My Amazon Reviews: 10,000 Maniacs "Our Time In Eden"

Days To Remember
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The final studio album from 10,000 Maniacs with Natalie Merchant, "Our Time In Eden" catches the band peaking just before coming apart. Merchant's penchant for earnest, collegiate lyrics, backed by shimmering guitars and, on several songs, a horn section, made the album sound fuller than before. And with the song "These Are Days," the band delivered a true classic song that still can pull out memories at every listen (is it not obvious why a nostalgic TV commercial uses this as a theme song?).

Then there was "Candy Everybody Wants," a punchy social song backed with a wicked horn riff. (If you can find it, there's a live CD Single that features Michael Stipe.)

“If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love taste so sweet,
then give them what they want.”

Landing a decent blow against the Me Decade with a hook as catchy as candy itself, it became a modest hit for the band. Not as catchy but just as heavy in message is "I'm Not The Man," about a wrongly accused prisoner waiting on death row for the executioner. Like all their best studio albums, 10,000 Maniacs balanced the preachy with the popworthy, the poetic ("Stockton Gala Days") to the pointed ("If You Intend").

While the band did actually score a hit after Merchant left (a cover of Roxy Music's "More Than This"), she was a lynchpin to the band's complete sound. "Our Time In Eden" wrapped up a trilogy that included "Blind Man's Zoo" and "In My Tribe" to create a body of work that crystallized a certain style of female-led folk pop bands, It's very much of the early 90's, yet still resonates.