wanted to play with that idea.”
