Leave Your Sleep

Leave Your Sleep is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant. Produced by Merchant and Andres Levin, the double concept album album is "a project about childhood" and is a collection of music adapted from 19th and 20th century British and American poetry about childhood.[10] BBC Music describes it as "200 years of lyrical and musical history, washing beautifully by."[3]

Leave Your Sleep
Studio album by Natalie Merchant
Released	9 April 2010 (2010-04-09)
Recorded	July 2008 - May 2009
Genre	Folk
Label	Nonesuch
Producer	Natalie Merchant, Andres Levin
Natalie Merchant chronology
Retrospective: 1995-2005 (2005) Leave Your Sleep (2010) Natalie Merchant (2014)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(75/100)[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
BBC Music	(favorable)[3]
Billboard	(favorable)[4]
Drowned in Sound	(4/10)[5]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[6]
Paste	(7.7/10)[7]
PopMatters	[8]
Q	[1]
Rolling Stone	[9]

Tracks

Disc 1 — Leave Your Supper

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience"	5:10
2.	"Equestrienne"	4:38
3.	"Calico Pie"	2:41
4.	"Bleezer's Ice-Cream"	5:16
5.	"It Makes a Change"	3:30
6.	"The King of China's Daughter"	2:39
7.	"The Dancing Bear"	5:37
8.	"The Man in the Wilderness"	3:44
9.	"Maggie and Milly and Molly and May"	4:06
10.	"If No One Ever Marries Me"	2:21
11.	"The Sleepy Giant"	3:19
12.	"The Peppery Man"	5:05
13.	"The Blind Men and the Elephant"	5:32

Disc 2 — Leave Your Sleep

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Adventures of Isabel"	3:23
2.	"The Walloping Window Blind"	4:16
3.	"Topsyturvey-World"	5:08
4.	"The Janitor's Boy"	3:52
5.	"Griselda"	5:50
6.	"The Land of Nod"	4:04
7.	"Vain and Careless"	4:42
8.	"Crying, My Little One"	2:26
9.	"Sweet and a Lullaby"	3:04
10.	"I Saw a Ship A-Sailing"	2:12
11.	"Autumn Lullaby"	3:21
12.	"Spring and Fall: to a Young Child"	3:03
13.	"Indian Names"	5:52

Inspiration

The sleeve notes credit inspiration for the songs of this album as follows:

• Adventures of Isabel – Ogden Nash
• Autumn Lullaby – Anonymous
• Bleezer's Ice-Cream – Jack Prelutsky
• Calico Pie – Edward Lear
• Crying, My Little One – Christina Rossetti
• If No One Ever Marries Me – Laurence Alma-Tadema[11]
• Indian Names – Lydia Huntley Sigourney
• I Saw a Ship A-Sailing – Anonymous
• It Makes a Change – Mervyn Peake
• Equestrienne – Rachel Field
• Griselda – Eleanor Farjeon
• Maggie and Milly and Molly and May – E. E. Cummings
• Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience – Charles Causley
• Spring and Fall – Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Sweet and a Lullaby – Anonymous
• The Blindmen and the Elephant – John Godfrey Saxe
• The Dancing Bear – Albert Paine
• The Janitor's Boy – Nathalia Crane
• The King of China's Daughter – Anonymous
• The Land of Nod – Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Man in the Wilderness – Anonymous
• The Peppery Man – Arthur Macy
• The Sleepy Giant – Charles E. Carryl
• The Walloping Window Blind – Charles E. Carryl
• Topsyturvey-World – William Brighty Rands
• Vain and Careless – Robert Graves

Charts

Album

Chart (2010)	Peak Position
Austrian Album Charts[12]	46
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13]	37
French Albums (SNEP)[14]	90
Irish Albums (IRMA)[15]	50
Italian Albums (FIMI)[16]	40
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[17]	37
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[18]	24
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[19]	30
UK Albums (OCC)[20]	46
US Billboard 200[21]	17
US Digital Albums (Billboard)[22]	8
US Folk Albums (Billboard)[23]	1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[24]	5
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[25]	9

References

1. "Critic Reviews for Leave Your Sleep". Metacritic. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
2. Jurek, Thom. "Leave Your Sleep - Natalie Merchant". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
3. Lukowski, Andrzej (12 April 2010). "Review of Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep". BBC Music. BBC. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
4. Lipshutz, Jason (30 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant, 'Leave Your Sleep'". Billboard. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
5. Ferguson, Robert (13 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
6. Wood, Mikael (16 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep". Entertainment Weekly: 72.
7. Leven, Jeff (1 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep :: Music :: Reviews". Paste. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
8. Cooke, Jennifer (27 April 2010). "Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep". PopMatters. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
9. Hermes, Will (10 May 2010). "Leave Your Sleep". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
10. "Natalie Merchant "Leave Your Sleep" Album Preview". Billboard.
11. If No One Ever Marries Me poem by Laurence Alma-Tadema, ArtMagick Illustrated Poetry Collection
12. "Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
13. "Ultratop.be – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
14. "Lescharts.com – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep". Hung Medien.
15. "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 16, 2010". Chart-Track. IRMA.
16. "Italiancharts.com – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep". Hung Medien.
17. "Officialcharts.de – Top 100 Longplay". GfK Entertainment Charts.
18. "Dutchcharts.nl – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
19. "Charts.nz – Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep". Hung Medien.
20. "Natalie Merchant | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart.
21. "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
22. "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Digital Albums)". Billboard.
23. "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Top Americana/Folk Albums)". Billboard.
24. "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard.
25. "Natalie Merchant Chart History (Top Tastemaker Albums)". Billboard.

External links

• Natalie Merchant, "Leave Your Sleep" by Billboard
• Leave Your Sleep at Metacritic