Natalie Merchant successfully set herself apart from the usual pop artists with her newest album “Motherland.” Merchant incorporates different musical traditions, including those from Africa and Spain.
Merchant’s voice, just as on her other albums, stands out as innocent, sweet and different. Merchant performs all her songs in the same tone, and, therefore, lacks variety in the voice level.
The most distinct feature of Merchant’s album are the lyrics. Unlike other pop artists, Merchant wrote lyrics critical of society.
The CD starts off with a political song, “This House is on Fire.” Merchant performs the song with deep emotions almost screaming the title line into the listener’s ears. Merchant sings “I don’t have the gift of the prophecy, telling everybody how it’s gonna be. You go passing wrong for right and right for wrong, people only stand for that for just so long.” These lines were originally meant to describe the mood during the election dispute and the World Trade Organization protest, Merchant says in the press release.
According to the statement, the fact that Merchant finished the album shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks, shows the “disturbing edge of these lyrics.”
“It is very strange how events are conspiring to give this song possible new meaning I could never have imagined,” Merchant said.
The second song on the album, the title song, “Motherland,” also gets a different, sad connotation after Sept. 11. This becomes even more apparent when reading on the CD cover – “Motherland is dedicated to all the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack upon the United States who were lost at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. May they rest in peace.”
“I was far more cynical when I wrote, ‘Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep, keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me, don’t go,’ ” Merchant said in a statement. “Now the song is a desperate plea for innocence, to be ‘faceless, nameless, blameless and free, while expresses a craving we all share now for the world we took for granted and lost. Suddenly there seems to be no hiding from our past as a nation or our present, or our future. For me it’s the death of nostalgia and dreams.”
“Motherland” with its lyrics, the slow rhythm and the guitar, which provides the musical background, reminds of country songs.
Overall, Merchant alternates the rhythm of her songs, both between various songs and in anyone song, which helps to keep the CD interesting and lively. This way Merchant manages to wake the listener up and convey her message.
A good example for the alternation of rhythm is the third song “Saint Judas” which is a juxtaposition to the second song with it’s fast drum beats and also the contrast between “Henry Darger” and “The Worst Thing.” “Henry Darger,” sung in a sweet, high voice sounds like a child’s plea for help and is then contrasted by flamenco rhythms in the following song.
Merchant’s lyrics are interesting and different and the music is also interesting, as it incorporates flamenco, country and pop among others. However at some points the music is too dominant and makes it hard for the listener to understand the lyrics. In the third track it is especially apparent when the drum beats coincide with the other instruments while Merchant is singing.
Another song that stands out is “Tell Yourself,” which is a lively fast paced pop song that unlike other pop songs does not talk about love. It is not a feel-good song, but rather it tries to warn teenage girls about the danger that lurk in society. Merchant successfully conveys the message through the music, which is in line with other teeny songs.
The album ends with a song in which Merchant reveals her deepest feelings. This is unusual for Merchant who never sings personal songs excluding listeners from her personal world. The passionate and soft delivery is well fitted for this kind of song. The song brings the album to a dignified ending by surprising the listener with a rather personal touchy-feely song.
Overall the album is interesting, surprising and well worth the money. Natalie Merchants new songs from her fourth solo album after departing from the rock-pop band 10,000 Maniacs can also be heard on her year-long world tour, which started Oct. 27.
