Natalie Merchant, the lead singer and principal songwriter of 10,000 Maniacs, whose songs have been described as having the resonance of contemporary parables, says much of the inspiration for the group's newly released fifth album, Our Time in Eden (Elektra), came from nature.

"A lot of it came from being upstate in the springtime," Ms. Merchant said of the area around Jamestown, N.Y., the group's hometown. "As I get older, my awareness of the, vanishing purity of the environment makes me seek out places that are wild because they are vanishing so quickly."

The album's first single, These Are Days, which Ms. Merchant wrote with Robert Buck, the group's guitarist, is, in fact, a bouquet to spring.

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
And bloom in you.

Ms. Merchant says Our Time in Eden reflects several new directions for her folk-rock band which also includes Jerome Augustyniak on drums, Dennis Drew on keyboards and Steven Gustafson on bass. The album "is very live sounding," she said, and, for the first time, the group wrote some of the songs together. Musicians from James Brown's horn section also perform and the band experiments with electric sitar, steel guitar and other instruments.

"We've learned everything through experience," said Ms. Merchant, who joined the band when it began 11 years ago, when she was 17, "The main thing that's happened is that we've become much more capable and confident."

Critics have praised Our Time in Eden, but Ms. Merchant says the group didn't write music with an eye toward the critics or the fans.