Tigerlily is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, released on June 20, 1995, following her departure from the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs.
Tigerlily peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart and was certified five-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2001.
Background
The song "River" is a tribute to River Phoenix.
Reception
Among positive reviews, J. D. Considine commented in Musician that Tigerlily shows "a far greater stylistic range than the Maniacs" and "Merchant conveys more passion and personality than in the past", while Mark Cooper of Mojo highlighted "her flair for narrative songwriting and that habitual chafing between the sober and the sensual, sense and sensibility." Los Angeles Times critic Jean Rosenbluth wrote that Tigerlily "presents Merchant as considerably more mature and womanly than the Maniacs gave her room to be" and "marks positive progress for a talent that is still in bloom."
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine concluded that "the added emphasis on rhythmic texture works, creating an intimate but not exclusive atmosphere that holds throughout the record, even when her occasionally sophomoric, sentimental poetry threatens to sink the album in the weight of its own preciousness".
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! scope="col"| Chart (1996)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
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! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
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