I was just wondering: is it just me, or is Natalie Merchant turning
into pop music's most self-absorbed entertainer? (OK, I know it'd be
hard to beat the self-proclaimed "king of Pop" Michael Jackson, but...)
The reason I ask this is because, although I have most of the 10000
Maniacs stuff & think she's got a great voice & writes wonderful songs
("see Madonna, that's what a voice sounds like when it's *not
electronically augmented*"),the 2 songs on NM's "Tigerlily"
solo effort which get a lot of radio airplay (the one about NYC & the
one about her in the hospital) seem terribly self-absorbed to me.
The NYC song ("Carnival"?) wins the award for most uses of the
1st person singular pronoun, while the second seems to have as its
theme "I'm so special & talented, my mom was even told so when I was
born". Of course, in the 2nd case, songs like Hendrix's "Voodoo
Child" have a similar theme (albeit in "VC" the meaning is a bit
more textured) but nobody complains about it.
Anyway, Xmas depletion of funds having caused me to put buying
"Tigerlily" on the backburner, I can't speak to the album as a
whole. Can somebody reassure me that it's just the 2 radio
songs that come of so arrogantly, & the rest of the album is great?
I like the sound of the 2 radio songs, but am currently reduced to
imagining that their verses consist of NM saying "hey hey hey"
so I can tune out the actual lyrics... Tony