REVIEW: Natalie Merchant, Ophelia (Elektra)
- Jon Steltenpohl
Few artists can maintain poignancy and vitality throughout their careers, but Natalie Merchant is taking a shot at it. On Ophelia, her second album after leaving the safe confines of 10,000 Maniacs, Merchant continues to shine. She is, as always, confident and alluring. Her voice is forged with a bold sensitivity, and she drapes herself in a musical tapestry that is shimmering and vibrant.
While her first solo album, Tigerlily, kept a rather simple musical focus, Ophelia finds Merchant venturing out into a garden of lush orchestration. With the help of handpicked guests such as Daniel Lanois, N'Dea Davenport of the Brand New Heavies, and Karen Peris of The Innocence Mission, Merchant explores a world that 10,000 Maniacs would never have allowed. The bio for the album quotes Merchant as saying, "I wanted to approach the recording of Ophelia as a series of workshops. Rather than use a band and rehearsing it, I hand-picked musicians for specific songs and invited them into the studio. There was a refreshing amount of freedom and spontaneity in this method."
The resulting effort succeeds for the most part and provides a reminder of the type of album an original, exciting artist should make. Merchant's songwriting remains the same. The lyrics are personal portraits of characters painted with Merchant's knack for sympathetic and vivid first person interpretations. In "The Living", Merchant sings the suicide note of person sick of the world. In "Life is Sweet", she is filled with comforting optimism for a child from an unhappy home.
But, the focus of Ophelia is the orchestrations. Gone are Tigerlily's danceable tunes. The title track is a grand pageant with drama and flair. It is filled with quiet mystery and reverence, and Merchant sings with fading echoes. "Life is Sweet" features tender piano and gentle strings which rise to aching beauty, and "My Skin" is a ghostly aria with sparse piano touches that recalls "Verdi Cries". Karen Peris' contributions on "Frozen Charlotte" and "When They Ring Them Golden Bells" add greatly to those songs.
For the most part, the extra musical touches work, but there are a few tracks which might throw listeners. "Break Your Heart" features backing vocals by N'Dea Davenport of the Brand New Heavies and oblique jazz trumpet by Chris Botti. It's a good song, but it doesn't really fit the typical Merchant sound. Likewise, "Thick as Thieves" ventures too far with its focus on Daniel Lanois' guitar (which the bio describes as "a psychedelic guitar excursion"), and the overpowering orchestration in "King of May" tends to distract from Merchant's voice.
Fortunately, the few lapses are mainly due to the way the songs are recorded, and the album still flows the way you would expect. Ophelia is a terrific album that shuns pop simplicity for a more grandiose ideal of beautiful music and sincere lyrics. Ophelia is not a casual album. Instead, it requires listening and contemplation. If anything, it shows that Miss Merchant is willing to take risks by expanding and challenging her repertoire. For such an experienced songwriter, working on the presentation of songs is about the only avenue left for improvement, and Merchant succeeds more often than not. Ophelia may not find any hit singles other than "Kind & Generous" but is nonetheless a great album.
