10,000 Maniacs are one of those bands who are synonymous with me and my life in 1992. Much like Tori Amos and Nirvana, 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant, and their 1992 album, Our Time In Eden, plays like a soundtrack to my life back then. And like with any good film soundtrack, I see clips and scenes from that time in my life flash by. I close my eyes and the movie plays. Memories. Feelings. A much younger me in the midst of major life changes.

It was the year I turned 23. It was the year I became a mother, in January, on the 15th. It was the year that I had to question so much of what I’d known before. And, it was the year I had to face some hard truths, like whether a relationship could work, and if it couldn’t, how “family” would look on the other side of it. I grew up in a damaged family, one where I’d not known my father except when I was too young to remember him, and I wanted so much more for my own life, for my own daughter, and for my own choice of reality. But, sometimes what we want, and what is possible, do not correlate. At least not how we once believed they should.

I would live inside the contents of the songs on 10,000 Maniacs album Our Time In Eden for not only 1992, its year of release, but well into the coming years.

I think the album had the biggest impact in 1994 when I’d make changes that would affect the better part of my twenties and thirties, and beyond. I turn up today’s Song of the Day, track two from Our Time In Eden, “These Are Days”, and I see my second apartment, me in the front room with the stereo on, spinning around with my young daughter, dancing and singing, and believing that the days were starting to get better. That life was changing – for the better.

I was full of unexpected hope that I’d try to hang on to for years to come. I would leave that apartment, with my daughter, and embark on a new life. It wouldn’t be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but there would be lovely moments and memories. Days to remember forever.

“These Are Days” by 10,000 Maniacs
from the album, Our Time In Eden (1992)
Song of the Day

“These are days you’ll remember.
Never before and never since,
I promise,
will the whole world be warm as this.
And, as you feel it,
you’ll know it’s true –
that you,
are blessed and lucky.
It’s true,
that you,
are touched by something,
That will grow in you,
in you.”

“These Are Days” was released as the lead single off of 10,000 Maniacs 1992 album, Our Time In Eden.

“These Are Days” hit #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in November of 1992. (from Wikipedia)

Our Time In Eden was 10,000 Maniacs fifth studio album. It was released on Elektra Records. It was the final studio album featuring original lead singer Natalie Merchant. (from Wikipedia)

“These Are Days” was co-written by Natalie Merchant and Robert Buck.

“These Are Days” (live) by 10,000 Maniacs