Keep Your Courage
A statue of a woman cradling a sword and looking down on a black background with some colorful circles in the corner
Studio album by
Natalie Merchant
ReleasedApril 14, 2023 (2023-04-14)
Recorded2019–2022
StudioGuilford Sound, Guilford, Vermont, United States
Genre
Length54:38
LanguageEnglish
LabelNonesuch
ProducerNatalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant chronology
Butterfly
(2017)		 Keep Your Courage
(2023)
Singles from Keep Your Courage
  1. "Come On, Aphrodite"
    Released: February 15, 2023
  2. "Tower of Babel"
    Released: March 30, 2023
  3. "Big Girls"
    Released: April 18, 2023

Keep Your Courage is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, released on April 14, 2023, by Nonesuch Records. It is her first full-length studio album since 2014's Natalie Merchant and Merchant also promoted the release with a tour, accompanied on some dates by a symphony orchestra. The album has received positive reviews, but faced criticism for its tone and length.

Composition and recording

After several years of focusing on being a single mother, Merchant returned to songwriting as an emotional outlet, composing songs for Keep Your Courage beginning in late 2020 or early 2021.[2] These represented the first songs that Merchant had written in six years.[3] The album is a song cycle built around the concept of having a courageous heart,[4] and is a concept album composed entirely of love songs, which Merchant was inspired to write after having surgery for ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament[5] as well as an anaplasmosis infection that led to sepsis[6] and experiencing healing from love and care by others.[7][8] Lyrics discuss feelings of isolation that she had during the COVID-19 pandemic[9] and the album also explores political themes and feminism[10] and womanhood.[11] Many of the songs are written about or to fictional or mythological characters, which is a songwriting tool that Merchant uses to approach contemporary issues.[8][12] She also read mythology during the pandemic, as it felt like a mythological event to her.[13]

In-studio recordings only featured up to five persons at a time due to COVID restrictions, so the resulting music was made with layering recordings.[2] The cover is a photograph of a statue of Joan of Arc that Merchant found many years prior and kept.[14]

Release and promotion

“I was raising my daughter, and I’m a single mom... My days are so full that it never occurred to me that I should sit down and write a song. I was just focused on so many other things. It’s an indulgence to sit down with the piano and sing. It got to the point where I forgot that I was a songwriter, or that I could write songs.”

—Merchant on her extended absence from performing, recording, and songwriting, leading up to Keep Your Courage and its subsequent tour[15]

Two singles preceded the album's release: "Come On, Aphrodite" on February 15, 2023, and "Tower of Babel" on March 30, 2023.[16][17] Merchant participated in a promotion with Uncut to answer fans' questions[18] that ran in the June 2023 issue.[13] She also hosted a set on WDST, Radio Woodstock on April 15.[19] On April 18, 2023, Merchant released a third single off of the album, "Big Girls".[20]

Merchant withheld the release for almost a year in order to safely tour around the COVID-19 pandemic.[21] Beginning in May 2022, Merchant took the music from this album and prepared it for an orchestral arrangement.[22] The promotional tour is her first long-term tour in almost a decade[23] and it finds Merchant accompanied by a string quartet on all dates.[22] Merchant also performed on Good Morning America on June 20.[24]

In the table below, entries with an asterism (⁂) feature an orchestra.

Tour dates to support Keep Your Courage
Date City Country Venue Accompaniment
April 14, 2023 Poughkeepsie, New York United States of America Bardavon 1869 Opera House —
April 15, 2023 —
April 18, 2023 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Byham Theater —
April 19, 2023 Charlottesville, Virginia Paramount Theater —
April 21, 2023 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Kimmel Cultural Campus —
April 22, 2023 Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey Theatre —
April 24, 2023 Greenville, South Carolina Peace Center Concert Hall —
April 26, 2023 Clearwater, Florida Ruth Eckerd Hall —
April 27, 2023⁂ Fort Lauderdale, Florida Au-Rene Theater at Broward Center for the Performing Arts South Florida Symphony Orchestra[25]
April 28, 2023 St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine Amphitheatre —
April 30, 2023⁂ Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta Symphony Hall Atlanta Symphony Orchestra[2]
May 9, 2023 Portland, Maine Merrill Auditorium —
May 10, 2023 Boston, Massachusetts Emerson Colonial Theatre —
May 11, 2023 —
May 13, 2023 Cleveland, Ohio KeyBank State Theatre —
May 14, 2023 Cincinnati, Ohio Taft Theatre —
May 16, 2023 Carmel, Indiana The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts —
May 17, 2023 Ann Arbor, Michigan Michigan Theater —
May 19, 2023 Chicago, Illinois The Chicago Theatre —
May 20, 2023 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Pabst Theater —
June 2, 2023⁂ New York City, New York Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center The Knights[26]
June 3, 2023⁂ The Knights[26]
June 22, 2023⁂ St. Louis, Missouri Stifel Theatre St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
June 25, 2023⁂ Newark, New Jersey NJPAC Orchestra of St. Luke's[27]
June 28, 2023⁂ Providence, Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Auditorium Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra[28]
June 30, 2023⁂ Washington, D. C. John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts National Symphony Orchestra[2]
July 1, 2023⁂ National Symphony Orchestra[2]
July 8, 2023⁂ Chautauqua, New York Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra[29]
September 20, 2023 Spokane, Washington Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox —
September 22, 2023 Woodinville, Washington Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery —
September 23, 2023 Portland, Oregon Keller Auditorium —
September 26, 2023 San Francisco, California The Masonic —
September 27, 2023 Saratoga, California The Mountain Winery —
September 29, 2023 San Diego, California Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay —
September 30, 2023 Los Angeles, California Walt Disney Concert Hall —
October 31, 2023 Berlin Germany Stage Theater des Westens —
November 2, 2023 London, England United Kingdom London Palladium —
November 3, 2023 —
November 5, 2023 Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow Royal Concert Hall —
November 6, 2023 Manchester, England O2 Apollo Manchester —
November 8, 2023[9] Dublin Ireland 3Olympia —
November 11, 2023 Bath, England United Kingdom The Forum —
November 13, 2023 Amsterdam The Netherlands Carré Theatre —
November 14, 2023 Brussels Belgium Cirque Royal —

