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Rating: Natalie Merchant, former leader of the 10,000 Maniacs, an eighties band, presents us with an album for which more than sixty artists have collaborated. Natalie Merchant's third studio album is a fusion of musical currents that leaves you confused, but also impressed. This record is primarily aimed at critiquing the American system and is dedicated to the fallen of September 11. The themes are serious, and the singer treats them in a non-angry manner; in fact, Merchant appears relaxed as in the cover photo (sitting under a tree, with a basket of fruit).
The first track of the album is a great comparison between America and a house on fire, hence the title "This House Is On Fire", and it offers us an Arabic style in terms of the brass instruments and electric guitars, with the right amount of distortion, lending themselves to what is perhaps the most beautiful among the tracks on the album. Tracks that recall her past with the Maniacs are "Tell Yourself" and "Just Can't Last", with a pop rock style. Of "Tell Yourself" we can say it is a track where the singer deals with personal themes, talking about her experiences, her life, as indeed in "I'm Not Gonna Beg", "The Worst Thing", and "Not In This Life". Acoustic guitar and accordion intertwine folk rhythms in the track that gives the album its name: "Motherland". As the saying goes, the more, the merrier, we recognize a tango in the already mentioned "The Worst Thing", with a part sung in Spanish, and references to African-American music in the track "Build A Levee". We can appreciate the poignant melody of "I'm Not Gonna Beg Yourself", and the sweet tone of the voice instead in "Henry Darger". Religious references are present in "Saint Judas" and "Golden Boy" is a song that flows very well and pleasantly.
The entire album, which expresses greater maturity from the singer, has been exceptionally blended, so that none of the various musical culture references seem out of place. The themes are always current and, although it seems like an album inspired by September 11, it is only dedicated to it, as the author wants to highlight, since its recording was completed on September 8. To help reflect, it is an excellent album that, to justify its name, includes among the instruments used all the instruments that are the foundation of New World music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Motherland (04:46)
Where in hell can you go
far from the things that you know
far from the sprawl of concrete
that keeps crawling it's way about
1,000 miles a day
Take one last look behind
commit this to memory and mind
Don't miss this wasteland,
this terrible place
When you leave keep your heart off of your sleeve
Motherland cradle me, close my eyes
lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go
Don't you go
Oh my five & dime queen tell me what have you seen
The lust and avarice
The bottomless, the cavernous greed
Is that what you see
Motherland cradle me, close my eyes
lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go
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 it 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 it like to be
Motherland cradle me, close my eyes
lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me
Stay beside me don't go
Don't go
05 Build a Levee (04:47)
When I was just a little girl
My mamma said to me
"Beware of the devil my chld
in the dark rocky places he'll keep
Beware of the devil my child
Beware of his charming ways
You'll fall under an evil spell
just looking at his beautiful face
You gotta build yourself a levee deep inside"
"Don't go walking by the riverside
alone in the pale moonlight
He'll come upon you girl
With no earthy body in sight
Come up upon you girl
and he'll whisper something sweet
then take you
where the waters rise so high and run so deep"
"You gotta build yourself a levee deep inside
Gotta build yourself a levee deep inside
Build yourself a levee girl
When the waters run high"
Now when I was just a little girl
My mamma said to me
"Beware of the devil my child
but if by chance you should meet
Beware of his cold dark eyes
Full of bold and unholy deceit
He'll tempt you with a whirling pool of lies
and promises he'll deny
or that he'll never keep"
"You gotta build yourself a levee deep inside
Build yourself a levee deep inside
You gotta build yourself a levee deep inside
Build yourself a levee girl
when the waters run high"
10 Just Can't Last (04:31)
I swear I know your face
I wish I knew your name
I wish I could take you by the hand.
If I could name it, if I could just explain it.
If I could only help you, help you understand.
I can see that you're hurting
Weighed down like a beast of burden about to break your back.
God only knows that you're human so what are they trying to do then?
Believe me, they don't understand that you have the weight of the world today.
It's on your back.
A heavy load like that is gonna hold you back.
It's gonna drag you down.
You know it just can't last, you know it just can't last.
They thought they could use you
Push you down and abuse you
And what's so sad is you've decided to hide all your feelings
Got more pain than you can deal with but ask yourself, how can this last?
I know you have the weight of the world today, it's on your back.
A heavy load like that is gonna hold you back, it's gonna drag you down.
You know it just can't last, you know it just can't last.
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By Luigi_96
Natalie does not experiment, does not try to surprise us with special effects, but wins us over by starting again from where she left off in 2001.
"Giving Up Everything" is a very evocative song about the liberation that comes from abandoning everything.
