Not Hamlet's Wife: 15 Years To Natalie Merchant's "Ophelia"

I first heard Natalie Merchant's amazing voice on the TV, when she and her former band 10000 Maniacs covered Patti Smith's song "Because The Night" on MTV Unplugged. I haven't heard a lot of her music since that early 90's, but when I put her second solo album named Ophelia, which was released 15 years ago on 19 of March, 1998, I fell in love with her music again. Ophelia was produced by the British composer Gavin Bryars and it is rich in instrumental arrangements and co operations with other artist such as Karen And Don Peris from The Innocence Mission and N'dea Davenport from the Brand New Heavies. This is not a concept album, as many think, but Natalie Merchant tries to show the female standpoint, who looks at the social structure and finds out some of the opportunities are closed. In a certain sense, it holds a Feminist point of view and was quit rare in that time. Here are five songs from this album, hoping you'd like i

Album Rating: 7/10

Kind And Generous

Ophelia

King Of May

Break Your Heart (With N'dea Davenport of Brand New Heavies)

The Living

Martha (Pick Word #22)

Martha was a biblical figure who lived in Bethany near Jerusalem. She had one brother, Lazarus, and one sister named Mary. Her story in the Bible was written about her request of Jesus to come and heal dying Lazarus. Jesus has arrived to Bethany a few days after Lazarus died but he raised him from the dead in one of the famous miracle stories in the Bible. Later on, according to the Provencal Golden Legend, Martha came to Tarascon, helping the population there to fight a scary monster which threatened them for a long time. Finally, she died and buried there. Many songs where written about "The Mistress" (That's the Hebrew meaning of the name Martha), so I've collected five of them for you, as part of Name The Girl project, sung by Lisa Hannigan, The Innocence Mission, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jefferson Airplane and All About Eve...

Lisa Hannigan - Martha (Tom Waits cover version)

The Innocence Mission - Martha Avenue Love Song (Taken From Befriended, 2003)

The Smashing Pumpkins - For Martha (Taken From Adore, 1998)

Jefferson Airplane - Martha (Taken From After Bathing At Baxter's, 1967)

 

All About Eve - Martha's Harbour (Taken From All About Eve, 1988)