When Natalie Merchant released her lovely, resonant solo debut Tigerlily, in 1995, she was more or less the age that I am now; last year, two decades on and now past 50, came Paradise Is There, made up of the same songs but re-recorded (and reordered) with the benefit of experience and the different perspective that comes with time. So of course I had to listen to it.
I came to Tigerlily during university - via the local library, over summer 2001-02 (so, tipping from second year into third - in retrospect the start of a period that shaped me a great deal) - and it's one of those albums that, even if I don't think of it that often, has become deeply woven into my life, songs like "San Andreas Fault", "Wonder", "Beloved Wife", "Carnival", "I May Know The Word" and more which have become more familiar than words and which I really hold dear. There's a sweetness to it and a sadness coexisting with hope in its gentle melodies and Merchant's somehow both hesitant and fluid vocals that was irresistible then and still is.
In that context, the versions on Paradise Is There were never going to replace the originals in my affections. These are not radical reinterpretations; rather, overall, these new versions tend to be more orchestrated (more strings), a bit fuller in sound (including a certain deepening of the timbre of Merchant's voice) and longer, but remain clearly recognisable. Do they cast new light on these familiar songs, and do they have something to say about the journey that their writer and singer has been on in the 20 years since she first laid them down? Do they also make me reflect on the time that's passed and what has changed in my own life over the (more like 15 year) period since I first discovered them myself? Yes to all of those questions, in small ways but not negligible ones - and so, something to be grateful for, as quiet as all of this may be.
I came to Tigerlily during university - via the local library, over summer 2001-02 (so, tipping from second year into third - in retrospect the start of a period that shaped me a great deal) - and it's one of those albums that, even if I don't think of it that often, has become deeply woven into my life, songs like "San Andreas Fault", "Wonder", "Beloved Wife", "Carnival", "I May Know The Word" and more which have become more familiar than words and which I really hold dear. There's a sweetness to it and a sadness coexisting with hope in its gentle melodies and Merchant's somehow both hesitant and fluid vocals that was irresistible then and still is.
In that context, the versions on Paradise Is There were never going to replace the originals in my affections. These are not radical reinterpretations; rather, overall, these new versions tend to be more orchestrated (more strings), a bit fuller in sound (including a certain deepening of the timbre of Merchant's voice) and longer, but remain clearly recognisable. Do they cast new light on these familiar songs, and do they have something to say about the journey that their writer and singer has been on in the 20 years since she first laid them down? Do they also make me reflect on the time that's passed and what has changed in my own life over the (more like 15 year) period since I first discovered them myself? Yes to all of those questions, in small ways but not negligible ones - and so, something to be grateful for, as quiet as all of this may be.
