Natalie Merchant

Natalie Merchant isn’t immune to the precious comforts of adult-contemporary pop, but she’s gotten more mileage from the other extreme, infusing her songwriting with lofty activism and concepts that border on too ambitious for their own good. Her first studio album in seven years, Leave Your Sleep, interprets the work of poets from Robert Graves to e.e. cummings, but its source material also includes traditional lullabies and children’s author Jack Prelutsky. Merchant’s been at her most charming, though, when striking a balance and forcing herself to focus, as on 1995’s Tigerlily (her solo debut after leaving respected folk-rock band 10,000 Maniacs) and 2001’s Motherland.

Updated 07/14/2010