Natalie Merchant’s solo debut album in 1995, “Tigerlily,” gets the anniversary CD treatment in “Paradise is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings,” exhibiting a more relaxed and mature-sounding singer-storyteller.
Despite the different vibe of her re-interpretations, the former vocalist of alterna-pop band 10,000 Maniacs has not lost her edge.
If anything, she sings the album’s 11 songs with renewed relevance, and disarms listeners with palpable honesty as she sings about tales of personal pain that she seldom explored with the Maniacs.
Still possessing a wide vocal range, as evident in the opening ballad “San Andreas Fault,” Merchant now has a richer and deeper voice that has gotten better with age.
That, as well as the change in instrumentation, signifies that this isn’t the “Tigerlily” that her older fans remember. But change, in this instance, is a wonderful thing.
“Carnival,” once a beat-enlivened track, is reimagined as an unplugged, acoustic number—considerably less danceable, but lively in its own way.
The same upbeat tone is present in the revamped “Jealousy,” which is bubblier and exudes less cattiness than the original song.
The ballad “I May Know the Word” is one of the album’s gloomier songs (“But it’s all gray here/it’s all gray to me”)—and it’s interesting to note that the “darker” songs outnumber the uplifting ones.
The new version of “River,” about Merchant’s old pal, River Phoenix, recaptures her anger directed at those who besmirched the late actor’s reputation (“Vulture’s candor/casual slander/you murder his memory”).
She sings the ballad “Beloved Wife” with heartbreaking pessimism, from the perspective of an old man.
It’s an elegantly produced retooling of old songs, and an entrancing follow-up to Natalie’s self-titled album, also released by Nonesuch Records, in 2014.
If there’s one thing that disappoints here, it’s the separate “Paradise is There” DVD—a film memoir by the artist. Its audio component is unplayable for some reason (the visuals are fine) and most video players don’t have the codec required to play it, as of this writing.
Merchant’s YouTube channel has excerpts, performances and outtakes, as well as interview clips of fans discussing her decades-long career.