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| Leave Your Sleep (2CD) | 
| Artist: Natalie Merchant
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $15.00
as of 9/6/2010 19:01 CDT details
You Save: $9.98 (40%)
New (49) Used (7) from $15.00
Seller: Beauty and Music
Rating:  120 reviews
Sales Rank: 127
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5.1 x 0.6
UPC: 075597980394
EAN: 0075597980394
ASIN: B002ZCDR88
Release Date: April 13, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience | | • | Equestrienne | | • | Calico Pie | | • | Bleezer's Ice-Cream | | • | It Makes a Change | | • | The King of China's Daughter | | • | The Dancing Bear | | • | The Man in the Wilderness | | • | maggie and milly and molly and may | | • | If No One Ever Marries Me | | • | The Sleepy Giant | | • | The Peppery Man | | • | The Blind Men and the Elephant |
Disc 2
| • | Adventures of Isabel | | • | The Walloping Window Blind | | • | Topsyturvey-World | | • | The Janitor's Boy | | • | Griselda | | • | The Land of Nod | | • | Vain and Careless | | • | Crying, My Little One | | • | Sweet and a Lullaby | | • | I Saw a Ship A-Sailing | | • | Autumn Lullaby | | • | Spring and Fall: to a young child | | • | Indian Names |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
'This album captures so many magical moments, the best times I've ever had as a musician,' declares singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant of 'Leave Your Sleep,' her ambitious, two-disc Nonesuch debut. Merchant, celebrated solo artist and one-time voice of 10,000 Maniacs, took on what could have been a daunting task: she's adapted 19th and 20th century British and American poetry - well-known and obscure works, anonymous rhymes, children's lullabies, all of it timeless
material full of direct emotion - and fashioned new songs from these words. Among the poets she chose were Robert Graves, Charles Manley Hopkins, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The project, five years in the making, has clearly had a liberating effect on Merchant. Never has she sounded so free-spirited, so full of musical
adventure, whether backed by small jazzy combos or elegant chamber ensembles. The tracks she's created range from exotic ('The King of China's Daughter') to earthy ('Peppery Man'), soothing ('I Saw A Ship A-Sailing') to swinging ('The Janitor's Boy'), mischievous ('It Makes A Change') to moving ('Spring and Fall'). The string arrangements are particularly
stirring, recalling Joshua Rifkin's now-classic work on Judy Collins' 'Wildflowers.'
There's plenty of child-like wonder, counterbalanced with grown-up sophistication. Says Merchant, 'It was an exciting, new approach for me to work with rhythm and rhyme schemes created by other writers. The poems inspired vastly different musical settings with their themes that ranged from humorous and absurd to tragic, romantic, and deeply spiritual. Over the course of three years I wrote 40 of these poem-songs and 30 were eventually recorded.'
Merchant co-produced 'Leave Your Sleep' with Venezuelan musician-composer Andres Levin, a frequent collaborator of David Byrne and Arto Lindsay, and one of the creators of the eclectic Red Hot charity series. Over the course of a year's worth of exhilarating, musically shape-shifting sessions, they drew upon no less than 125 musicians from the varied worlds
of, among other things, Cajun, country, jazz, chamber music, R&B, Celtic, and reggae. The revitalized Merchant explains, 'I called on old friends and approached many new musicians I only knew through admiring their work... The sessions were recorded in live ensemble workshop settings that captured pure and authentic sounds played with incredibly fresh and
spontaneous energy.'
'Leave Your Sleep' is an inspired return for Merchant, her first studio album in six years - an effort long awaited by her considerable fan base. It also marks her 25th year as a uniquely successful major-label artist, one whose work has consistently enjoyed equal measures of commercial and critical success. Though she has regularly lent her talents over the last few years to the many nonprofit causes she supports, Merchant has actively returned to the concert stage in recent months, previewing material from 'Leave Your Sleep,' on a series of dates in England and continental Europe. A full U.S. tour is being planned for summer 2010.
