Natalie Merchant: Live In Concert : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Skeptics put off by Natalie Merchant's naive, sometimes goofy idealism tend to crumble when faced with the singer live - her thick alto is less mannered than on record, and she takes a joy in performing that's absolutely winning. This live disc transmits that joy, as well as the concert mastery of a stage veteran, in its snipped-together highlights of Merchant's recent New York run. A bare-bones "Wonder" opens up into the ravishing orchestration that marks the rest of the album. The hits and covers showcase the singer's considerable empathy - her voice thins out with the debilitating sadness of "Dust Bowl," but on "San Andreas Fault" the bass reverberates with misery while Merchant sings clear and strong. Her taste for simplistic metaphors and a sustained sweet tone, as on "Carnival," doesn't detract from her melodic invention, and covers like the still, lovely version of "Space Oddity" and a slow-swaying "After the Gold Rush" fit right in. (RS 827)

ARION BERGER