Natalie Merchant
Tigerlily

Before giving space to a "manly" review (I'll try)... I would like to fill a serious gap always in the realm of women's quotas...

As a single person, I admit that cleaning weighs on me quite a bit, nevertheless this time I will try to take the utmost care in dusting this splendid piece of interior decor. Yes, I feel a great responsibility in discussing this topic because here we are talking about the first solo work of Natalie Merchant, singer-songwriter and, let’s be honest, the sole reason for what the 10000 Maniacs were.

I wonder if it can be called a debut album, since the girl was the pen and heart of 80% of the Maniacs' works. I just don’t feel it... Rather, I would focus on the much-anticipated process of subtraction that Natalie had long desired to implement, a process that had seen premature sparks during the recording of the MTV Unplugged of the Ten-Thousand-Maniacs in 1993. Indeed, I am convinced that Natalie could no longer stand those Thanksgiving day albums: turkeys stuffed with all sorts of oddities: both in production and arrangements. Absolutely indigestible works, like the last "Our Time in Eden", very pretentious but quite dispersive.

It is therefore quite natural to think that, after turning the project of the green years upside down, Natalie wanted to impose a bit of a diet in order to make a comeback, two years after the last ensemble performance, brooding and low-fi with a truly inspired and moving work whose key interpretation is to be found in the photo within the booklet: a living room, a dog lying on a rug, someone strumming an acoustic guitar, another scratching his head, and Natalie playing Scrabble (?) with the guitarist.

But I return to the process of subtraction mentioned above, because here everything does not add up. The theory would have it that too much production weighs down a song, and this happened with the last Maniacs albums. Conversely, minimal production brings about a fresh and immediate confrontation with the structure. As they say: does the song stand on its own or not?!

Well, with Natalie, the songs always stand on their own! Even if accompanied only by a buzz of intercoms, we are certain it would make sense. However, it is good to remember that Natalie's voice remains one of the most representative instruments of the straight to the soul art. Therefore, listening to it solo and gathered can be a magnificent as well as devastating experience.

Natalie knows this very well, and when preparing "Tigerlily" (1995) she chose to reclaim many "empty spaces" but graciously also offered several full ones. Really: the intensity of some pieces, rendered by the simplicity of the arrangements, is truly disarming. "Beloved Wife": a male-centric story on the end of a lifelong love; "River": dedicated to actor Phoenix; "I May Know the Word": a beautiful, poignant eight-minute piece; and still "Cowboy Romance", "Seven Years".

If all the tracks had been of this tone, Tigerlily would have needed a "parental advisor", because only a mature heart can withstand such confrontations. To temper the emotional clangor, some more sober tracks intersperse: "Carnival", "Wonder", "Where I Go", "Jealousy".

The "apartment" character of this album is perceived from the choice of orchestrations: acoustic guitars, piano, some percussions and scattered strings here and there, from the recycled paper booklet, from the black and white photos, the spartan graphics, the total lack of any form of pretentiousness (the lyrics are translated into French, German, and Italian!).

But the "paucity" of means is inversely proportional to the upheavals it generates. A remarkable work for an artist who in the future will struggle, a lot, to manage this great lyrical and communicative potential.