Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

Natalie Merchant recently released her sixth solo album, Keep Your Courage. It seems like a good opportunity to revisit her catalogue. On this countdown, I rank her albums as a solo artist and as the lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs. I only included studio albums of original material – this rules out live albums like the 10,000 Maniacs’ MTV Unplugged, as well as Merchant’s album of folk covers, The House Carpenter’s Daughter. Additionally, I didn’t include 10,000 Maniacs albums after Merchant quit.

Merchant was born in upstate New York. In 1981, she joined 10,000 Maniacs at the age of 17. The band took a while to find success, breaking through with 1987’s In My Tribe, produced by Peter Asher. Tired of making “art by committee”, Merchant left the 10,000 Maniacs after their successful 1993 MTV Unplugged album and embarked on a solo career.

Merchant has released studio albums in five different decades, from 1983 Secrets of the I Ching to 2023’s Keep Your Courage.

Natalie Merchant Albums Ranked

#11 Leave Your Sleep

2010
It’s debatable whether Leave Your Sleep fits the criteria of an album of original material – Merchant wrote the music, but the lyrics are taken from 19th and 20th-century poetry about childhood. It’s an ambitious project, running over two discs. It’s worth hearing highlights like ‘Adventures of Isabel’, ‘Griselda’, and ‘Topsyturvey-World’, but it’s overlong and underwhelming.

#10 Secrets of the I Ching – 10,000 Maniacs

1983
Merchant’s first studio album with the 10,000 Maniacs is markedly different from the rest of her catalogue. The band are eclectic, with touches of post-punk and reggae among their usual folk-rock, and Merchant is less influential than she’d become during her tenure with the band. The guitar rush of ‘My Mother the War’ is the standout track, although the band are fascinating on tracks like ‘Death of Manolete’. Only 2,000 copies of the album were pressed initially – a far cry from the 5,000,000 sales of Tigerlily. I Ching isn’t readily available as a standalone album; it’s been supplanted by the compilation Hope Chest: The Fredonia Recordings 1982-1983 on CD and streaming services.

#9 Blind Man’s Zoo – 10,000 Maniacs

1989
Blind Man’s Zoo is worthy but often feels like an inferior remake of the 10,000 Maniacs’ breakthrough album In My Tribe. The music’s a little weaker than usual, which means that Merchant’s well-meaning lyrics are too dominant. The record has its moments – ‘Trouble Me’ is charming, ‘Headstrong’ is a good rocker, and ‘You Happy Puppet’ is poppy and tuneful. But the record gets bogged down on lesser numbers like the ponderous ‘Hateful Hate’ and ‘Jubilee’.

#8 The Wishing Chair – 10,000 Maniacs

1985
After the eclecticism of their debut, The Wishing Chair zeroes in on the band’s folk-rock elements. There’s even a cover of the traditional ‘Just as the Tide Was A Flowing’. It was the last 10,00 Maniacs album where Merchant worked with guitarist John Lombardo. Lombardo wrote much of the music for the first two albums, and he’d return to the band after Merchant’s departure. It’s a step forward, but the single ‘Scorpio Rising’, with its “amaze me now!” challenge/hook, outclasses the rest of the record.

#7 Tigerlily

1995
It seems harsh to relegate Merchant’s best-selling album to the lower half of this list. It’s easy to see why it’s her best-selling – it has a streamlined sound and a batch of catchy singles like ‘Wonder’ and ‘Carnival’. But it’s less ambitious and diverse than Merchant’s best work, bogged down in uneventful tracks like ‘I May Know the Word’ and ‘Beloved Wife’. Lead guitarist Jennifer Turner does a great job adding flair to these tunes.

#6 Natalie Merchant

2014
Merchant’s output slowed considerably after 2001’s Motherland – this self-titled record was her first album of entirely new material for more than a decade. It reflects the events of Merchant’s life since her last record. ‘Ladybird’ documents the end of a relationship – “You don’t know how to leave and you don’t know where to fly. You don’t know what you feel but you know it’s not satisfied today.” ‘Giving Up Everything’ is even bleaker – Merchant describes it as “seeing the emptiness as in some way magnificent.”

#5 Keep Your Courage

2023
After almost another decade between albums, Merchant returned with Keep Your Courage. It’s sedate – Merchant often deals in slow tempos, and the brief ‘Babel’ is one of the only bursts of energy. But she compensates for the slow tempos with thoughtful songwriting and diverse arrangements. Abena Koomson-Davis duets with Merchant on the gospel-flavoured ‘Come on Aphrodite’, while ‘Eye of the Storm’ features the Celtic instruments of Lúnasa.

#4 Ophelia

1998
Merchant’s sophomore album wasn’t as successful as Tigerlily, even though ‘Kind & Generous’ is her best solo single. But it’s a deeper and more interesting listen, a concept album, written from the perspectives of a woman with a multiple personality disorder. There are fascinating tunes like ‘Frozen Charlotte’ and ‘King of May’, the latter written about beat writer Alan Ginsberg, who’d passed away the previous year.

#3 In My Tribe – 10,000 Maniacs

1987
The 10,000 Maniacs emerged into the mainstream with their second major-label album, reaching the top 40 on Billboaard. The band were able to take Merchant’s serious lyrics, about child abuse, depression, and gun use, and turn them into catchy songs. ‘Like the Weather’ and ‘What’s the Matter Here’ are strong singles. R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe duets on ‘A Campfire Song’. The band covered Cat Stevens’ ‘Peace Train’, but removed it from later editions due to his support of the fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. There’s a great pair of ballads at the end of the record – ‘City of Angels’ and ‘Verdi Cries’.

#2 Motherland

2001
Merchant expanded her range with her third studio album, dipping into gospel, blues, and middle eastern textures. The record was completed two days before the 9/11 attacks – it’s an unfortunate coincidence that the opening track is titled ‘This House is On Fire’. It gets a little sleepy in the middle, with ‘Henry Darger’ and ‘Golden Boy’, but the rest of the record is excellent. ‘Tell Yourself’ is a great portrait of adolescence, while Mavis Staples duets of ‘Saint Judas’.

#1 Our Time in Eden – 10,000 Maniacs

1992
Merchant peaked on her final album with the 10,000 Maniacs, the lush Our Time in Eden. She’s clearly the dominant creative force in the band by this time, with a sole writing credit on the majority of the tracks. The violin of Mary Ramsey, who’d replace Merchant as lead vocalist, is an asset on tracks like ‘Stockton Gala Days’. ‘These Are Days’ is joyful and optimistic, and the record is packed with rewarding deep tracks like ‘Eden’ and ‘Circle Dream’.

Did I underrate your favourite Natalie Merchant record?

READ MORE

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• 10 Best Natalie Merchant Songs
• Natalie Merchant Album Reviews
• More Album Rankings