All My CDs, pt 63: Nomads Indians Saints

Nomads Indians Saints - Indigo Girls

Indigo Girls further endear themselves to me by seldom naming their albums after one of the songs, but compromise by having their album titles sometimes refer to lyrics in one or more songs, in this case the wonderfully poetic World Falls: "I wish I was a nomad an indian or a saint / give me walking shoes, feathered arms and a key to heaven's gate." Mystical.

In the past week as I've prepared for this review I have found it very rewarding to listen to this album while running four or five miles. It starts out with a song designed to get the listener up and moving from a sedentary state: Hammer and a Nail. It proceeds to intersperse moderate and slower songs appropriate for an easy, sustainable pace. Not what I'd call the ultimate running album, bit it's definitely fair to decent.

It's also a great collection of songs. The only one I can't seem to identify with on some level is Southland in the Springtime, which fondly proclaims "When God made me born a Yankee he was teasin'." Well, when God made me born a Yankee he was dead serious. There's nothing like the Midwest in the Winter.

Much like Hammer and a Nail, Watershed is a song to put a fire under your ass when you'd rather sit indecisive: "Up on the watershed / at the fork in the road / you can sit there and agonize / til your agony's your heaviest load." The point is to make a choice, because even the wrong choice is preferable to total inactivity. I tend to agree.

Many of the other songs are more contemplative and reflective, ironically enough. You and Me of the 10,000 Wars speculates about the sources of trouble in interpersonal relations, and Keeper of My Heart is... well, another of those angsty love songs I can't get enough of. Welcome Me and Hand Me Downs are, like World Falls, more poetic and centered on spiritual imagery: "All with hope, give me hope / that emptiness brings fullness / and loss of love brings wholeness to us all." 
If only.

Next: Rites of Passage