She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off

The journey continues...

Leave Your Sleep (2010)

Well - this is a curious (and 104 minutes, long!) one and no mistake, which I'm not sure I've ever listened to all the way through (and certainly not in one go). To give some background which will make some of the following comments make more sense, most (maybe all) of the lyrics here are classic children's poems which Natalie has set to music along with the help of, apparently, 135 musicians

Disc 1 - Leave Your Supper

1. Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Experience
A snappy title to start with and there's a very Celtic feel going on - it's got a nice sound to it, but the lyrics are surprisingly indistinct, so I've no idea what it's all about.

2. Equestrienne
Whereas this is a waltz, trotting along nicely with a beautiful orchestral backing.

3. Calico Pie
But we're back in the yee-ha square dance arena of the last album here.

4. Bleezer's Ice-Cream
And this is some jazzy nonsense about bizarre ice cream flavours - the words (by Jack Prelutsky) are quite intricate and she's done a great job setting them to appropriate music here.

5. It Makes A Change
This is fine, but I can't think of anything to say about it other than noting the chorus "There’s nothing makes a Greenland whale feel half so high and mighty as sitting on a mantelpiece in Aunty Mabel's nightie" (from a poem by Mervyn Peake, better known for Gormenghast)

6. The King Of China's Daughter
This has a very nursery rhyme feel to it, but with a distinct Chinese flavour.

7. The Dancing Bear
Whereas the flavour here is traditional English folk (complete with accordion) - we're certainly trying out various genres, aren't we?

8. The Man In The Wilderness
Whereas here we're going to back to an Ophelia kinda sound - I quite liked it and it's got an oboe (I think, but it could be a clarinet) on it, which you don't hear enough of. 

9. Maggie And Milly And Molly And May
This also isn't a million miles away from Ophelia, but more obviously a nursery rhyme or a lullaby. 

10. If No One Ever Marries Me
Compared to the rest of the album, we've entered a bit of a musical rut - I'm sure she'll pull out some Scandi death-metal soon enough though to spice things up. 

11. The Sleepy Giant
Well, it's not Scandi death-metal, but it's a medieval-style waltz with some amusing lyrics about a giant who has spent all his life eating little boys, but now he's in his dotage (he's 372 years old, after all) he's realised "I think it exceedingly rude...little boys do not like to be chewed" and so, quite obviously, he lives on eels.

12. The Peppery Man
And here we're in the deep South, for some old style jazz.

13. The Blind Men and the Elephant
And again here, with some nice lyrics telling the story of a group of blind men describing an elephant from their perspective - it's well done and I can see young kids loving this.

Disc 2 — Leave Your Sleep

1. Adventures Of Isabel
This is a big favourite in our house for obvious reasons - it tells the story of a young girl who meets various dubious characters but deals them all in a no-nonsense (if slightly unbelievable) manner - "showed no rage, showed no rancour - turned the witch into milk and drank her". I'd like it even if it wasn't "the Isobel song" because it's a decent tune which rattles along nicely.

2. The Walloping Window Blind
OK - we've not had a sea-shanty yet, so that's another musical style ticked off - amusingly, this is like The Pogues' "Irish Rover" but for kids.

3. Topsyturvey-World
Ah yes - reggae. Of course! You can't claim she's not taken us on a musical journey here - but this actually really works well as a kid's song.

4. The Janitor's Boy
And ragtime jazz! This another quite nice one without being spectacular.

5. Griselda
We've got more of a Motherland sound here - it's almost rawk!

6. The Land Of Nod
And here we've got a brass band sound - it's got a nice sleepy feel to it. Night night, everyone!

7. Vain And Careless
More of a Joan Baez vibe to this one - I quite like it.

8. Crying, My Little One
Time for a Celtic folk vibe - none of these are bad, but the constant switching of genres does mean it lacks somewhat in flow.

9. Sweet And A Lullaby
An Americana folk vibe here - which is another one that suits a kids song. 

10. I Saw A Ship A-Sailing
This is another nice bedtime song - a proper lullaby. 

11. Autumn Lullaby
And, to my amazement, this is very similar - I liked it and it actually made me feel a bit sleepy. 

12. Spring And Fall: To A Young Child
This is pretty similar too, although a bit more orchestral. We've still not had any Scandi death-metal though...

13. Indian Names
This is a typical slow album ending track for Natalie - it's quite a solemn lament, which works well. 

There is a lot to like about this album, but the main problem for me is that there's just too much, both in terms of the number of tracks and the variety of genres. I'm sure Natalie had a great time acting as an archivist and I also suspect that there are a fair number of parents out there that found they could just put this on at bedtime and their little darlings drifted off to sleep - but as a "normal" listening experience, it doesn't quite work for me. In terms of the playlist, "Adventures of Isabel" has to be included, but if I had to pick any X other tracks to make up the numbers, I'd just be guessing - so let's stick with just the one track, even though that feels a bit harsh on what isn't by any means a terrible album.

Wikipedia tells me it's a "double concept album" which got me a bit confused until I realised they just meant it was both a double album and a concept album. The only other information is a list of the poets involved and I have to admit I've never heard of most of them, but I do remember Christina Rossetti, e e cummings, Gerald Manley Hopkins and Robert Louis Stevenson from my English Lit O Level days. Critically, it was pretty well received and commercially it did considerably better than I suspect anyone was expecting - #46 here, top forty in various European countries (including #24 in The Netherlands) and an incredible #17 in the US, making it her third highest charting solo album over there (it also got to #1 in their folk chart, but I've no idea how big a deal that is). 

discogs.com tells me you can pick up a single CD version with a mere 16 tracks or the double CD version for anything from £3.50 to £37.02, with no obvious explanation as to what you're paying more money for. As I said, there is a lot to like about this album but it just feels a bit too much like an overly long educational visit to a library for me to really say I enjoy it. However, it's obviously something she felt the need to do though and who am I to argue with that?

The House Carpenter's Daughter - Not the album I was waiting for