Album Description
2010 two CD release from the former 10,000 Maniacs vocalist. Leave Your Sleep is a collection of songs adapted from poems selected by Merchant including pieces by both well-known and obscure writers. Featured are works by British Victorians, early- and mid-20th century Americans and contemporary writers as well as anonymous nursery rhymes and lullabies. Among the authors included are Ogden Nash, E.E. Cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Robert Graves. In addition to a new method of lyricism, Merchant stretches out musically on Leave Your Sleep by collaborating with a broad spectrum of artists including the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Medeski Martin & Wood, members of the New York Philharmonic, The Klezmatics, Lunasa and Hazmat Modine.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 120
 saw the concert September 6, 2010
Cindy Smith
Recently saw Merchant in concert. We weren't sure what to expect and beforehand had planned our escape if we were disappointed. Far from it . . . The first half of the concert was this album in it's entirety. The photos and commentary really added to the experience. The album, if anything, is even more beautiful.
Oh, so fine! September 3, 2010
R. Myhr (Ashburn, Ontario Canada)
No need to add a lot to the pages of reviews written here, other than to say what is oh so obvious: this is a simply outstanding album!
But I will anyway.
I don't think that I have ever been so engaged with a new CD. Every song is superb -- superb lyrically (thanks to the fine selection of texts), superb musically (a huge array of talented musicians of all stripes), superbly well sung (Natalie has never ever sounded better, interpreting every lyric with perfection) and superbly produced (every arrangement is interesting, most are outstanding, the diversity and breadth breathtaking).
My favorite tracks are "If No One Ever Marries Me", which starts so casually, so quietly, so personally, and evolves into a charming fantasy grounded in anticipated tragedy; and "The Blind Men and the Elephant", illustrating the essential truth that we all possess only PART of the truth. Love the instrumental rave-up at the end.
A word on the negative reviews. . . I see one that refers to being disappointed at a concert, having expected Natalie to "sing her hits". This is a recurring theme. I mean, how boring is that? Are we all supposed to eternally relive the narrow slice of our lives when we first clicked with a performer? Here is an artist at the height of her powers, filled with creativity and talent; what is she supposed to do, simply lie back in the comfort of past glory?
I really don't think I'd want to be at a party with these people. I'd die of boredom.
Just get the CDs (both of them and the booklet). Enter this wonderful world with an open mind. Be prepared for bliss.
 We were betrayed!!!! September 2, 2010
Seth Aragon (New Orleans, LA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have long loved Natalie since her days with the Maniacs band. I consider Tigerlily, Motherland, and House Carpenter's Daughter, just about sublime, and Tigerlily is in my top 100 favorite CDs.
But this latest drivel????
Shame on you, Natalie!
There is no spark. No creation. No fire. Just a de rigueur, pro forma recitation of other artists' old songs, attached with a bill and huge paper attachment of lyrics.
I prefer quality.
I will not automatically buy Natalie's work again.
Please, listen to it before you buy it. Better yet, do not buy it, just get another copy of Tigerlily.
Shame. Fie on you! Go back to the work and effort that you put into Tigerlily and your other albums please. This let us all down Natalie!
Seth
Nicely Done August 25, 2010
MacKey
I was blown away---I read of this album in the Wall Street Journal and bought it on that recommendation. I had never heard of her or her music tll then and now. It gets better every time I listen.
Of course I am not a music critic or even an expert. I just enjoy.----so may you.
Unique and wonderful August 15, 2010
broiderqueen (Southern Oregon)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have listened to Natalie Merchant since she was lead vocal with 10,000 Maniacs. I loved her then and loved when she went solo. "Leave Your Sleep" takes her music to the next higher level of artistry.
As others have said, these are not children's pieces of music per se, although children will enjoy some of the selections, such as the whimsical "Bleezer's Ice Cream" and "Griselda". This was a five-year labor of love for Merchant, I believe so that she could leave it as a lasting treasure for her own daughter.
These songs are poems set to music by Merchant. She meticulously researched each piece of poetry and each poet, wrote wonderful historical notes about each piece and then set them to the music she believed they should be set to. The CD notes are bound in a gorgeous little book and the whole CD presentation is exceptionally high quality including the paper that was used and the photographs selected. I buy MP3 downloads for almost all of my music now but in this case I actually bought the CD set (after listening to it from the library). It is truly a collector's item.
The songs/music are varied, some haunting such as "If No One Ever Marries Me" to toe tapping "The Janitor's Boy". I loved every song on both CD's and I can't remember the last time I was able to say that.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 120
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