"Retrospective (1995-2005)" by Natalie Merchant

a Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

Well, I don't think I have to tell you how fabulous and classy Natalie Merchant is. She's a staple, a leader in this whole women-in-music thing we all love. So she's almost like an icon to me.

She was one of the first women I spotlighted on this site back in the early days.

I have many of her CDs and have reviewed "Motherland" here.

But it is very nice to have all your favorite songs of hers in one CD. Well, not all, I have a special fondness for some of her 10,000 Maniacs songs since they helped get me through college. But that's OK.

The track listing shown here is from Amazon.com. The copy I got had only the first CD in it. Funny thing is, the booklet only lists those songs too. So there must be more than one version of this release.

I knew all the songs on the first disc (the one I got) but the second one, the songs don't look all familiar to me, so it would have been nice to hear that one. I have been a fan, but not a fanatic-fan so I don't know all her songs in and out. I may know some of those, but I'm sure some were new to me.

One thing I love is that the booklet that accompanies this CD has a little note from Natalie about each song. I love reading those insights.

This is a great compilation, I'm sure the two disc version is even better (but mine was free so I'm not complaining).

Still my favorites: "Carnival" and "San Andreas Fault"

Posted on October 12, 2005