Middle Cyclone is the fifth studio album of American alternative country singer-songwriter Neko Case, released on March 3, 2009, on the ANTI- record label. Her first solo effort in three years, Case stated that "it took a very long time to make". As the title of the album suggests, the record's lyrics are permeated with imagery of tornadoes and, more-generally, nature. Thematically Middle Cyclone concerns how Case's upbringing socialized her to form strong emotional attachments to nature and animals, to the neglect of human relationships, and her reconciling "the fact that I need love".