Reception

Keep Your Courage received positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator Metacritic. It has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on seven reviews.[30] In No Depression, Jim Shahen characterizes this release as "full of ambitious musical passages, thoughtful lyrics, and fantastic vocal performances centered on the need for love and meaningful human connection".[1] PopMatters' Steve Horowitz rated Keep Your Courage a seven out of 10, noting an "alchemy" between the musicians and styles, but critiquing that Merchant "would be better if Merchant lightened up a bit... She would be more honest if she were funnier, and this would make her morals easier to digest."[7] Tom Dunne of The Irish Examiner listed this as one of his six favorite albums of the year so far in mid-April 2023.[31] John Murphy of musicOMH gave the album three out of five stars, praising individual tracks, but noting that "there are a couple of tracks that veer towards the forgettable, and the overall downbeat tempo of the album as a whole may test the patience of some listeners".[32] In The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick rated this album four out of five stars, praising "the cohesive, eternal quality of Merchant's ability to weave romantic, folk-rock ballads rich with organ, brass, and tidal waves of strings all anchored to simple piano melodies".[33] Editors at AllMusic Guide scored this release four out of five stars, with critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praising the music for "celebrat[ing] compassion, empathy, and inspiration" while being "stately and sober", with "Merchant's inherently warm, empathetic voice keep[ing] the album from seeming still in its quiet moments".[34] Graham Reid of The New Zealand Herald included this in his favorite albums of 2023.[35] Editors at AllMusic included this among their favorite singer-songwriter music albums of 2023.[36]

Track listing

All songs written by Natalie Merchant, except where noted

  1. "Big Girls" – 4:56
  2. "Come On, Aphrodite" – 5:21
  3. "Sister Tilly" – 7:42
  4. "Narcissus" – 6:02
  5. "Hunting the Wren" (Ian Lynch) – 5:47
  6. "Guardian Angel" – 5:56
  7. "Eye of the Storm" – 5:30
  8. "Tower of Babel" – 2:28
  9. "Song of Himself" – 4:51
  10. "The Feast of Saint Valentine" – 6:06

Vinyl edition bonus tracks

  1. "Spring & Fall: To a Young Child" – 3:03 (from Leave Your Sleep, 2010)
  2. "Butterfly" – 5:39 (from Butterfly, 2017)
  3. "Giving Up Everything" – 4:20 (from Natalie Merchant, 2014)
  4. "Frozen Charlotte" – 5:58 (from Butterfly, 2017)

Personnel

Chart performance

Keep Your Courage debuted on the mid-week UK Albums Chart at 14,[37] but ended up placing 58 when the chart was published.

