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. These represented the first songs that Merchant had written in six years. The album is a song cycle built around the concept of having a courageous heart, 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 as well as an anaplasmosis infection that led to sepsis and experiencing healing from love and care by others. Lyrics discuss feelings of isolation that she had during the COVID-19 pandemic and the album also explores political themes and feminism and womanhood. 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. She also read mythology during the pandemic, as it felt like a mythological event to her.
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. The cover is a photograph of a statue of Joan of Arc that Merchant had found many years prior and kept.
Release and promotion
Two singles preceded the album's release: "Come On, Aphrodite" on February 15, 2023, and "Tower of Babel" on March 30, 2023. Merchant participated in a promotion with Uncut to answer fans' questions that ran in the June 2023 issue. She also hosted a set on WDST, Radio Woodstock on April 15. On April 18, 2023, Merchant released a third single off of the album, "Big Girls".
Merchant withheld the release for almost a year in order to safely tour around the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in May 2022, Merchant took the music from this album and prepared it for an orchestral arrangement. The promotional tour was her first long-term tour in almost a decade and found Merchant accompanied by a string quartet on all dates. Merchant also performed on Good Morning America on June 20.
In the table below, entries with an asterism (⁂) feature an orchestra. +Tour dates to support Keep Your Courage Date City Country Venue AccompanimentPoughkeepsie, New YorkUnited States of AmericaBardavon 1869 Opera HousePittsburgh, PennsylvaniaByham TheaterCharlottesville, VirginiaParamount TheaterPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaKimmel Cultural CampusHershey, PennsylvaniaHershey TheatreGreenville, South CarolinaPeace Center Concert HallClearwater, FloridaRuth Eckerd Hall⁂Fort Lauderdale, FloridaAu-Rene Theater at Broward Center for the Performing ArtsSouth Florida Symphony OrchestraSt. Augustine, FloridaSt. Augustine Amphitheatre⁂Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta Symphony HallAtlanta Symphony OrchestraPortland, MaineMerrill AuditoriumBoston, MassachusettsEmerson Colonial TheatreCleveland, OhioKeyBank State TheatreCincinnati, OhioTaft TheatreCarmel, IndianaThe Palladium at the Center for the Performing ArtsAnn Arbor, MichiganMichigan TheaterChicago, IllinoisThe Chicago TheatreMilwaukee, WisconsinPabst Theater⁂New York City, New YorkAlice Tully Hall, Lincoln CenterThe Knights⁂The Knights⁂St. Louis, MissouriStifel TheatreSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra⁂Newark, New JerseyNJPACOrchestra of St. Luke's⁂Providence, Rhode IslandVeterans Memorial AuditoriumRhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra⁂Washington, D. C.John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsNational Symphony Orchestra⁂National Symphony Orchestra⁂Chautauqua, New YorkChautauqua Institution AmphitheaterChautauqua Symphony OrchestraSpokane, WashingtonMartin Woldson Theater at The FoxWoodinville, WashingtonChateau Ste. Michelle WineryPortland, OregonKeller AuditoriumSan Francisco, CaliforniaThe MasonicSaratoga, CaliforniaThe Mountain WinerySan Diego, CaliforniaHumphrey's Concerts by the BayLos Angeles, CaliforniaWalt Disney Concert HallBerlinGermanyTheater des WestensLondon, EnglandUnited KingdomLondon PalladiumGlasgow, ScotlandGlasgow Royal Concert HallManchester, EnglandO2 Apollo ManchesterDublinIreland3OlympiaBath, EnglandUnited KingdomThe ForumAmsterdamThe NetherlandsCarré TheatreBrusselsBelgiumCirque 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. 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". 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." Tom Dunne of The Irish Examiner listed this as one of his six favorite albums of the year so far in mid-April 2023. 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". 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". 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". Graham Reid of The New Zealand Herald included this in his favorite albums of 2023. Editors at AllMusic included this among their favorite singer-songwriter music albums of 2023.
