Natalie Merchant [Retrospective 1995-2005] I bought the album 'TigerLily' when it first came out [in 1995], it took me a while to really get into it, but it's the very best thing she's ever done, it resides at No42 in my all time favourite albums, her later albums [Ophelia & motherland] were somewhat disappointing, each had good songs on them, but there was too much average, so it's good to get hold of this ten year retrospective album, a hand picked choice from her first 4 albums, it's a lovely collection, and a nice introduction if you don't know her, but i would still recommend 'TigerLily' to anyone.
Natalie Merchant is an American, born in 1963, she's now 47, it's hard to believe she's approaching her half century, these songs represent her 32-42 age years, the booklet front cover is a fairly soft focus black and white shot, quite nice [photo by Jose Picayo].
Well what can i say?, it's the TigerLily tracks 1-3, and track 12 that impressed me the most, and it's track 2 'Carnival' that really hits the spot, the drummer Peter Yanowitz creates this lovely jungle rhythm, or it could be the percussionist Adrian Lopez Guevarra, there's certainly the sound of bongos here, a lovely melee of sounds, and it's quite a long intro too [0:00-0:54], with a lead guitar coming in [0:11] and slowly working up a steam, the first verse goes,
Well i've walked these streets
A virtual stage
It seemed to me
Make up on their faces
Actors took their places, next to me
it goes along with the words of Shakespeare, 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players', like some gigantic gaudy carnival, i like the way the drummer / percussionist gets all jungle rhythm during small breaks in the vocals, right at the end as it fades out, and the sounds of the street comes in [5:26], then Natalie comes back in on someone's tinny radio on the street [5:35], a nice clever idea, it was good to analyse these lyrics today.
Here's Natalie Merchant singing 'Carnival' on YouTube.
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