It’s been 17 years since frontman Natalie Merchant left 10,000 Maniacs for a solo career and motherhood, and 7 years since her last release. Merchant returns with “a lullaby record” – the 26 song collection Leave Your Sleep, which adapts the works of classic and contemporary poets like E.E. Cummings, Robert Graves, Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Christina Rossetti. Leave Your Sleep encompasses elements of jazz, blues, folk, chamber orchestral and world rhythms through collaborations with the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, members of the New York Philharmonic, and Medeski Martin & Wood. Merchant’s long awaited record is a gentle, lush and magnificent release. – Written by JFelton
SIMILAR | 10,000 Maniacs, Basia Bulat, The Innocence Mission, Joni Mitchell, Beth Orton, The Sundays, Linda Thompson, Suzanne Vega