Our Time in Eden

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
The last album the band recorded before lead singer Natalie Merchant departed for a solo career, Our Time in Eden is the actualization of an unassuming college folk-rock band turned adult-contemporary group in the best possible way. Merchant's lullaby voice is more pure and confident than ever before. And although the music is still dominated by chiming rhythm guitar, the band incorporates an emphatic horn section on several tracks (most notably on "Candy Everybody Wants"). The best track is the sentimental swan song "These Are Days," which will evoke a distant smile and maybe even a teary eye, no matter how hard you try not to let it. --Beth Massa --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Our Time in Eden
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • How they've grown.
  • Films For Radio
  • One of my favorite bands of all time
  • Best thing they ever did
  • Solid
 Our Time in Eden
10,000 Maniacs
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Jangle PopJangle Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Folk RockFolk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Adult AlternativeAdult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000002HBI
Release Date: 1992-09-29

Tracks:

  1. Noah's Dove
  2. These Are Days
  3. Eden
  4. Few And Far Between
  5. Stockton Gala Days
  6. Gold Rush Brides
  7. Jezebel
  8. How You've Grown
  9. Candy Everybody Wants
  10. Tolerance
  11. Circle Dream
  12. If You Intend
  13. I'm Not The Man

Amazon.com essential recording

The last album the band recorded before lead singer Natalie Merchant departed for a solo career, Our Time in Eden is the actualization of an unassuming college folk-rock band turned adult-contemporary group in the best possible way. Merchant's lullaby voice is more pure and confident than ever before. And although the music is still dominated by chiming rhythm guitar, the band incorporates an emphatic horn section on several tracks (most notably on "Candy Everybody Wants"). The best track is the sentimental swan song "These Are Days," which will evoke a distant smile and maybe even a teary eye, no matter how hard you try not to let it. --Beth Massa

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars How they've grown........2006-01-22

I know alot of people love the "In My Tribe" album, and my favorite might be "Blind Man's Zoo", but I think this is their best, and is easily their most popular album. "Our Time In Eden" benefited by coming out at the height of the alternative craze, and "These Are Days" seemed to be a theme for more than a few people I knew. That was the big hit, but "Candy Everybody Wants" was another, as well as a few minor hits that made their "Unplugged" and "Campfire Songs" collections. By the time of this release, 10,000 Maniacs had really become more adult-alternative rock than college-rock, and you can hear where Natalie Merchant was headed on her first solo album in 1995. No complaint though, this is all good stuff. Personal favorites of mine would be the opener "Noah's Dove" and "Circle Dream", both beautiful and catchy. Truth is, they were/are a wonderful band, and any of the above mentioned albums are a joy to hear.

5 out of 5 stars Films For Radio.......2005-03-18

Yes, to the very few of you have realized, I borrowed the title for this review from the title of a (completely fabulous by the way) album by Over The Rhine. That said Films For Radio describes perfectly, the music contained on Our Time in Eden.

Each song, both musically and lyrically is extremely emotive, Our Time In Eden is probably the Maniacs album where the disparity between the light pop-folk melodies and Natalie Merchant's dark, moody lyrics was at it's least, in part due to a slight lightening up of Merchant's subject matter, allowing for a more streamlined sound here than on previous efforts.

The album hasn't aged a day in the 13 years since it's relaese, Natalie's vocals are confident and clear and the music perhaps more experimental than previous works by the band is just beautiful

The standouts here are the lovely single These Are Days, Stockton Gala Days, Noah's Dove and Tolerence.

Sit back, close your eyes and let these songs, the melodies and the words from images in your mind.

5 out of 5 stars One of my favorite bands of all time.......2005-02-22

10,000 Maniacs (with Natalie Merchant) made some of the most unique music of their time, that never achieved a great deal of commercial success...not like some of the groups you hear practically every day...Nickelback, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. I would guess that their music gets more airplay overall now than it did when it was new, especially since Natalie Merchant has had some success as a solo artist.

The fact that you didn't hear 10,000 Maniacs songs every 5 minutes on the radio is one of the things I loved most about them. I never had the chance to get sick of their music. The original 10,000 Maniacs wrote some of the best music of their time, in my opinion...rich melodies, stunning vocals, and intelligent lyrics.

Their sound changed/evolved from CD to CD, but still maintained a uniqueness of sound and style I've not heard before or since. Our Time In Eden is the most polished of the bunch. I think their most unique sounding CD was their debut CD, The Wishing Chair. A few of the songs, like Scorpio Rising and Lilydale, were never really replicated by the Maniacs again. Some of Natalie's solo work sounds similar to songs like Lilydale, but that's it.

