Natalie Merchant – Ophelia (A PopEntertainment.com Music Review)

PopEntertainment
Jul 18, 1998
1 min read

Natalie Merchant – Ophelia (Elektra)

Inside the slip case of Natalie Merchant's second post-10,000 Maniacs outing, she poses in a series of retro-looking glamour shots in which she is playing a different character. We get Natalie as glamourpuss, librarian, gun moll, nun, circus girl, Olympic athlete and junkie.

The obvious conceit of the packaging is that we are going to see all sorts of conflicting and surprising views of who and what Merchant is. Too bad the album itself doesn't live up to this promise.

Continuing in the same direction as her other solo album Tigerlily, the solo Merchant seems a lot less immediately likable or interesting than when she fronted the Maniacs. The barbed irony that she used in her old group seems to have been replaced by an open-hearted belief in human nature... which is not such a good thing. The guy that the treacly single "Kind & Generous" revolves around ten years ago would have been a wife beater or at the very least would have gotten her pregnant.

Musically, this album is a step up from the last solo album, but Merchant still really has not come close as a solo artist to her work in a group. (7/98)

Sabrina Stevens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAwyIad93-c