''Natalie Merchant'' is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Natalie Merchant Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. She joined the band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and was lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the group. She remained with the group for their first seven albums before ...

, released on May 6, 2014 by

Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch ...

. Her first studio album consisting of all original material since ''

Motherland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

'' (2001), it revisits a characteristic theme of Merchant's, of "characters, and women in particular, struggling in a culture where odds are stacked against them".

Critical reception

Upon release, the album received mostly positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the album received a score of 73, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Commercial reception

In the United States, the album debuted at No. 20 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart on its first week of release, selling around 12,000 copies in the United States in its first week. It also debuted at No. 2 on ''Billboards Folk Albums, and No. 5 on the

Rock Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart. As of October 2015, the album has sold 44,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from CD liner notes. ;Musicians *

– vocals (1-8, 10, 11) * Eddie Allen –

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

(4, 5),

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

(4, 5) *Kyle Armbrust –

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

(6, 11) * Stephen Barber – string arrangement (1, 10), woodwind arrangement (10) *

Andrew Barr Andrew James Barr (born 29 April 1973) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the 7th and current chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory since 2014 and the treasurer of the Australian Capital Territory since 2011. He ...

– drums (3, 8) *Jonathan Dreyden –

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

(8) *Steve Elson –

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

(7),

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

(7) *Tony Finno – string arrangement (6, 11) *Nadège Foofat – string arrangement (6, 11) * Marc Friedman – bass guitar (3, 8) * Clark Gayton – horn arrangement (4),

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

(4, 5),

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

(4, 5) *Quan Ge – violin (1, 6, 11) *Mark Goldberg –

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

(10) *Gabriel Gordon – acoustic guitar (1-5, 7, 10), electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10) *Vivek Kamath – viola (1) *Mindy Kaufmann –

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(10) *Lisa Kim – violin (1, 6, 10, 11) *Liz Lim – violin (1, 6, 11) *Joanna Maurer –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

(1, 6, 11) * Jeremy McCoy –

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

(1, 6, 11) *

Anthony McGill Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus. McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He ...

– clarinet (10) *

John Medeski Anthony John Medeski (born June 28, 1965) is an American jazz keyboard player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood. He plays the acoustic piano ...

– organ (1, 4), electric keyboard (2) *

Elizabeth Mitchell Elizabeth Mitchell (born Elizabeth Joanna Robertson; March 27, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for her lead role as Juliet Burke on the ABC mystery drama series '' Lost'' (2006–2010), for which she received a Primetime Emmy A ...

– backing vocals (2, 6) *Kurt Muroki – double bass (6, 11) *Jesse Murphy – bass guitar (1, 2, 4, 6, 7),

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

(5, 10), tuba (10) *

John Patitucci John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing the electric bass at age 10, performing and composing at age 12, and at age 15, s ...

– double bass (1) *

Shawn Pelton Shawn Pelton is an American drummer and percussionist. He has recorded with a wide range of artists and has been a first call player since moving to New York in the late 1980s. Pelton has recorded with artists such as Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, N ...

– drums (1, 2, 4-7) * Erik Della Penna – electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 7, 8),

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...

(3, 5), acoustic guitar (10) *Robert Rinehart – viola (1, 6, 10, 11) *Sein Ryu – violin (1, 6, 11) *Uri Sharlin – grand piano (1, 4, 10), Wurlitzer piano (2),

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

(5), electric piano (7),

tack piano A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the ha ...

(10) *Corliss Stafford – vocals (4) *Alan Stepansky –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

(1, 6, 10, 11) *Simi Stone – backing vocals (1, 4) * Tamar-kali – backing vocals (1) * Johanna Warren – backing vocals (1, 2, 6) *

Kenny Wollesen Kenny Wollesen (born 1966) is an American drummer and percussionist. Wollesen has recorded and toured with Tom Waits, Sean Lennon, Ron Sexsmith, Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, John Lurie, Myra Melford, Steven Bernstein, and John Zorn. He is a fou ...

– drums (10), percussion (10) *Sharon Yamada – violin (1, 6, 10, 11) *Ru Pie Yeh – cello (6, 11) *Wei Yu – cello (1) ;Technical & design *Natalie Merchant –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

*Paul Antonell – recording *Elizabeth Bauer –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

assistance *Bella Blasko – engineering assistance *George Cowan – recording *Kabir Hermon – engineering assistance *John Horne – engineering assistance *F. Ron Miller – package design *Alex Nappi – engineering assistance *Eli Walker – recording, mixing * Dan Winters – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Natalie Merchant albums Nonesuch Records albums