Chart performance for Keep Your Courage
Chart Peak Duration (weeks)
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[38] 73 2
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[39] 26 1
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[40] 32 1
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[41] 7 2
Scottish Albums (OCC)[42] 5 2
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[43] 45 1
UK Albums (OCC)[44] 58 1[45]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Shahen, Jim (April 12, 2023). "Natalie Merchant Lays Out a Feast on 'Keep Your Courage'". No Depression. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Baltin, Steve (May 4, 2023). "Q&A: Natalie Merchant On Her New Music And Tour And the Next Wave Of Her Career". Forbes. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  3. ↑ Dunne, Tom (April 21, 2023). "Tom Dunne: Learning at the feet of the great Ms Natalie Merchant". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  4. ↑ Sacks, Mike (April 2, 2023). "Natalie Merchant's Lost American Songs". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. OCLC 320541675. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  5. ↑ Finan, Eileen (September 23, 2023). "Why Natalie Merchant Felt 'Grateful' After Losing Her Voice — And How Singing Is 'Better Than Ever'". Lifestyle > Health. People. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  6. ↑ Pedder, Alan (April 21, 2023). "Natalie Merchant: "When I say keep your courage, I'm talking to myself as much as anyone"". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
  7. 1 2 Horowitz, Steve (April 11, 2023). "Natalie Merchant: Keep Your Courage (Album Review)". PopMatters. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  8. 1 2 Kennedy, Mark (April 11, 2023). "Natalie Merchant emerges from darkness with nothing but love". Associated Press. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Clayton-Lea, Tony (April 15, 2023). "Natalie Merchant: 'Men need to empathise because I feel we're losing the fight'". The Irish Times. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  10. ↑ Honigmann, David (April 12, 2023). "Singer Natalie Merchant: 'It was important to assert my identity. Because I'd lost it'". Financial Times. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  11. ↑ Benitez-Eves, Tina (August 17, 2023). "Natalie Merchant Keeping Her Courage". American Songwriter. ISSN 0896-8993. OCLC 17342741. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  12. ↑ Rascoe, Ayesha (April 9, 2023). "Natalie Merchant on album 'Keep Your Courage'". Weekend Edition. NPR. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  13. 1 2 Richards, Sam (June 2023). "An Audience With... Natalie Merchant". Uncut. pp. 14–16. ISSN 1368-0722.
  14. ↑ Lanaham, Tom (April 13, 2023). "Q&A with Natalie Merchant: On Her Old Collections and Her New One, Keep Your Courage". Paste. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  15. ↑ Benitez-Eves, Tina (May 30, 2023). "The Writer's Block: Natalie Merchant on Songwriting and Where She Gets Inspiration". American Songwriter. ISSN 0896-8993. OCLC 17342741. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Natalie Merchant Unveils "Come On, Aphrodite," First Single From Upcoming Album, 'Keep Your Courage'". Nonesuch Records. February 15, 2023. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  17. ↑ Major, Michael (March 30, 2023). "Natalie Merchant Debuts New Single 'Tower of Babel'". Broadway World. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  18. ↑ Richard, Sam (March 6, 2023). "Send us your questions for Natalie Merchant!". Uncut. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  19. ↑ Munoz, Montana (April 14, 2023). "Natalie Merchant To Host Radio Woodstock "Saturday Night Takeover" April 15th". NYS Music. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Watch: Natalie Merchant Shares Video for "Big Girls," From Her New Album, 'Keep Your Courage'". Nonesuch Records. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  21. ↑ Stewart, Alison (March 30, 2023). "Listen: Natalie Merchant on WNYC's 'All of It with Alison Stewart'". All of It. WNYC. Retrieved March 31, 2023 – via Nonesuch Records.
  22. 1 2 Zaleski, Annie (April 16, 2023). "Natalie Merchant on overcoming pain, roadblocks to produce the "best-sounding record I've ever made"". Salon. OCLC 43916723. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  23. ↑ Manzoor, Safraz (April 18, 2023). "'It made me wish I had made more records': Natalie Merchant on returning to music after losing her voice". The Guardian. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Natalie Merchant performs 'Come On, Aphrodite' on 'GMA'". Good Morning America. ABC News. June 20, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Natalie Merchant with South Florida Symphony Orchestra". Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  26. 1 2 "An Evening with Natalie Merchant with The Knights: Keep Your Courage Tour". Lincoln Center. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  27. ↑ "An Evening with Natalie Merchant: Keep Your Courage Tour". NJPAC. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  28. ↑ "AT THE VETS: An Evening with Natalie Merchant: Keep Your Courage Tour". Providence Performing Arts Center. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  29. ↑ "Natalie Merchant with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra". Chautauqua Institution. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  30. ↑ "Keep Your Courage by Natalie Merchant". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  31. ↑ Dunne, Tom (April 13, 2023). "Tom Dunne: My six favourite albums of the year so far". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  32. ↑ Murphy, John (April 14, 2023). "Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage". musicOMH. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  33. ↑ McCormick, Neil (April 14, 2023). "Metallica are on mighty form, Natalie Merchant wants to unite the world – the week's best albums". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  34. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage". AllMusic. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  35. ↑ Reid, Graham (December 17, 2023). "Bigger than the Beatles: Graham Reid's best albums of 2023". The Listener / Entertainment. New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  36. ↑ "Favorite Singer-Songwriter Albums". AllMusic. RhythmOne. n.d. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  37. ↑ Brandle, Lars (April 18, 2023). "Metallica Heading to U.K. Chart Summit With '72 Seasons'". Billboard. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  38. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
  39. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  40. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  41. ↑ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2023. 16. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  42. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
  43. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  44. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  45. ↑ "Keep Your Courage". Official Charts. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
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