There was light and atomic fission

Yes - it's time for another list!  

So we've done REM and Billy and I'd pretty already much decided who I was going to do next, but it was sealed for me when I came across this photo from '90 with all them looking VERY young

For those of you that don't, the lovely lady in the middle is Natalie Merchant who, at the time, was lead singer of US indie darlings 10,000 Maniacs - who I'd only just discovered. She then went solo in '93 and, whilst it's fair to say her output hasn't been prodigious, it has been steady and varied - as we shall find out over the next fifteen or so posts. But first, we have to head right back to the beginning - completely coincidentally back to the same year that REM and Billy released their debut albums.

Secrets Of The I Ching (1983)

For someone who believed themselves to be reasonably familiar with the output of 10,000 Maniacs, I was surprised that I'd either completely forgotten or never knew this even existed - and I've certainly never listened to it as an album because I believe it's almost impossible to track down. However, all tracks are available on Hope Chest, a compilation album that I'm sure we'll get round to discussing at some point - it's fair to say my interest is piqued, but my expectations are not high.

Side one

1. Grey Victory
Well, it's got a very 10,000 Maniacs jangly start to it but when Natalie's lyrics kick in they're very high - and surprisingly indecipherable. But it's not a bad start at all.

2. Pour de Chirico
This is also pretty proto-Maniacs, but it's a most peculiar song with the beat being all over the shop - I'm not sure what they were looking for here. Natalie's voice is quite annoying as well.

3. Death of Manolete
This sounds very R.E.M.-ish - which isn't really a sound that works all that well with Natalie's voice at this time.

4. Tension
Whereas we're going more for a shoegazey fairground sound here - it's a peculiar mix, but it works OK.

5. Daktari
We're back in R.E.M territory here - there's a surprising amount of guitar work going on here.

Side two

1. Pit Viper
Whereas this has a kinda Blondie shimmer to it - it's not bad, but not at all what I was expecting.

2. Katrina's Fair
This at least sounds a bit like 10,000 Maniacs in places - I thought it was OK.

3. The Latin One
Whereas this features some wah-wah pedal with a bizarre reggae vibe to it - really very unexpected. It's not terrible though.

4. National Education Week
More reggae-ish stuff - all most peculiar.

5. My Mother the War
We're back to a bit of shoegaze-y sound here - there's some very odd guitar screeching going on.

I think it's fair to say everyone was finding their style here - they tried everything out and, to their credit, none of it was awful. But the melting pot of genres does make you wonder exactly who they were expecting to like it - and whether everyone in the group was happy with their direction (or lack thereof). Natalie certainly wasn't front and centre because the lyrics are surprisingly background when compared with later offerings - you can rarely make them out. So I'm not going to add any songs to a playlist because I know they would just massively confuse me whenever they came on.

Wikipedia has a surprising amount on an album that has pretty much sunk without a trace, some of which is most peculiar.  It was recorded at the State University of New York but because the band weren't students, they were only allowed to do so in the evening. According to the cover, the album is on the Christian Burial Music label but that doesn't exist (which seems like a weird thing to make up) - it was actually on Mark Records and 2,000 copies were pressed, funded by one of the keyboard player's parents.

The critics were amusingly random about it - Trouser Press said it "begins to bring some needed focus to the band’s warmly eccentric vision" which seems wildly generous to me but I guess it depends on what they were like before. MusicHound described it as "sonically anaemic" which I kinda both agree and disagree with but our old friend Robert Christgau was very mean about Natalie saying "not only does Natalie inflect the English language as if she grew up speaking some Polynesian tongue, but she writes lyrics to match". To be fair to him, he's not massively wide of the mark here but Natalie later said she was upset about it at the time but "now I laugh about it because I've put Robert Christgau in perspective", which I think is a fair enough way to live your life.

In almost all ways, this isn't a great album. It's muddled and muddy, inconsistent and incoherent - it's hard to know exactly what they thought they were playing at. However, viewed with the benefit of hindsight, it's an interesting listen giving some hints as to where they were heading - spoiler alert, they don't build upon the reggae beats.

Compilation albums - an interesting bunch (Billy Bragg)
The Wishing Chair - they're getting there!