Projected through five flaming hoops to wild and shocked applause

The journey continues...

Ophelia (1998)

I bought this one when it came out and wasn't immediately smitten with it, but it's grown on me over the years...

1. Ophelia
This has a nice subtle start to it and builds nicely as the track progresses, telling the story of various female characters in differing time periods - generally constricted in some way by the bloody patriarchy, but still making their way the best they can.

2. Life Is Sweet
This is quite a nice song, saying life really ain't as bad as it seems - it's also got a much more interesting structure than anything we saw on Tigerlily with a chorus longer than the verses and some very curious breaks in the phrasing.  I like it.

3. Kind & Generous
This is a simple saying thank you to someone who has been - go on, guess. It has a chorus composed entirely of "la la la", which could be annoying but I think she just about gets away with it.

4. Frozen Charlotte
This has a nice understated, woozy feel to it - it's not exactly overflowing with content but it burbles nicely along, even if the lyrics are pretty depressing.

5. My Skin
This is a beautiful song with a lovely arrangement and poignant lyrics. I believe it's about a woman who's dying from a terminal disease and is struggling with how the way people act around her has changed - "I've been treated so wrong, I've been treated so long - as if I'm becoming untouchable" and "Do you remember the way that you touched me before? All the trembling sweetness I loved and adored". Poignant indeed!

6. Break Your Heart
This is quite an upbeat song with very downbeat lyrics - I'm not sure if it's supposed to be positive or not. Either way I quite like it. 

7. King Of May
This is quite obviously a eulogy to someone she loved or admired - the internet tells me (with some pretty persuasive arguments) that it's Allen Ginsburg. Whoever it is, they're nice words set to a nice tune.

8. Thick As Thieves
This is another intricate and delicate arrangement - it also has very complex lyrics which are open to much discussion and potential meanings. Apparently it's about organised religion and how they're all in it together (they're "thick as thieves") for their own ends. There's an amazing analysis here that looks at every line - apparently "The wicked king of parody is kissing all his enemies, on the seventh day, on the seventh week" refers to "Christian Premillennialism and the belief that: in the apocalypse, weeks 1-7 retell the biblical history from the creation of humanity to the author’s time of writing (possibly during the Maccabean crisis)". I bet you didn't know that!

9. Effigy
Maybe this one's a bit too understated.

10. The Living
Some lovely piano on this one - I like it.

11. When They Ring The Golden Bells
This is quite a curious song - it's really a rather twee duet with Karen Peris (from The Innocence Mission, apparently - I've never heard of them but they formed in '86 and are still going) who has a most peculiar voice. But somehow, the unlikely ingredients blend together well to make quite a nice upbeat number to end the album.

12. Ophelia (Reprise)
Unless you're clever enough to wait around for the hidden track, which is a really rather lovely string-heavy instrumental version of the title track, but also completely inessential.

Tigerlily was quite a restrained album, but this is even more restrained - but also a lot more complex. I don't think it's as accessible or commercial and it certainly took me a few listens to get into it but you get the impression it's much more the sort of album that Natalie was happy making. I rarely listen to the whole album these days, but I often seek out "Ophelia" and "My Skin", so they're certainly going on the playlist and I'm also going to add "Frozen Charlotte" and "When They Ring The Golden Bell" because they provide a nice bit of variety. "Thick As Thieves" can consider itself unlucky not to make it, but at seven minutes long I'm afraid it just outstays its welcome.

Wikipedia has very little on the album other than telling us it was recorded in a home studio which she had built specially for this album and then she never used again, selling the equipment in '21 - that must have been taking up a lot of space for all those years! Critically, the reviews were mixed and I guess I can understand it's easy to view this as a disappointment if your expectations are elsewhere. Commercially, it's Natalie's highest chart placing album in the US (either solo or with 10,000 Maniacs) having got to #8, although it "only" sold 1 million copies as opposed to the 5 million that Tigerlily shifted. Over here, it only got to #52, making it her fourth highest solo chart placing (out of five albums that have charted for her).

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a copy for a couple of quid, but you can't spend any more than £11 on it because there are only CD and cassette versions available - it's never been pressed on vinyl. Which sent me off down a rabbit-hole as to when this started being a thing and there's no definitive answer, but the first album to chart in the US without having a vinyl version available was apparently a Shooting Star (no, me neither) best-of in '89. Back to Natalie, I like this album and think it rewards careful listening so it was nice to sit down and give it a full listen.

Next up - my favourite solo album!

Tigerlily - the first solo effort