Natalie Merchant (album)

Natalie Merchant is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, released on May 6, 2014 by Nonesuch Records. Her first studio album consisting of all original material since Motherland (2001), it revisits a characteristic theme of Merchant's, of "characters, and women in particular, struggling in a culture where odds are stacked against them".^[2]

Natalie Merchant
Studio album by Natalie Merchant
Released	May 6, 2014 (2014-05-06)
Studio	The Clubhouse (Rhinebeck) Electric Lady (New York City) [1]
Length	47:25
Label	Nonesuch
Producer	Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant chronology
Leave Your Sleep (2010) Natalie Merchant (2014) Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings (2015)

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Drowned in Sound	6/10[5]
Exclaim!	7/10[6]
PopMatters	7/10[7]

Upon release, the album received mostly positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the album received a score of 73, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[3]

Commercial reception

In the United States, the album debuted at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on its first week of release,^[8] selling around 12,000 copies in the United States in its first week. It also debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Folk Albums,^[9] and No. 5 on the Rock Albums chart.^[10] As of October 2015, the album has sold 44,000 copies in the US.^[11]

Track listing

Natalie Merchant track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Ladybird"	6:37
2.	"Maggie Said"	4:27
3.	"Texas"	5:02
4.	"Go Down Moses"	5:01
5.	"Seven Deadly Sins"	4:51
6.	"Giving Up Everything"	4:20
7.	"Black Sheep"	4:08
8.	"It's A-Coming"	3:50
9.	"Lulu (introduction)"	1:03
10.	"Lulu"	4:15
11.	"The End"	5:11
Total length:		47:25

All tracks are written by Natalie Merchant

Personnel

Credits adapted from CD liner notes.^[1]

Musicians Natalie Merchant – vocals (1-8, 10, 11) Eddie Allen – flugelhorn (4, 5), trumpet (4, 5) Kyle Armbrust – viola (6, 11) Stephen Barber – string arrangement (1, 10), woodwind arrangement (10) Andrew Barr – drums (3, 8) Jonathan Dreyden – organ (8) Steve Elson – clarinet (7), saxophone (7) Tony Finno – string arrangement (6, 11) Nadège Foofat – string arrangement (6, 11) Marc Friedman – bass guitar (3, 8) Clark Gayton – horn arrangement (4), trombone (4, 5), tuba (4, 5) Quan Ge – violin (1, 6, 11) Mark Goldberg – bassoon (10) Gabriel Gordon – acoustic guitar (1-5, 7, 10), electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10) Vivek Kamath – viola (1) Mindy Kaufmann – flute (10) Lisa Kim – violin (1, 6, 10, 11) Liz Lim – violin (1, 6, 11) Joanna Maurer – violin (1, 6, 11) Jeremy McCoy – double bass (1, 6, 11) Anthony McGill – clarinet (10) John Medeski – organ (1, 4), electric keyboard (2) Elizabeth Mitchell – backing vocals (2, 6) Kurt Muroki – double bass (6, 11) Jesse Murphy – bass guitar (1, 2, 4, 6, 7), acoustic bass (5, 10), tuba (10) John Patitucci – double bass (1)

Shawn Pelton – drums (1, 2, 4-7) Erik Della Penna – electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 7, 8), lap steel guitar (3, 5), acoustic guitar (10) Robert Rinehart – viola (1, 6, 10, 11) Sein Ryu – violin (1, 6, 11) Uri Sharlin – grand piano (1, 4, 10), Wurlitzer piano (2), accordion (5), electric piano (7), tack piano (10) Corliss Stafford – vocals (4) Alan Stepansky – cello (1, 6, 10, 11) Simi Stone – backing vocals (1, 4) Tamar-kali – backing vocals (1) Johanna Warren – backing vocals (1, 2, 6) Kenny Wollesen – drums (10), percussion (10) Sharon Yamada – violin (1, 6, 10, 11) Ru Pie Yeh – cello (6, 11) Wei Yu – cello (1) Technical & design Natalie Merchant – production Paul Antonell – recording Elizabeth Bauer – engineering assistance Bella Blasko – engineering assistance George Cowan – recording Kabir Hermon – engineering assistance John Horne – engineering assistance F. Ron Miller – package design Alex Nappi – engineering assistance Eli Walker – recording, mixing Dan Winters – photography

Charts

Chart performance for Natalie Merchant

Chart (2014)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[12]	87
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13]	29
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[14]	153
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[15]	17
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[16]	72
UK Albums (OCC)[17]	34
US Billboard 200[18]	20
US Folk Albums (Billboard)[19]	2
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[20]	5
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[21]	8