Rites of Passage - Indigo Girls
Boy, I've had this album for a long time. It was the first studio album of the Indigo Girls that I added to my collection, after having owned 1200 Curfews just long enough to fall in love. It contains Three Hits, Love Will Come to You, Galileo, Airplane...
Which brings me to one of my newest observations about Rites of Passage and the Indigo Girls in general. Some of their more popular songs are... Well, lighter and fluffier than others. Galileo is one. It's intelligent and far from cliched - love songs are a dime a dozen, but how many pop songs adulate an iconic scientist using the imagery of reincarnation? But the song's meaning isn't hard to follow when compared to, say, Three Hits, whose lyrics are more poetic and opaque. As a result I think songs like Galileo lose their appeal to me rather quickly, as I eventually find there isn't much beyond the surface for me to explore. Such is also true of Airplane, which I never even liked all that much to begin with, and which now sounds all the more insipid to me.
However, it hasn't really happened with Love Will Come to You, which although simple is intensely relateable, and expresses a sentiment commonly felt but, strangely, seldom put to song: "And I said love will come to you / Hoping just because I said the words that they're true."
The song Nashville is one that I've only begun to appreciate now, never having given it much thought before. My growing affection is purely for the melodies and harmonies that seem to wind like a sparkling river through hills. I always did love rivers. I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the words though.
Romeo and Juliet is another of those angsty love songs I raved about in my last review, but a rare one that is written largely in the third person. It has always intrigued me with its turns of phrase, turning the old love cliches into fresh and fiery metaphors: "Juliet, the dice were loaded from the start / and I bet, and you exploded into my heart." In addition to the obvious Shakespear, the words make a few allusions to West Side Story, which makes me think I should finally watch it.
Let it Be Me is another relative rarity, as a politically-charged protest song that is more positive than negative, focused on the sense of responsibility and empowerment felt by those called to make change in their communities:
Let it be me
(This is not a fighting song)
Let it be me
(Not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light
Next: Indigo Girls
Monday, May 25, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
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
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
Friday, May 15, 2015
All My CDs, pt 62: Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
Poseidon and the Bitter Bug - Indigo Girls
This album is the second-most-recent from the Indigo Girls, having been released before Beauty Queen Sister. I bought it simply because I got an automated email from a retailer recommending it based on my previous purchases, and by then I was ready to buy anything with the duo's name on it.
In terms of total number of songs, it's one of the shortest if not the shortest album of theirs, but contains a second disk where every song has an accoustic version, plus a bonus extra song. This provides an interesting opportunity to compare the two styles - accoustic and with full band backing - as they're handled by this particular group. After much consideration, I'm convinced there's not much in the way of meaningful distinction between the two styles, and I can't help but feel that one of the discs is actually an unnecessary redundancy. The Indigo Girls simply don't rely heavily enough on orchestration or electronic elements to make a stripped-down acoustic disc all that novel. It's nice to have, though, and for a few of the songs the two versions are quite different indeed.
One of those songs is True Romantic, the band version of which is one of my favorites. I have decided that I could listen to Amy Ray sing angsty love songs all day and be quite happy: songs like this one and, from other albums, Keeper of My Heart, Romeo and Juliet, and Blood and Fire. The band version of True Romantic is delightfully urgent and intense, conveying commitment in the face of uncertainty: "remember what I told you / when the night was darkest /you can leave me all you need to / baby, I'm here to stay." But the acoustic version is much more sedate and almost fatalistic, which I think undermines much of the song's power.
Another song I find especially powerful (and moreso as time goes by) is Ghost of the Gang, which makes me think of Jim, Bill, Dulcy, Liz, Ashley, Rob... Heck, even Wally. Friends and friends of friends, passing acquaintences and family. The song is about remembering old friends who've died, especially after years have passed, and never fails to get me choked up, especially the long and turbulent bridge portion.
Many of the songs, even the more cheerful ones, have an edge of bitterness, like the two referred to in the album title. Fleet of Hope is full of references to the dark side of hope: "Out in the choppier waters the sharks swim and play / you're all washed up when Poseidon has his day." Second Time Around is even less upbeat, to the point of near apathy: "Got bitten by the bitter bug and I just can't get enough/ Ill will and my own conceit, I'm weary of the world it seems." But it's the kind of bitterness that's gentle and accepting - that takes the good with the bad without ignoring either.
Maybe that's why I associate this album with aging, and even see that as a theme running through all the songs in it. At 27 I'm hardly elderly, but have lived enough to have a share of loss, regret, and bitterness... and to heal from it, learn from it, and move on. In doing so I feel I've had a glimpse of what aging really means. And I see that in this album.
Next: Nomads Indians Saints
This album is the second-most-recent from the Indigo Girls, having been released before Beauty Queen Sister. I bought it simply because I got an automated email from a retailer recommending it based on my previous purchases, and by then I was ready to buy anything with the duo's name on it.
In terms of total number of songs, it's one of the shortest if not the shortest album of theirs, but contains a second disk where every song has an accoustic version, plus a bonus extra song. This provides an interesting opportunity to compare the two styles - accoustic and with full band backing - as they're handled by this particular group. After much consideration, I'm convinced there's not much in the way of meaningful distinction between the two styles, and I can't help but feel that one of the discs is actually an unnecessary redundancy. The Indigo Girls simply don't rely heavily enough on orchestration or electronic elements to make a stripped-down acoustic disc all that novel. It's nice to have, though, and for a few of the songs the two versions are quite different indeed.
