| Our Time in Eden | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | 10,000 Maniacs |
| Cover: | 10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden.png |
| Released: | September 29, 1992 |
| Recorded: | July 1991 – May 1992 |
| Studio: | Bearsville (Woodstock, New York) |
| Genre: | Alternative rock, folk rock, jangle pop, college rock, soft rock |
| Length: | 47:55 |
| Label: | Elektra |
| Producer: | Paul Fox |
| Prev Title: | Hope Chest |
| Prev Year: | 1990 |
| Next Title: | MTV Unplugged |
| Next Year: | 1993 |
Our Time in Eden is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs. It was released in 1992 on Elektra Records. The release is 10,000 Maniacs' last studio album with original lead singer Natalie Merchant. The album included her future replacement Mary Ramsey on violin and viola on such tracks as "Stockton Gala Days" and "How You've Grown". Singles released from the album were "These Are Days", "Candy Everybody Wants" and "Few and Far Between". The brass and woodwind section is covered by James Brown's band the J.B.'s. The album had the working title African Violet Society.[1]
In Rolling Stone, Anthony DeCurtis said that Natalie Merchant's lyrics reflect a "struggle between fervent hope and a kind of wide-eyed despair" and give Our Time in Eden "a provocative, unnerving power", and "the sonic allure of the Maniacs' music and Merchant's voice is a seduction into songs that are charged, complex and troubling." Steve Morse of The Boston Globe wrote that "these are some of [Merchant's] finest songs yet—intellectually challenging, lyrically brilliant and filled with intricate, dream-weaving melodies sparked by multi-instrumentalist Rob Buck (on guitars, sitar, banjo, pedal steel and mandocello)."[2]
All songs written by Natalie Merchant, except as noted.