Natalie Merchant - Motherland
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Natalie MerchantBrand: MERCHANT,NATALIE
Edition: Music CD
Published: 2001
CD Release Date: 2001-11-13
Music Label: Elektra / Wea
Soundtracks:
- The House Is On Fire
- Motherland
- Saint Judas
- Put The Law On You
- Build A Levee
- Golden Boy
- The Ballad Of Henry Darger
- The Worst Thing
- Tell Yourself
- Just Can't Last
- Not In This Life
- I'm Not Gonna Beg
Free Music Notes for Motherland
Free Music Review: Merchant's willingness to experimment here pays off.
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is just beautiful, end to end, there is not a single track I skip, I understand that not all of this album is going to appeal to everybody but you should still give it a try.
Merchant's voice has aged beautifully and she hasn't been this blatently political since 1989's Blind Man's Zoo with her formmer band 10,000 Maniacs.
This album will probably not appeal and might even offend Republican Zealots, with it's lyrics frequently implying a failed America, especially on This House Is On Fire, Motherland and Saint Judas but to those with open minds ans open hearts this is a facinating listen.
Merchant's music is far more experimental here than it has ever been, particularly in her career as a solo artist. In 10,000 Maniacs there were certianly tinges of reggae, punk (especially on The Wishing Chair and Hope Chest) and folk but until now she has stuck to the formula of piano ballards and standard radio-friendly rock-pop, not that her previous work wasn't good, brilliant even it is just that Motherland is an entirely different creature to Ophelia and Tigerlily.
The opening track This House Is On Fire, written during the WTO Protests and the mess of the 2000 presidential elections has a haunting arabic/north african arrangement featuring heavily what I believe is a violin or similar string instrument and a almost trip-hop (Think Portishead's 1994 classic Dummy) beat underneath.
The second, title track Motherland is deceptively simple upon first listen both musically and lyrically, it initally seems uplifiting but is really more about America's failures than it's sucesses as exmpilified in the lines It's your happiness I want most of all/and for that I'd do anything at all, oh mercy me!/
If you want the best of it or the most of all, if there's anything I can do at all./Now come on shot gun bride what makes me envy your life?/Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free,/ what's that like to be? Musically upon subsequent listens new instruments literally seem to jump out at you, most noticable though is a accordian, apparently played by the legendary Van Dyke Parkes.
The next two tracks Saint Judas and Buid Yourself a Levee are classic R&B, not in the style of Missy Elliot of whoever is passing as R&B nowdays but the real R&B my dad plays over and over, like Aretha Franklin. Mavis Staples sings back-up on both these tracks, one telling the tale of lynchings in the south in the 30's and the other a warning to a girl, I guess all girls really about the dangers of en and falling in love, Staples voice compliments Merchant's perfectly.
Put The Law On You is a straight-up torch song, musically simplisitc compared to the offering here but vocally deep and rich showing a never before seen and very welcome side to Merchant's music, she seemms to really be having fun here despite the song's typically somber lyrics.
Golden Boy is haunting, musically siilar to Motherland it is a scathing attack of the media's willingness to make celebrities of murderers and other criminals.
Henry Darger is a piano ballard, typical Merchant in the music department but what is far more beguiling here is that for whatever reason she chooses to sing the tale of this odd man in a soprano as opposed to her usual alto, it works.
The Worst Thing is one of the more interesting songs musically speaking, it has classical guitars and flamenco rythms shimmmering through it, Merchant even sings some of the lyrics that tromp over well-worn ground in Spanish.
Tell Yourself is a song that should be played in every 8th grade PE class, it adresses the body image of young girls and makes a very vaild point without preaching, it is one of three songs on this albu that are signature Merchant in both lyrical content and usical style but there is a reason Merchan vists this structure over and over again. It works.
It Just Can't Last, this album's main single is classic Merchant, brilliant cllassic Merchant but if I was forced to pick a weak link on this album it would be this, that is by no mans saying that it is bad, even by Merchant standrds it is good, but it seems like it was put here with the sole intention of being the single.
Not In This Life sounds a lot like she has taken everything she has learnt from her previous albums and pressed it into the classic Merchant mold, again it works well.
The album closer, I'm Not Gonna Beg is a folk/country ballard that is a perfect ending to a near perfect album that is at once comfortable and new and completely deserving of a five star rating.
Motherland Poster
Japanese edition of 2001 album with one added bonus track 'Carnival' (live).Just as Natalie Merchant donned a mythical persona for her last proper solo release, 1998's Ophelia, the buttery-voiced performer enjoys another stint as a quick-change artist on Motherland. From the trilling Middle Eastern flavor of opener "This House Is on Fire" to the evocative Latin classical guitar tones on "The Worst Thing," Merchant seems to enjoy pressing her steadfast, throaty vocals into new terrain as much as she does trying on dresses and high heels. While most of Motherland resides in the downtempo, ballad-heavy world that Ophelia did, most of the singer's diehard fans will appreciate her thoughtful phrasing and pastel soundscapes. There may not be fireworks, but the ex-10,000 Maniacs frontwoman knows her way around a sad song: "Golden Boy" excels as a wispy November poem, while she wiggles into torch-singer mode on "Put the Law on You." But the record's true standout is "Tell Yourself," an almost sprightly tune with sunny acoustics that resemble the Maniacs' "Don't Talk." Merchant may not be inherently comfortable in her own skin, but, like a salamander, she's excellent at transforming her surroundings without sacrificing her creative soul. --Kristy Martin
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