Go West - paradise is there

The journey continues...

Tigerlily (1995)

For most people, this is peak, if not their only experience of, Natalie - it's certainly feels like the peak of her commercial success, but is it her best album? Well, that would be telling now, wouldn't it? Hold on, isn't that kinda the point to these things...

1. San Andreas Fault
This is a strong opener - it's got a nice slow vibe to it. It's also got quite clever lyrics paralleling California and the San Andreas Fault with the fragility of the American dream - "oh promised land, oh wicked ground - build a dream, tear it down"

2. Wonder
I like this one - it's about a child born with a disability/disease and how they're still special - a "wonder". "Laughed as she came to my cradle - know this child will be able. Laughed as my body she lifted - know this child will be gifted. With love, with patience and with faith".

3. Beloved Wife
This is OK, but nothing too special. 

4. River
Yeah, I like this one - her voice is very silky on it. I've not idea what she's on about though.

5. Carnival
This is the main single from the album - it's pretty catchy. I think it's about how difficult it is to know whether you're experiencing the "real" world or just some kind of facade - some of the internet seems to think so anyway

6. I May Know the Word
Another slow one - it's OK, but doesn't really add a lot.

7. The Letter
This is a nicely constructed song, with her writing a letter to a vanished lover expressing bitterness and regret - all in just over two minutes.

8. Cowboy Romance
Very polished, but there's not a load of content in there.

9. Jealousy
A slightly more upbeat number dwelling on a past relationship again - I quite like this one too.

10. Where I Go
Another one with more style than substance - nothing wrong with it, but it's pretty forgettable

11. Seven Years
And another one about a past relationship - I get the impression someone was a bit uncomfortable listening to this album. This starts slowly and builds nicely.

Overall, it's a very stylish and polished album but just a bit lacking in content and bite - yes, she's obviously unhappy with one or more exes on it, but she never really lays into them. I get the impression she was told she need to strip things back and tone things down if she wanted to be successful - and I guess that was what she thought she wanted at the time (spoiler alert - later albums are considerably less commercially oriented). For the playlist, I'm going for "San Andreas Fault", "Wonder" and "Carnival" - the rest of them are all fine, but don't stand out from the crowd enough for inclusion for me.

Wikipedia gives us the unsurprising news that it's her debut album and the more surprising news that Aileen Wuornos, the US serial killer, was a big fan and had "Carnival" played at her funeral. Critically, the reviews were mixed, with nearly everyone comparing it to her previous work with 10,000 Maniacs - some positively and some negatively. I can see both side of the argument but my favourite comment is from Spin who said (negatively) that it was "a "predictably tasteful effort" that "makes 10,000 Maniacs actually sound like ten thousand maniacs"". Commercially, it did well, getting to #39 in the UK and #13 in the US, but selling five million copies in the process, which ain't to be sneezed at. Interestingly, it's her second most successful solo album in terms of chart position in both countries, but behind different albums - neither of which I'd have guessed. More on this in later posts...

There's one final later postscript - in '15 she released Paradise Is There - The New Tigerlily Recordings, which I was quite interested to listen to given some of the stuff she'd done in the intervening years. Unfortunately, however, she does remarkably little to any of the tracks other than adding a few more strings to them, so I'm not quite sure why she bothered.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a copy for the bargain price of £1.50, but if you want the limited edition, 45 rpm double album on 180g vinyl then it's going to set you back £90 - I'm sure it looks and feels impressive, but I think I'll just keep the cash. I like this album and listen to at least the first half of it reasonably frequently, but it very much falls into the "nice" category - there's nothing overly challenging or engaging about it, so in some ways it feels like a step back after Our Time In Eden. But it's always possible that the lack of challenge is exactly why it did so well.

MTV Unplugged - enjoyable but completely unnecessary
Ophelia - A very restrained album