Like a librarian who’s as stern as she is alluring, Natalie Merchant was once the most intimidating artist in pop.
Back in her hip-swinging days with 10,000 Maniacs, the sin-averse smarty would rap the knuckles of humanity for its ills, all the while letting us boogie to the beatdown. Cue up “Candy Everybody Wants” for a pleasantly withering refresher.
But after ditching the Maniacs in ’93, Merchant seemed bored. Her audience, her presence, her intimidation dwindled. She got married, had a daughter. She devoted herself to gardening, painting, a withdrawal surprising no one.
Seven years later, she is back. At first glance, her return, the new “Leave Your Sleep,” appears pretentious: 26 songs based on poems from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The truth, however, is that “Leave Your Sleep,” while ambitious in scope (read: a tad bloated), is accessible and fun, educating and enlightening. And the 46-year-old’s sexy midrange coo still smolders, one of the most distinctive voices around.
The clever arrangements span the globe, from Appalachian stomp to Far Eastern ornamentation. “Topsyturvey-World” is a nursery rhyme by the Brit William Brighty Rands, but Merchant sets it to a seductive reggae beat, the Trenchtown keyboards low and slow. Why the island hopping? Who knows, but it works. “The Janitor’s Boy,” by child prodigy Nathalia Crane, swings with serious New Orleans heat, the trumpet courtesy of Wynton Marsalis.
With the album dealing primarily in lullabies and children’s rhymes, “Leave Your Sleep” is getting tagged as kid-friendly. And indeed, it is, especially the funky breakdown “Bleezer’s Ice Cream,” with its crazy flavor list courtesy of New York’s Jack Prelutsky: “I got cocoa mocha, macaroni/tapioca, smoked bologna.”
But Merchant keeps it interesting for tall people, too. Laurence Alma-Tadema’s “If No One Ever Marries Me” (1897) becomes a brutal ballad: “If no one ever marries me/And I don’t see why they should/For nurse says I am not pretty/And I’m seldom very good.”
Because she’s Natalie Merchant, the singer gets too Masterpiece Theatrical at times, giving in to her self-righteous Victorian sensibilities. But give it time. When she gets loose, soaking up the heat of the city and the grit of the land, her smarts, steam and lust for verse stop me in my titillated tracks. Who’s up for a trip to the library?
