10,000 Maniacs - Our Time In Eden

There was a time (it would've been the tail end of '04 and early into '05, I think) when I really liked this band a lot; at their best, they created music of a clarity and a grace rare in any form of music, never mind in pop. Anyway, Our Time In Eden was their final record with Natalie Merchant out front - and hence the final real 10,000 Maniacs album - and it brims with the mystery and joy of the band's best work, housing many of their best songs..."Noah's Dove" (probably my favourite of theirs, though I prefer the sparer demo version on Campfire Songs), "These Are Days", "Stockton Gala Days", "Circle Dream" - all up, I think it's as strong an album as In My Tribe, though I could've done without the jaunty horns woven through several of the numbers. I've already thrown several words at band and album here - clarity, grace, mystery, joy - to which I ought only add that it's all of those and a prevailing feeling of quiet wonder which are the lasting impressions left by the album, making it somehow more than the sum of its parts even now, with my initial infatuation with the band having long faded.