Leave Your Sleep is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant. Produced by Merchant and Andres Levin, the double concept album is "a project about childhood" and is a collection of music adapted from 19th and 20th century British and American poetry about childhood.[10] BBC Music describes it as "200 years of lyrical and musical history, washing beautifully by."[3]
| Leave Your Sleep | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 9 April 2010 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 104:51 | |||
| Label | Nonesuch | |||
| Producer | Natalie Merchant, Andres Levin | |||
| Natalie Merchant chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 75/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| BBC Music | (favorable)[3] |
| Billboard | (favorable)[4] |
| Drowned in Sound | 4/10[5] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B [6] |
| Paste | 7.7/10[7] |
| PopMatters |   [8] |
| Q | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [9] |
Tracks
edit| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience" | 5:10 |
| 2. | "Equestrienne" | 4:38 |
| 3. | "Calico Pie" | 2:41 |
| 4. | "Bleezer's Ice-Cream" | 5:16 |
| 5. | "It Makes a Change" | 3:30 |
| 6. | "The King of China's Daughter" | 2:39 |
| 7. | "The Dancing Bear" | 5:37 |
| 8. | "The Man in the Wilderness" | 3:44 |
| 9. | "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May" | 4:06 |
| 10. | "If No One Ever Marries Me" | 2:21 |
| 11. | "The Sleepy Giant" | 3:19 |
| 12. | "The Peppery Man" | 5:05 |
| 13. | "The Blind Men and the Elephant" | 5:32 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Adventures of Isabel" | 3:23 |
| 2. | "The Walloping Window Blind" | 4:16 |
| 3. | "Topsyturvey-World" | 5:08 |
| 4. | "The Janitor's Boy" | 3:52 |
| 5. | "Griselda" | 5:50 |
| 6. | "The Land of Nod" | 4:04 |
| 7. | "Vain and Careless" | 4:42 |
| 8. | "Crying, My Little One" | 2:26 |
| 9. | "Sweet and a Lullaby" | 3:04 |
| 10. | "I Saw a Ship A-Sailing" | 2:12 |
| 11. | "Autumn Lullaby" | 3:21 |
| 12. | "Spring and Fall: to a Young Child" | 3:03 |
| 13. | "Indian Names" | 5:52 |
Inspiration
editThe sleeve notes credit inspiration for the songs of this album as follows:
- Adventures of Isabel – Ogden Nash
- Autumn Lullaby – Anonymous
- Bleezer's Ice-Cream – Jack Prelutsky
- Calico Pie – Edward Lear
- Crying, My Little One – Christina Rossetti
- If No One Ever Marries Me – Laurence Alma-Tadema[11]
- Indian Names – Lydia Huntley Sigourney
- I Saw a Ship A-Sailing – Anonymous
- It Makes a Change – Mervyn Peake
- Equestrienne – Rachel Field
- Griselda – Eleanor Farjeon
- Maggie and Milly and Molly and May – E. E. Cummings
- Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience – Charles Causley
- Spring and Fall – Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Sweet and a Lullaby – Anonymous
- The Blindmen and the Elephant – John Godfrey Saxe
- The Dancing Bear – Albert Paine
- The Janitor's Boy – Nathalia Crane
- The King of China's Daughter – Anonymous
- The Land of Nod – Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Man in the Wilderness – Anonymous
- The Peppery Man – Arthur Macy
- The Sleepy Giant – Charles E. Carryl
- The Walloping Window Blind – Charles E. Carryl
- Topsyturvey-World – William Brighty Rands
- Vain and Careless – Robert Graves
Charts
editWeekly charts
edit| Chart (2010) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[12] | 168 |
| Austrian Album Charts[13] | 46 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[14] | 37 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[15] | 90 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[16] | 50 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[17] | 40 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[18] | 37 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[19] | 24 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[20] | 30 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[21] | 46 |
| US Billboard 200[22] | 17 |
| US Digital Albums (Billboard)[23] | 8 |
| US Folk Albums (Billboard)[24] | 1 |
| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[25] | 5 |
| US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[26] | 9 |
Reception
editBBC Music gave a review following the album's release:
What’s astonishing is how cohesive it all is: from the fire-eyed, Celtic-tinged chamber music of Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience, through to the stark, troubled strings of the closing Indian Names, Leave Your Sleep never feels over-extended. The sheer ravishing beauty of the arrangements, combined with the tasteful, organic aesthetic (no synths here), prevents things ever jarring, and Merchant’s voice flows constant throughout, supple and hard as silken steel. Indeed, everything sounds so good from a purely musical perspective that the record perhaps doesn’t showcase its lyricists as well as it could. It’s hard to really see that it cumulatively says anything about childhood, except perhaps that it's the lurid bits that stick with you – Charles E. Carryl’s faintly traumatic The Sleepy Giant is a piece of grotesque that's hard to ignore. But most of these poems simply sink into the verdant whole – 200 years of lyrical and musical history, washing beautifully by.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b "Critic Reviews for Leave Your Sleep". Metacritic. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ Jurek, Thom. "Leave Your Sleep - Natalie Merchant". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ a b c Lukowski, Andrzej (12 April 2010). "Review of Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep". BBC Music. BBC. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ Lipshutz, Jason (30 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant, 'Leave Your Sleep'". Billboard. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ Ferguson, Robert (13 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ Wood, Mikael (16 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep". Entertainment Weekly: 72.
- ^ Leven, Jeff (1 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep :: Music :: Reviews". Paste. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ Cooke, Jennifer (27 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep". PopMatters. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ Hermes, Will (10 May 2010). "Leave Your Sleep". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant "Leave Your Sleep" Album Preview". Billboard.
- ^ If No One Ever Marries Me poem by Laurence Alma-Tadema, ArtMagick Illustrated Poetry Collection
- ^ "Excerpts of ARIA Chart history of Natalie Merchant". ARIA. Retrieved 26 July 2024 – via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
- ^ "Lescharts.com – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep". Hung Medien.
- ^ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 16, 2010". Chart-Track. IRMA.
- ^ "Italiancharts.com – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep". Hung Medien.
- ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
- ^ "Charts.nz – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep". Hung Medien.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Digital Albums)".[dead link] Billboard.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Top Americana/Folk Albums)". Billboard.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard.
- ^ "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Top Tastemaker Albums)". Billboard.
