Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep has won the 2010 fRoots Critics Poll for Best Packaged Album of the Year. "Artistic skill can produce a must-have artefact of beauty, along with enhancing the listening pleasure by providing ambience and information," says fRoots, calling Leave Your Sleep "a classic example of how to do things well." Merchant also made the poll's list of the Top 20 New Albums of 2010, along with Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté, AfroCubism, and Cheikh Lô.
Congratulations to Natalie Merchant, whose Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, has been chosen in the 2010 fRoots Critics Poll for Best Packaged Album of the Year.
"In these days of downloads, it’s quality packaging that can make a big difference to whether you buy the CDs or the files," says fRoots in its 25th annual poll. "Artistic skill can produce a must-have artefact of beauty, along with enhancing the listening pleasure by providing ambience and information."
The magazine calls the Leave Your Sleep package "a classic example of how to do things well ... Merchant’s stories of the lives of all the poets whose work she’s set to music are accompanied by archive photos and full lyrics, all beautifully printed on art quality paper. It’s hard to imagine why anybody would settle for the basic single CD sampler version."
---
Leave Your Sleep also made the poll's list of the Top 20 New Albums of 2010, coming in at No. 12. The Carolina Chocolate Drops made the Top 10 with their Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig at No. 9. Two World Circuit / Nonesuch Records releases are near the top of the list, with Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté's Ali and Toumani and AfroCubism's self-titled release taking the second and third spots, respectively. Cheikh Lô's Jamm, released on World Circuit earlier this year, is on the list at No. 6.
---
The top winners of the fRoots Poll were announced last night on BBC Radio 3's World on 3 with Mary Ann Kennedy, who was joined for the occasion by fRoots Editor Ian Anderson. You can listen to the program again online at bbc.co.uk. Complete results from the poll are available at frootsmag.com.
---
To pick up a copy of any of the Nonesuch-released albums on the list, visit the Nonesuch Store, where the CDs are all now 33% off in the Nonesuch Store 3rd anniversary sale.
- Log in to post comments
