by: Brian McTavish

Natalie Merchant, the enchanting singer and thoughtful lyricist of pop group 10,000 Maniacs, is an intellectual. Except she prefers to be described otherwise.

"I consider myself a clever woman," Merchant said in a phone interview from Washington DC. "It sounds pompous to say, 'I'm an intellectual.' What does that mean? I think a lot? Everyone thinks a lot."

The Maniacs perform Thursday at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. Opening at 7:30 p.m. will be the Wallflowers with vocalist Jacob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan. The concert is sold out.

Not every popster chooses to sing about child abuse (What's the Matter Here?), illiteracy (Cherry Tree) and the elderly (Trouble Me). On Our Time in Eden, 10,000 Maniacs' fourth Elektra Records album, Merchant moves on to divorce (Jezebel) and the death penalty (I'm Not the Man).

On past albums Merchant forced the band's music to fit the themes she was "obsessing about."

"On this album I let the songs tell me what they were about," she said. "If I was listening to a song and it made me feel extreme joy, I would think, 'What in my life has brought me extreme joy?' And then I would think, 'Spring. Walking in the forest.' Then I would write a song like (this week's top modern rock radio track) These Are Days, about springtime and being young and strong and falling in love with being alive."

She's not in love with what she sees as America's ill romance with sex.

"I'm not a prude," she said. "I like the fact that music is a celebration of sensuality. I was down in Brazil during carnival this year, and it was so great to see people so at ease with their own sexuality and expressing that in dance and music. People were dancing naked in the streets. I mean, it was fine by me.

"But I think it's the objectification of it that makes it perverse in this country - that it's for sale all the time and people are told it's something we should want all the time and then we're told it's something taboo and forbidden at the same time. It's that Protestant attitude toward sex that makes it impossible for people to just be sensuous beings."

To make her point, the Emily Dickinson of pop comes on like Veronica Lake in the band's next video, Candy Everybody Wants.

"I look like a fashion model through most of the video. It was really fun to do. I've always enjoyed dressing up and pretending.