Natalie Merchant - Ophelia
List Price:
Our Price: $4.96
You Save: $7.02 (59%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Natalie MerchantBrand: MERCHANT,NATALIE
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-05-19
Music Label: Elektra / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Ophelia
- Life Is Sweet
- Kind & Generous
- Frozen Charlotte
- My Skin
- Break Your Heart
- King Of May
- Thick As Thieves
- Effigy
- The Living
- When They Ring The Golden Bells
Music reviews of Ophelia
Music Review: Natalie Merchant proves that One Maniac is Enough!
Rating: 5 Stars
Let's face it, most of today's music isn't all that great. Often filled with cliched phrases and uninspiring musical arrangements, today's radio sounds are uncreative. But it doesn't all have to be this way. Enter Natalie Merchant, whose tenure as front-woman of the band 10,000 Maniacs defined college radio for more than thirteen years throughout the 80's and 90's. Songs like "Trouble Me," "Like the Weather," and "These Are Days" transformed the once cult and college band to one of the most successful alternative bands in the past ten years. Merchant, who left the band in 1993, citing "a need for growth and a desire for change" and "the ability to not have to go through a censor board to get my songs on the album" exploded onto the solo scene, outdoing any previous effort when she released "Tigerlily" in 1995. The quadruple-platinum album spawned hits like "Carnival" and "Wonder" and dispelled the skeptics that thought that Merchant's work could only fit with the jangly-folk rock of the Maniacs. With her second solo effort, "Ophelia," released in May of 1998, Merchant adds to her experiences when she experiments with many different eclectic artists, including N'Dea Davenport of The Brand New Heavies, Karen Peris of the Innocence Mission, and groundbreaking producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Peter Gabriel). The result: a beautiful, radiant album that solidifies Merchant as one of the music industry's "boldest, most vital music makers," according to Billboard Magazine. Merchant, who wrote and produced the entire album, explores new ground with her "concept" album, "Ophelia." In "Ophelia," Merchant takes us on an intimate journey that seems familiar and strange at the same time. The 12 new songs cover uncharted emotion territory: The extraordinary title track , which features words in six different languages ("For Ophelia'd know your every woe and every pain you'd ever had/She'd sympathize and dry your eyes/and help you to forget."); the exhilarating fanfare of "Life Is Sweet" ("They told you life is hard/ Misery from the start/ Its slow its painful/ But I tell you life is sweet in spite of the misery/There's so much more to be grateful for/Well who will you believe who will you listen to/ who will it be/ Cos' its high time that you decide in your mind."); the sweet Dickenson-esque prose of "Frozen Charlotte," ("Still as the river grows in December/Silent and perfect blinding ice/Spring keeps her promises/No cold can keep her back/I want you to remember me that way."); the soulful "Break Your Heart" ("People shallow/ self-absorbed/ see the push and shove for more/with nothing nice on their minds/you can read about it their eyes/I know that it will hurt/I know that it will break your heart the way things are and the way they've been/But don't spread the discontent/Don't spread the lies."); a cancer stricken woman confronting her indifferent old-aged husband on the tender "My Skin" ("Take a look at my body/look at my hands/there's so much here/ that I don't understand/ Your face saving promises/ whispered like prayers/ I don't need them.")Merchant's soaring voice on the Allen Ginsburg tribute "King of May" ("Make way for the last King of May/ make a hole in the sky or him/and raise your voices up/ lift your loving cup/ to his long life."); and the combination of Merchant's urgent tone and a psychedelic guitar excursion by Lanois in "Thick As Thieves" ("Remember how it all began/ the apple and the fall of man/ the price we paid so the people say/ down the path of shame he led us/ dared to bite the hand that fed us/ the fairy tale/ the moral and/the wheel of fortune/ never turns again." In addition to the album, which is dedicated to Ginsberg, Merchant has collaborated with Rolling Stone photographers Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward to produce a film of the same name. "With the images on the package and the film, I found a creative way to combine all of the performance arts into this project. I suppose that in this regard, "Ophelia" is a concept album. At points, the song texts are interrelated and there is a cohesive mood flowing throughout the sequence of songs. Above all, what the songs share is an atmosphere. Besides, I thought it would be fun to flex my thespian muscle," she says. Merchant portrays seven characters in the film, each of which speak a different language. They each represent a part of the character Ophelia, which can be heard in the title track of the album: a suffragette, a silent film goddess, a Mafia courtesan, a human canon ball, a Carmelite, and a sweetheart. "Ophelia" is a clear departure from any album Merchant has ever been a part of. The elegiac piano sounds are still there (thankfully) and the brilliant writing remains, yet Merchant's independent creativity and surprising collabortaions produce songs that almost make you forget that she was still part of a band five years ago. Further, with "Ophelia," Merchant solidifies her position as the poet laureate of pop music, and proves that one maniac is enough. --K.A. Sabet
Description of Ophelia
HDCD. 11 tracks. Light wear on digipac.Miss Natalie needs to lighten up. Ophelia's a pretty heavy record, in terms of both the thick, string-heavy production and in terms of her protracted, pretentious songs. Merchant has a beautiful voice but she bogs it down with weighty themes that walk around in flashy clothes without going anywhere. She's even got, gulp, Tibetan lyric translations on "Effigy." It's telling that the best track here is the simplest--a lovely reading of an 1887 parlour hymn, "When They Ring The Golden Bells." Its genteel acoustic backdrop perfectly sets off Merchant's voice--and its the only time she sings with a passion that doesn't feel pretended. Guests include Daniel Lanois and The Innocence Mission. --Michael Ruby
Alternative Rock CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Alternative Rock CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $149.98
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $99.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $183.90
Similar CDs
10,000 Maniacs - Wishing ChairRelease date: 1990-10-25; Published: 1985; Music CD
Best price: $3.39
Price in other shops:
10,000 Maniacs - Mtv Unplugged10000 MANIACS; Release date: 1993-10-26; Published: 1993; Music CD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Natalie Merchant - Live in ConcertRelease date: 1999-11-09; Music CD
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in EdenRelease date: 1992-09-29; Published: 1992; Music CD
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops:
Natalie Merchant - The House Carpenter's DaughterRelease date: 2003-09-16; Music CD
Best price: $17.97
Price in other shops:
Natalie Merchant - MotherlandMERCHANT,NATALIE; Release date: 2001-11-13; Published: 2001; Music CD
Best price: $4.57
Price in other shops:
10,000 Maniacs - In My TribeRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $5.21
Price in other shops:
Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep (2CD)Baker & Taylor; Release date: 2010-04-13; Music CD
Best price: $16.85
Price in other shops:
Natalie Merchant - Retrospective 1995-2005Rhino; Release date: 2005-09-27; Published: 2005; Music CD
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops:
Natalie Merchant - TigerlilyMERCHANT,NATALIE; Release date: 1995-06-20; Music CD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: