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The journey concludes with some oddities... Rarities (1998–2017) (2017) They may be rare, but some of these are also decidedly odd 1. The Village Green Preservation Society This is a perfectly acceptable version (if a bit lifeless) but it's SUCH a English song that you have to wonder why she picked it - it's certainly no Kate Rusby version, although I'm not such a fan of the original Kinks version ). I also don't like this song because it rhymes "society" with "society" in too many places. 2. Too Long At The Fair This is a Joel Zoss song, who I've never heard of but he's made three albums in '75, '08 and'15 And this is a perfectly fine song, but completely inessential. 3. Order 1081 This is a David Byrne song - who I have heard of! This is off Here Lies Love, his 2010 album which is a rock musical based around the life of Imelda Marcos - and I never realised it was all guest singers, so I might check it out. It's quite a pecul...

The journey continues... Keep Your Courage (2023) A gap of nine years brings us up to her last (currently) album - I checked it out at the time and quite enjoyed it but never revisited it, so it will be interesting to see what I make of it after a gap of a couple of years 1. Big Girls She's sounding very wistful and beaten down by experience, but with some hints of positivity, She's joined by Abena Koomson-Davis (who's got a lovely voice) and a load of horns which work really well. 2. Come On, Aphrodite Abena and the horns are back again with a much more needy song, begging for an opportunity for love. It's OK, but the content/length ratio feels a bit off to me. 3. Sister Tilly This is the song I knew best from the album because it's covered in an interesting Song Exploder podcast  - it's about the activist generation of women from the 60s and 70s and I think it evokes some beautiful images. And it's a decent song as well.  4. Narcissus I'm quite surpris...

The journey continues... Natalie Merchant (2014) I remember listening to this one and quite liking it - but don't remember ever listening to it again, so it will be interesting to revisit it. 1. Ladybird A song about a woman in a relationship that isn't working - it's decent enough and builds nicely throughout, but I really didn't need 6:39 of it. 2.   Maggie Said And here's a woman wondering what the point to her entire life was. I like this one - it harks back to the Ophelia era. 3. Texas And this one has a similar sound to it, along with some lovely guitar. 4. Go Down Moses She's getting a bit blues-y on this one - we've not heard too much of that over the years. It's OK, but maybe needs a bit more content in its 5:03. 5.   Seven Deadly Sins This is a nicely subtle song about the end of a relationship - an understated melody with barbed lyrics. Yeah, I like this. 6. Giving Up Everything Some lovely strings on this - I had no idea what it was all a...

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 f...

The journey continues... The House Carpenter's Daughter (2003) This is slightly different from what has come before... 1. Sally Ann A very violin heavy, langourous track with a nice woozy feel to it - even if doesn't really go anywhere. 2. Which Side Are You On? This is a 1931 track by US activist Florence Reece, which we've nominally already met when Billy Bragg covered it - but this is somewhat closer to the feel Florence was going for, complete with banjos. I quite like it (and it suits a softer voice than Billy's), but she's certainly not going for the commercial look here. 3. Crazy Man Michael This is a Fairport Convention track, with some more nice violins - it's nice enough, but there's certainly not enough content to fill up 5:13. We definitely feel like we're round the camp fire here, with more noodling than structure. 4. Diver Boy Yet another nice enough song without a huge amount of content - and I seem to recall this is my biggest problem wi...

The journey continues... Motherland (2001) This is the last one I actually bought (it's the last "normal" album she made for a bit) and it's the one I listen to most frequently. But not that frequently, so it will nice to catch up with it. 1. This House Is On Fire After the restrained nature of Ophelia , she's off the leash here and she's not happy at all. Given the album was completed two days before 9/11, the lyrics seem extremely prescient " I don't have the gift of the prophecy  telling everybody how it's gonna be - t here's a wild fire catching in the whip of the wind c ould start a conflagration like there has never been" but she was actually referring to the '00 presidential election. It's got a very interesting musical sound to it (Wikipedia describes it as " Middle Eastern violin–reggae beat fusion") - this is a strong opener and I like it. 2. Motherland The title track slows things down nicely with some beautif...

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 -...