The poetics on Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood quite often transcend the secondary aspect of contemporary song lyrics, yielding finely detailed macro-observations while maintaining empathy for individuals who may be imperfect, or foolish, but are never to be trivialized. Take, for example, these few lines from the albums opening track Margaret vs. Pauline:
"Ancient strings set feet alight to speed to her such mild grace No monument of tacky gold They smoothed her hair with cinnamon waves And they placed an ingot in her breast to burn cool and collected Fate holds her firm in its cradle and rolls her for a tender Pause to savor Everythings so easy for Pauline..."