The Maniacs wrote many great songs over the years: Can't Ignore the Train, Lilydale, Scorpio Rising, YMaddox Table, You Happy Puppet, Trouble Me, What's The Matter Here?, The Painted Desert, Don't Talk, Hey Jack Kerouac, Cherry Tree, City of Angels, These Are Days, Stockton Gala Days, Noah's Dove, Gold Rush Brides, Eden, Few

5 out of 5 stars Best thing they ever did.......2004-10-24

Everything came together wiht this one - songwriting, instrumentation, production, and just that groove of a great record. You don't really tire of listening to this one. It's a pity it was their last.

5 out of 5 stars Solid.......2004-10-19

This first thing I noticed about this music is its sincerity. The music is from the heart and seems to me to have been intended to please the group rather than some commercial esthetic. The result is interesting and enjoyable music where the performers are allowing us, the listeners, to share in their inner vision of who they are as artists. You can readily hear the emotion in each and every song, and I wondered whether part of that emotion was the realization that this was to be the last album from that incarnation of 10,000 Maniacs as Natalie Merchant was preparing to depart for a solo career.

The first thing I noticed when opening the fold-out for the CD is that the lyrics are written in a narrative form instead of verse form. The style of the music matches the narrative form. Many artists think and write in verse form, and to create music in narrative form is more difficult because of the difficulty and complexity of matching the syllables and pacing of the narrative to the music. The narrative form is usually the style of story tellers, and each of these songs comes across as a vignette.

The first vignette is "Noah's Dove," which comes across several ways. Noah's dove was the bird he sent out to find dry land. When at last the dove did not return, Noah knew that the dove had found dry land. Thus, the story is about someone seeking something, perhaps the something they will not find because it does not exist, but that person will continue to search, never realizing what they have in the here and now.

The second song, "These Are the Days," relates to the first song because the emphasis of this song is the here and now. The lyrics advise the listener that now is the golden time, the time that in later years the listener will look back on with fondness as one of the best times of their lives. One has to wonder whether this song was a lament at the imminent breakup of 10,000 Maniacs.

Each of these songs is full of allegory. "Eden" seems to have several allegories. The first is the allusion to the beauty on the surface of those you see, but the thorns are the reality. The song contrasts the illusions we create, even to ourselves, to our desire and willingness to be something else. How much is illusion and how much is reality is anyone's guess, because we choose, consciously or unconsciously. "Few and Far Between" continues the train of thought started in "Eden," this time from the viewpoint of accumulating the baggage of the past and regret, and not having enough room for the future.

"Stockton Gala Days," given that the singer is female, sounds a lot like a lesbian experience, particularly the line "There was no girl as warm as you." The song explains that the person she is singing about will never know how the singer felt about that experience and what it meant to the singer. "Jezebel" may fall into the same category as this song as the singer laments that she has allowed her marriage vows to cover the truth of her life and who she is.

"Gold Rush Brides" wonders where the strong women who overcame the legal limitations of the day to help win the west are documented. Most stories are of men, but women were integral to keeping everything together and often were the reason things happened. "Coming of Age" is song about how we change as we grow older. We always remember someone as the way we saw them last.

"Candy Everybody Wants" has a moral to it. Many of us consider blood, lust, hate and love of a sexual kind to be bad, yet those things are readily available in movies, books, and even song. If those things are truly wrong, the song questions who is to blame given how popular those things are. We hide behind others, blaming, but not wishing to be blamed. "Tolerance" also addresses avoidance. This time the issue is as stated in the title. When we hear of violence and intolerance, what do we do? We had away from it hoping that it will go another direction from us because we fear to take a stand.

"Circle Dream" is another wonderfully complex song. On the one hand the circle could be the world in which we live. The maze in the circle is the difficulty of living and finding our way. The face in the circle represents love and understanding, perhaps a lover. While the song has implications of an alternative lifestyle, it also implies the life we all live.

"If You Intend" is a song for lovers and loved ones, regardless of lifestyle. The song addresses commitment and love, and how the first step in realizing that love is to reach for the love, to express your intentions. Once again, the lament of the singer is for the listener to overcome their fears because the result otherwise is dreams unfulfilled.

The last song, "I'm Not the Man," caps off the running theme of intolerance and prejudice to those who are different from the "norm." In this case the victim is someone accused of the crime because of race or some similar reason. However, the singer was elsewhere, yet no one came forward. The evidence was thin, but the conviction assured. We know this scene, but it takes someone to have the power to step forward and stop it.

These songs are powerful and dramatically scrape open many of the problems of society. It is amazing that a group as well known as 10,000 Maniacs would address social issues unabashedly and ultimately create a beautiful work. Music like this dates back centuries to the days of bards. Music like this that appeals to a large audience happens all too rarely in this day of statistics and sales and station play.
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