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At the age of 60, Natalie Merchant worships one – oh, the goddess of ancient Greece. “Come On, Aphrodite,” may she have mercy on her once more and send down love, even if it always brings joy as well as sorrow. “Make me love, make me love!” she pleads in a duet with Abena Koomson-Davis (Resistance Revival Chorus). Bonnie Raitt saw it more prosaically with “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” But Merchant’s kneeling is touching, especially when these small cracks creep into her otherwise sublime voice. Too bad they’re smoothed out with horns in conventional R&B costume.
Despite everything, she remains convinced: “Love will conquer all”
The sometimes lavish arrangements remain a problem on the ninth solo work of the woman from Jamestown/New York, who recently liked to sprinkle folk covers, children’s songs and new versions between her “real” albums. A long requiem for a Sister Tilly, for example, which is abruptly placed in a 4/4 beat in the middle, which is supposed to let her fly away on swings of the strings, but then ends after almost eight minutes in an almost spoken finale. Merchant does a better job of playing with the big and small dynamics in “Narcissus,” or with the only cover, “Hunting The Wren,” originally by Irish band Lankum, which reflects current abuse in the lives of the outcast women already in the county Kildare had to build their nests of refuge in the 19th century.
“Tower Of Babel” gets to the heart of the confusion of that time with a dedicated R&B vibe in 2:28 minutes. A more coherent sequencing would have placed that or the simple folk-pop of “Song Of Himself” further up front. Merchant closes with “The Feast Of Saint Valentine,” an incantation closer to the primal martyrdom of St. Valentine than today’s Valentine’s Day rituals. But despite everything, she remains convinced: “Love will conquer all.” Even if she rarely comes when m/f/d just wants it.
SIMILAR REVIEWS
Lankum :: “False Lankum” – Spooky good
Folk seized by the spirit of the Thunder Gods
Bonnie Raitt :: Slipstream
Time Is On My Side – The Jerry Ragovoy Story 1953 – 2003
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