Track listing All songs written by Natalie Merchant, except where noted "Big Girls" – 4:56 "Come On, Aphrodite" – 5:21 "Sister Tilly" – 7:42 "Narcissus" – 6:02 "Hunting the Wren" (Ian Lynch) – 5:47 "Guardian Angel" – 5:56 "Eye of the Storm" – 5:30 "Tower of Babel" – 2:28 "Song of Himself" – 4:51 "The Feast of Saint Valentine" – 6:06 Vinyl edition bonus tracks "Spring & Fall: To a Young Child" – 3:03 (from Leave Your Sleep, 2010) "Butterfly" – 5:39 (from Butterfly, 2017) "Giving Up Everything" – 4:20 (from Natalie Merchant, 2014) "Frozen Charlotte" – 5:58 (from Butterfly, 2017)
Personnel Natalie Merchant – vocals, production, liner notes, design Abena Koomson-Davis - vocals Carmen Staaf - grand piano, Rhodes piano, mellotron, Hammond organ Erik Della Penna - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, classical guitar Mike Rivard - electric bass, upright bass Allison Miller – drums and percussion Marandi Hostetter - violin Megan Gould - violin, orchestration, string arrangements, conducting Dana Lyn - viola Eleanor Norton - cello Tony Kadleck - trumpet Kris Jensen - tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone Alex Sopp - alto flute Andrew Price - Oboe Clark Matthews - French horn Joseph Foley - trumpet, flugelhorn Angel Subero - trombone, bass trombone Kinan Azmeh – clarinet Matt Mancuso - fiddle Sandra Park - violin Ann Lehmann - violin Arnaud Sussmann - violin Minyoung Baik - violin Matt Lehmann - violin Shan Jiang - violin Robert Rinehart - viola Karen Dreyfus - viola Eileen Moon - cello Jeanne LeBlanc - cello Jeremy McCoy - bass, double bass Sherry Sylar - oboe Marc Goldberg - bassoon Lino Gomez - bass clarinet Phil Myers - French horn Michelle Baker - French horn Erik Ralske - French horn Howard Wall - French horn Mike Davis - tenor trombone Birch Johnson - tenor trombone George Flynn - bass trombone Kyle Turner - tuba Erik Charlston - percussion Ina Zdorovetchi - harp Uri Sharlin - grand piano Logan Coale - acoustic bass Scott Moore - viola Gabriel Gordon - electric guitar Jesse Murphy - electric bass Shawn Pelton - drums Johanna Warren - vocals Elizabeth Mitchell - vocals Sharon Yamada - violin Quan Ge - violin Joanna Maurer - violin Sein Ryu - violin Kyle Armbrust - viola Alan Stepansky - cello Ru Pie Yeh - cello Kurt Muroki - double bass Noah Hoffeld - cello Stephen Barber – string arrangement Steve Davis – trombone, horn arrangement Colin Jacobsen – orchestration David Spear - orchestration Gabriel Kahane –orchestration Sean O'Loughlin - orchestration John Mills - horn arrangement Nadége Foofat & Tony Finno - string arrangement Lúnasa Ed Boyd – guitar Kevin Crawford – flutes, whistles Patrick Doocey – guitar Colin Farrell – fiddle, whistles Trevor Hutchinson – double bass Seán Smyth – fiddle, whistles Cillian Vallely – Uilleann pipes, whistles Kim Rosen – mastering at Knack Mastering, Ringwood, New Jersey, United States Anabel Sinn – design Dave Snyder – engineering Ryan Freeland – mixing at Stampede Origin, Culver City, California, United States Matt Hall – assistant engineering Andrea Camuto – portrait photography
Chart performance Note: Keep Your Courage debuted on the mid-week UK Albums Chart at 14, but ended up placing 58 when the chart was published.
+ Chart performance for Keep Your Courage Chart Peak Duration (weeks)2112211
See also 2023 in American music List of 2023 albums
References
External links
Press release from Nonesuch
Photo gallery of the Clearwater performance from Creative Loafing A set by Merchant for World Cafe A promotional set for WTTS-FM Merchant on Songcraft