Merchant, Natalie / Leave Your Sleep
Album: Leave Your Sleep   Collection:General
Artist:Merchant, Natalie   Added:May 2010
Label:Nonesuch Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2010-06-27 Pull Date: 2010-08-29
Week Ending: Aug 29 Aug 15 Aug 8 Aug 1 Jul 25 Jul 18 Jul 11
Airplays: 2 1 1 1 2 2 2

Recent Airplay
1. Mar 22, 2013: The Songsmith Show
Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Experience
4. Oct 05, 2012: The Songsmith Show
Bleezer's Ice Cream
2. Dec 14, 2012: The Songsmith Show
Topsyturvey World
5. May 18, 2012: The Songsmith Show
Adventures Of Isabel
3. Oct 26, 2012: The Songsmith Show
Calico Pie, Adventures Of Isabel
6. Oct 20, 2011: The Songsmith Show
Bleezer's Ice Cream

Album Review
MC Dizzy Jackson
Reviewed 2010-06-27
Natalie Merchant’s first release since 2003 is a stellar effort. She took children-centric poems from the last century and set them to music. Poets include Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson and e.e. cummings. Guest musicians include Wynton Marsalis, The Ditty Bops, The Fairfield Four and Medeski, Marin and Wood. Making use of many musical genres such as reggae, bluegrass, jazz, musicals and more, Leave Your Sleep will hook many DJ’s. All are worth a listen. NO FCC’s.

*My favorites*: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11.

1. (5:12) Slow / Mid. Gaelic with strings. Lushful, quiet finish.
2. (3:45) Slow / Mid. Accordian, clarinet, very mysterious mood.
3. *(4:40) Slow. Strings play staccato in line with lyrics. Great stuff.
4. (5:37) Mid. Eastern European flair. Playful strings, carnivalistic.
5. *(2:42) Mid / Fast. Bluegrass-ish. Banjo, guitars bright under longing lyrics.
6. *(3:52) Mid. Vaudevillian with sax, banjo, clarinet. A love song played brightly.
7. (5:06) Slow with Mid bursts. Bluesy guitar, deep bass male vox. Awesome.
8. (5:10) Mid. Reggae jam with cool organ
9. *(5:17) Mid. Jazzy, bluesy tune about alternately-flavored ice cream. Great bass vox.
10. *(3:30) Mid then Fast. Keys play staccato under beautiful chorus of female voices.
11. *(3:25) Mid / Fast. Bluegrass-ish. About a girl who kills under bright instrumentation.
12. (2:39) Mid. Chinese tune. Beautiful female voices tell the story of a given rope.
13. (3:20) Slow. Somber dirge declaring ‘boys do not like being chewed’.
14. (2:22) Slow. Quiet, minimal self-loathing song.
15. (4:07) Slow with Mid bursts. Reflective childhood song, great passage with strings.
16. (3:06) Slow. Sounds like a soundtrack, quite moody.

Track Listing
1. Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Experience   9. Bleezer's Ice Cream
2. The Man In The Wilderness   10. It Makes A Change
3. Equestrienne   11. Adventures Of Isabel
4. The Dancing Bear   12. The King Of China's Daughter
5. Calico Pie   13. The Sleepy Giant
6. The Janitor's Boy   14. If No One Ever Marries Me
7. The Peppery Man   15. Maggie And Milly And Molly And May
8. Topsyturvey World   16. Spring And Fall: To A Young Child