ALBUM REVIEW: Natalie Merchant Lays Out a Feast on ‘Keep Your Courage’

It’s been nearly a decade since Natalie Merchant has released an album of all-original material, but she’s been quite busy in that time span. She’s reconceptualized her back catalog for string quartet and acoustic arrangement as part of the Paradise Is There album and documentary looking back at her multiplatinum 1995 solo LP Tigerlily, directed a documentary on domestic violence titled Shelter, and curated a career-spanning box set. On the civic engagement front, Merchant spent two years teaching music to preschool-age children while serving as artist-in-residence for Head Start in Troy, New York, and was recently appointed to a six-year term on the board of trustees for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

This week, Merchant is releasing new music with Keep Your Courage. Simply put, the album is marvelous. To go a little deeper than that, Merchant’s latest is full of ambitious musical passages, thoughtful lyrics, and fantastic vocal performances centered on the need for love and meaningful human connection.

And those performances aren’t just limited to Merchant’s own vocals. Keep Your Courage opens with a pair of duets that feature Abena Koomson-Davis of the Resistance Revival Choir, “Big Girls” and “Come on, Aphrodite.” The latter, an upbeat paean for the Greek goddess to appear and “make me love,” is a standout track and is highlighted by Merchant and Koomson-Davis’ gorgeous voices and their ability to weave them together.

“Sister Tilly” is an ode to a series of female figures who were influential in Merchant’s life. Clocking in at just under eight minutes, the song is lushly arranged and densely structured lyrically, successfully paying homage to a generation of women and their essence through the composite character of Sister Tilly. It’s an expression of love, not the romantic kind like in “Come on, Aphrodite,” but for those who inspire and shape one’s world.

Natalie Merchant (photo by Shervin Lainez)

Except for the jazzy “Tower of Babel,” Keep Your Courage could be described as baroque pop. The arrangements and orchestration are stately, verging on classical in composition and instrumentation. And it works; the elegance of the music suits Merchant’s voice and underscores the album’s lyrical focus.

Final track “The Feast of St. Valentine” is a strong example of that aesthetic and serves as an ideal concluding statement for the record. Over a beautiful string arrangement, Merchant encourages the listener to “keep your courage, keep your faith” and adds:

Love will lead you safely on.
Love will leave you wounded.
Love will bring you harm.
Love will be the curse and be the charm.
Love will be the bruising and be the balm.
Love will set you free and love will be your bonds.
Love will win.

“Love,” she sings, “will conquer all.”

Natalie Merchant’s Keep Your Courage comes out April 14 on Nonesuch Records.