I just bought the best CD of 2010! Leave Your Sleep by Natalie Merchant is a double cd with 26 songs, a luxury booklet of 80 pages and contains some of the most beautiful and varied music I have heard in a long time. Be careful to get the double CD, as there is also a single CD that is not so strong (and does not contain the booklet).
You may know Natalie Merchant as the lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs. Or you might know her from those wonderful solo records like "Tigerlily" or "The House Carpenter's Daughter". Even if you have never heard of her, I can assure you that you will not regret buying Leave Your Sleep. It's a concept album, and just as simple as it is complex: Natalie took 26 poems that she selected with her 6-year- old daughter, and turned them into gorgeous folk and popsongs. The poems are all by famous (and not so famous) English and American 19th and 20th Century poets, and the music styles range from folk and country over jazz, klezmer, cajun, oriental, bluegrass and reggae. Each song more beautiful than the other.
My favourite numbers zijn "Bleezer's Ice-Cream", "The King of China's Daughter" and "The Dancing Bear", but I'm sure you will find your own favourite soon.
Trust me on this one: if you like poetry, varied music and wonderful orchestration (more than 120 musicians contributed to the album) you will simply love Leave Your Sleep.
A must-have for anybody who likes music.
