Natalie Merchant is back with her latest solo effort, ‘Keep Your Courage’.
The new LP from the singer – who famously quit alt rock group 10,000 Maniacs just as the trajectory of their success was starting to peak in the early-nineties – marks her first new music In almost a decade and is a reminder of her knack for blending acerbic lyrics and social commentary with a killer melody.
Lead-single Big Girls features guest vocals from Abena Koomson-Davis from the Resistance Revival Chorus.
In the liner notes for the album Natalie explains: “The songs contained within this album were written and recorded during the pandemic… a period of great flux and fear on every level.
“But this is not an album about the coronavirus or the chaos it caused. For the most part, this is an album about the human heart.”
Natalie launched her solo career in 1995 with the Top 40 album ‘Tigerlily’ and went Top 10 Stateside with its 1998 follow-up, ‘Ophelia’. ‘Keep Your Courage’ – her eighth album – is Natalie’s first of original material since her 2014 self-titled release.
‘Keep Your Courage’ is out now on Nonesuch.
Buy ‘Keep Your Courage’ on CD.
Buy ‘Keep Your Courage’ on Vinyl.
Words: Paul Hollins
