Published on Apr 7, 2000
Natalie Merchant unquestionably has an alluring vocal style.
Just when you think you’re not going to be sucked into listening to
another song featuring her – be it from her days fronting 10,000
Maniacs or her solo career – eventually you find yourself halfway
through the song before you know what hit you.
After two successful solo efforts, Merchant decided to test the
waters of the stage with
Live In Concert, a set recorded in June 1999 at the Neil
Simon Theatre. And while Merchant continues to enchant on some of
these tracks, the key word here is boredom. There is hardly any
time in the course of these 11 tracks where the energy level raises
high enough to pull the album out of the doldrums.
In one sense, I have to question why Merchant chose now to do a
live disc. It’s not often that you see an artist go out after only
two studio albums and try to fill a live set. With the inclusion of
covers of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Neil Young’s “After The
Gold Rush,” one can immediately see the danger of going out without
enough original material. (In all fairness, these two covers are
excellent efforts.)
But Merchant shows that she can pull at the heartstrings of the
listener with amazing agility. Take the track “Beloved Wife,” a
song lamenting the loss of one’s partner after 50 years of
marriage. (I remember my grandfather being lost after my
grandmother’s death, so I can easily understand the emotions that
Merchant draws from here.) And the more I listened to it, the more
I liked “The Gulf Of Araby” for the same reasons; Merchant is able
to take this song and spin a tale you can almost see acted out
before your eyes.
The two big hits of Merchant’s solo career, “Carnival” and
“Wonder,” are here in all their splendor – and, surprisingly, this
is where the most of the show’s energy is focused. If anything,
these songs are the ones that didn’t necessarily need the spotlight
on them as brightly, only because they were so well-known. If
anything, Merchant should have tried to get people into the other
songs that might not have rolled off the tongues of the audience as
easily.
This is the major problem I have with
Live In Concert. The bulk of the performance is far too
melancholy-sounding – and I recognize that Merchant is not
necessarily the most happy-go-lucky songwriter on the planet. But
tracks like “Dust Bowl,” “Ophelia” and “Seven Years” almost sound
like you’ve walked into a musical wake, and you’re merely there to
pay your respects.
Some might say this is just the nature of Merchant’s music. I
don’t quite buy that. I saw Cowboy Junkies in concert way back in
1990, and while their songs were slow and pain-filled, they were
able to put on a show that made you genuinely interested and
excited about their music. Somehow, Merchant hasn’t been able to
tap that vein, and it’s truly her loss.
If you’ve nearly worn out your copies of
Tigerlily and
Ophelia, then
Live In Concert will be a nice addition to your collection.
If you just know Merchant from what you hear on the radio, this is
not required owning – but if you do pick it up, approach it with
caution.