Anvilicious: Natalie Merchant's lyrics were this quite often, as was her somewhat school-mistressy demeanor at live gigs. She once solemnly informed the gallery at a late 80s London gig not to crane too far forward to see her because once in the 19th century people had fallen out of the gallery doing that, implicitly suggesting that the venue had learned absolutely nothing in the intervening 100 years about audience safety.
Audience-Alienating Era: The band, for many, has been stuck in this after Natalie Merchant left it. While Mary Ramsey is a talented violinist and is by no means a bad singer, for many her voice simply does not match with the band's sound, and the Ramsey albums and songs lack the cohesion and memorability that Merchant's do. It's quite telling that while Natalie has had a long, successful career as a solo artist, the Maniacs' album output has slowed down significantly and their most recent album is a collection of English folk songs of all things, though Merchant also released her own album of folk covers.
Awesome Music: The studio version of "Poison in the Well" was a bit tame, but played live it used to get genuinely (righteously) angry and exciting. Likewise, "Stockton Gala Days" live was exhilarating, as captured on their MTV Unplugged special.
Captain Obvious Aesop: "Poison in the Well" tells us that pollution is bad. "Candy Everybody Wants" tells us that commercial TV networks try to broadcast programs that are popular as opposed to programs that are unpopular. "What's the Matter Here" tells us that striking your kids is badnote though one could also interpret it as "turning a blind eye to domestic violence even when it becomes blatantly obvious is bad". "Don't Talk" tells us that excessive drinking is bad.
Fanon Discontinuity: Toward the band's albums without Merchant, largely on account of a perceived artistic decline and a belief that Mary Ramsey, while talented, simply doesn't fit the band's sound.
Friendly Fandoms: With R.E.M., due to their similar Jangle Pop style, as well as Natalie Merchant's onetime romantic affiliation with R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and Stipe's collaboration with the band on "A Campfire Song." Also with The Smiths, again for a similar style and for animal rights supporters, both Merchant and Morrissey being outspoken vegetarian activists.
After the success of In My Tribe, it would be expected that hordes of bands would take a stab at the market with their own second-rate versions of the album — it's disappointing that 10,000 Maniacs would be one of them, churning out not only In My Tribe, Pt. 2, but an inferior copy at that.
Narm: The need to rhyme sometimes lured Merchant in this direction. From "What's the Matter Here", there's her curiously euphemistic rendition of an angry parent's threats: "Threats like / 'If you don't mind / I will beat on your behind / Slap you, slap you silly'".
Stoic Woobie: The person sung about in "Trouble me" seems to be someone like this. One of the protagonist's lines is "Why are you building this thick, thick wall to defend me?"
Tough Act to Follow: Blind Man's Zoo suffered from this after the success of In My Tribe, not helped by it more or less repeating the same stylistic beats. This may at least partly explain the band's shift to a more subdued sound on Our Time in Eden.
of Blind Man's Zoo in Allmusic panned the album for repeating many of the stylistic beats of the band's previous album:After the success of In My Tribe, it would be expected that hordes of bands would take a stab at the market with their own second-rate versions of the album — it's disappointing that 10,000 Maniacs would be one of them, churning out not only In My Tribe, Pt. 2, but an inferior copy at that.