The first full-length solo studio release in nine years for singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant features a guest appearance from Abena Koomson-Davis and contributions from Kinan Azmeh, Steve Davis, and Lúnasa.
All ten songs on Merchant’s ninth solo studio album, Keep Your Courage, concern love of some kind or other. (The vinyl LP edition includes four bonus tracks from earlier records, previously unreleased on vinyl.) She wrote all but one song, and it’s her first record of all-new material in almost ten years. The songs are not topical in the traditional sense, with no explicit references to COVID, climate change, and political turmoil. Instead, Merchant addresses Aphrodite, Narcissus, St. Valentine, her guardian angel, and other mythic figures. The twirling dervish of a singer intones in symbol and metaphor to offer her discovered truths.
01. Big Girls (feat. Abena Koomson-Davis) (04:56)
02. Come on, Aphrodite (feat. Abena Koomson-Davis) (05:20)
03. Sister Tilly (07:42)
04. Narcissus (06:02)
05. Hunting the Wren (05:47)
06. Guardian Angel (05:56)
07. Eye of the Storm (05:30)
08. Tower of Babel (02:28)
09. Song of Himself (04:51)
10. The Feast of Saint Valentine (06:06)
