by: Jon Bream

Life for 10,000 Maniacs became so crazed that they almost cracked up.

"By the end of the tour [two years ago], we weren't getting along," recalled lead singer Natalie Merchant. "We weren't respecting ourselves, and we weren't appreciative anymore. We just complained about sore muscles and headaches and just being on the bus too long and it being winter and wanting to be home."

So the Maniacs broke up. Three members stayed in Jamestown, N.Y., where the band was founded in 1981. Merchant moved to New York City, and drummer Jerry Augustyniak, her principal cowriter, settled in Pittsburgh. Having lost her passion for music, Merchant traveled to Europe and South Africa, worked at a homeless shelter in Harlem and at a day-care center. She completely tuned out popular music.

The Maniacs took time off to "reassess ourselves and what we do," Merchant said, and then reassembled to discuss things. "We decided that when we came back together, it should be enjoyable," she said.

They took a new approach to their fifth album, Our Time in Eden. The five Maniacs made writing a collaborative process. Rehearsals became workshops instead of merely sessions in which a songwriter taught the tune to the band.

"Any kind of art by committee is very frustrating," said Merchant, whose band will play a sold-out concert Monday at the Historic Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. "Anything by committee is frustrating because you operate on consensus all the time. And we're definitely a consensus band."

The Maniacs had a newfound open-mindedness for Eden. In the past, Merchant would have rejected the suggestion to use pedal steel guitar on a song, she said, simply because she associates the instrument with country music. But when Rob Buck tried pedal steel on Gold Rush Brides, Merchant was amazed how appropriate it sounded.

Working for the first time with producer Paul Fox (known for his recordings with XTC, Sugarcubes and Robyn Hitchcock), 10,000 Maniacs tried other new approaches for Eden. James Brown's horn section is heard on two numbers, and a string quartet plays on another. The result is that Eden is the Maniacs' deepest, most varied and satisfying album.

Since their debut album was released in 1985, the Maniacs have become favorites with college-age audiences. The band's folk-pop has been sometimes arty and sometimes topical (racism and toxic dumping among the subjects). Merchant's lyrics are often laced with biblical references and images. And her voice is one of the strongest and richest in alternative-rock circles. She has the ability to get lost in her singing the way R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe or Van Morrison does.

Merchant said her singing style probably comes from years of improvising gibberish songs onstage. "I'm more concerned with melody than with the clarity of lyrics," she said. "It confuses people if they print the lyrics in prose style with the album. I have to have a proofreader alter them so they're grammatically correct."

The singer said she went through performing withdrawal during the Maniacs' hiatus. She is enjoying the return to the stage, especially since the Maniacs have made two significant changes. They have added five more musicians - three horn players, a violinist and a keyboardist - to reproduce more faithfully the sounds of Our Time in Eden. And two of the new players are women, including keyboardist-guitarist Amanda Kramer, a former Twin Cities resident who has played with Information Society and the Golden Palominos.