NATALIE MERCHANT

Leave Your Sleep

(Nonesuch Records 522304-2)

Natalie has walked a long, hard road since her debut fronting 10 000 Maniacs as a17-year-old singer. As with any artist, there have been highlights (‘Carnival’) and some ratherflat moments.

Now with ‘Leave Your Sleep’ she reaches a pinnacle in her creativity, traversing time in her search to give fresh meaning songs, poems, rhyming nonsense and folk tales. In an informativebooklet that accompanies the double CD collection, she writes about pulling obscure andeccentric poems off “yellowed” pages and bringing them to life.

To do this she has used a wide range of musical styles from rock to pop, reggae, Dixieland and, of course folk. More than 100 musicians were involved in the project at one time or another. And carrying it all along isNatalie’s unique, deep, sometimes husky voice, riding triumphant like a Chocolate Factory’s Charlie, waving her wand, making magic at every turn.

The result is an amazing collection that grows in depth, meaning and listening pleasure, each time the CDs spin.

‘Leave Your Sleep’ follows 2003’s the ‘House Carpenters Daughter’, that was rooted in American, British and Irish folk traditions.

It delivers 26 songs re-created from original writing by storytellers and poets from Ogden Nash to e.e. cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mervyn Peake and Robert Graves among others.

According to Natalie, the collection took five years to complete. It arose she says from “conversations” she had with her daughter during the first six years of her daughter’s life.

And for those who like to read while they listen, the original works upon which Natalie’s recreations are crafted, are all reproduced in the booklet boxed with the CDs. ‘Leave Your Sleep’ is a truly remarkable collection that will deliver fresh delights to any attentive ear, time-after-time. And if you have never heard of Natalie, you are in for a rare treat: EJH

OASIS

Time Flies... 1994-2009

(CD&DVD)

(CDEPC 7088)

Oasis were around fordouble the amount oftime as The Beatles, yet released half the amount of albums. The comparison is obvious, of course, as Oasis have been compared to the Beatles their whole career.It’s no coincidence, though. The Gallagher brothers famouslymodeled themselves on the Beatles. They had the samehaircuts, based some of their songs on the Beatles’ songs and Liam even went as far as naming his kid “Lennon”.

‘Time Flies’, for the first time, groups together Oasis’s entire career worth of A-Sides on two CDs. That’s 27 singles that Oasis released between 1994 and 2009. And while Oasis started off their careers as the would be saviours of Brit Pop, the albums towards the end of their career (barring 2009’s ‘Dig Out Your Soul’)were not of the standard oftheir earlier work.

Regardless, when lumpedtogether with the amazingsongs, the singles from the lesser acclaimed albums actually don’t sound half bad, which just goesto show that even when they were bad, by their standards,Oasis still knew how to write a good pop song.

This collection will not only round off the collection of the die hards, but will also be a good starting point for those that never got round to buying ‘What’s The Story (Morning Glory)’.

The collection also includes,for the first time ever on physical release, Lord Don’t Slow Me Down and Whatever (although that song was available on the rerelease of ‘Definitely Maybe’).

The DVD: Oasis released 27 singles in their 15 year career,and to those they released amusic video each (except forthe song She Is Love). The DVD accompaniment to their newlyreleased singles collectioncontains all these videos.

The DVD not only containsvideos of the singles but alsoincludes videos for Rock ‘n Roll Star, Morning Glory, Champagne Supernova, the B-Sides TheMasterplan & Acquiesce andsome live videos.

The best part of the DVD,however, is the optional commentary by the band on each video. That alone bumps this collection up from 4 stars to 5. The Gallaghers are known for their dry, Manchurian wit, their highly publicised fights and for saying “fook” a lot. It’s great to “sit” with Noel Gallagher and hear his comments on the videos and stories behind them. During some of the videos you can actually see him in your mind’s eye cringing.

It’s laughable that the brothers don’t ever commentate together. In fact, Noel hardly even refers to Liam by name and at some points calls him “Elvis” or “the singer”. It’s interesting to see how the band progressed from album to album and where they eventually landed up, music video wise, as a band. This is a nice round-off to an awesome career from one of rock music’s most prolific bands. BS

Performance: **** (CD) , ***** (DVD)

Recording: ****

Supplied by Sony Music