One of those songs is True Romantic, the band version of which is one of my favorites. I have decided that I could listen to Amy Ray sing angsty love songs all day and be quite happy: songs like this one and, from other albums, Keeper of My Heart, Romeo and Juliet, and Blood and Fire. The band version of True Romantic is delightfully urgent and intense, conveying commitment in the face of uncertainty: "remember what I told you / when the night was darkest /you can leave me all you need to / baby, I'm here to stay." But the acoustic version is much more sedate and almost fatalistic, which I think undermines much of the song's power.
Another song I find especially powerful (and moreso as time goes by) is Ghost of the Gang, which makes me think of Jim, Bill, Dulcy, Liz, Ashley, Rob... Heck, even Wally. Friends and friends of friends, passing acquaintences and family. The song is about remembering old friends who've died, especially after years have passed, and never fails to get me choked up, especially the long and turbulent bridge portion.
Many of the songs, even the more cheerful ones, have an edge of bitterness, like the two referred to in the album title. Fleet of Hope is full of references to the dark side of hope: "Out in the choppier waters the sharks swim and play / you're all washed up when Poseidon has his day." Second Time Around is even less upbeat, to the point of near apathy: "Got bitten by the bitter bug and I just can't get enough/ Ill will and my own conceit, I'm weary of the world it seems." But it's the kind of bitterness that's gentle and accepting - that takes the good with the bad without ignoring either.
Maybe that's why I associate this album with aging, and even see that as a theme running through all the songs in it. At 27 I'm hardly elderly, but have lived enough to have a share of loss, regret, and bitterness... and to heal from it, learn from it, and move on. In doing so I feel I've had a glimpse of what aging really means. And I see that in this album.
Next: Nomads Indians Saints
Monday, May 04, 2015
All My CDs, pt 61: Swamp Ophelia
Swamp Ophelia - Indigo Girls
This is another relatively recent addition to my collection, or feels like it anyway; I think I got it in 2012. By that point I had a few of their albums and was already thinking of the Indigo Girls as one of my favorite music groups. I know that at least part of my motive for buying this particular CD was that it contained many unknown-to-me studio versions of songs I’d heard on the live album, 1200 Curfews. These included Least Complicated, Dead Man’s Hill, Power of Two, and Mystery, among others. I think of Least Complicated as one of the quintessential Indigo Girls songs: philosophical, introspective, yet cheerful and optimistic, with harmonies and counterpoints that confuse and delight the ears:
What makes me think I could start clean-slated?
The hardest to learn was the least complicated
The album also features several songs that I’d never heard anywhere else, including Fugitive, which has become one of my favorite songs of all. It’s either the only or one of very few Indigo Girls songs to prominently feature a chorus of trumpets, which come in straightaway, suggesting the approach of a hunting party before the lyrics proclaim:
are they coming for us with cameras or guns
we don’t know which but we gotta run
you say this is not what I bargained for
so hide yourself for me...
Like many other favorite songs, this one seems to be clear and specific enough to provoke very intense feelings, but indistinct enough to be interpreted in a lot of different ways, making it fit a lot of different situations. It’s occurred to me that it could be about evading a literal pursuit, or about oppression in general. The “fugitive” in question might be an LGBT identity, or any other personal vulnerability. I personally tend to interpret it as referring to some form of mental illness, as is my wont.
The song Reunion is similarly flexible-yet-strong, but more cheerful, and makes a good running song Somehow the Wood Song and Fare Thee Well haven’t quite struck a cord with me yet, but that might be because I haven’t heard them at the right time yet. It used to be the case with songs such as Dead Man’s Hill, which I never quite understood until recently, and then suddenly felt very drawn to.
The whole album makes for fun listening no matter what the situation, and since I got it it has always been on my short list for CDs to put on when I’m not sure what to go for. Like a comfortable shoe, it just fits.
Next: Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
This is another relatively recent addition to my collection, or feels like it anyway; I think I got it in 2012. By that point I had a few of their albums and was already thinking of the Indigo Girls as one of my favorite music groups. I know that at least part of my motive for buying this particular CD was that it contained many unknown-to-me studio versions of songs I’d heard on the live album, 1200 Curfews. These included Least Complicated, Dead Man’s Hill, Power of Two, and Mystery, among others. I think of Least Complicated as one of the quintessential Indigo Girls songs: philosophical, introspective, yet cheerful and optimistic, with harmonies and counterpoints that confuse and delight the ears:
What makes me think I could start clean-slated?
The hardest to learn was the least complicated
The album also features several songs that I’d never heard anywhere else, including Fugitive, which has become one of my favorite songs of all. It’s either the only or one of very few Indigo Girls songs to prominently feature a chorus of trumpets, which come in straightaway, suggesting the approach of a hunting party before the lyrics proclaim:
are they coming for us with cameras or guns
we don’t know which but we gotta run
you say this is not what I bargained for
so hide yourself for me...
Like many other favorite songs, this one seems to be clear and specific enough to provoke very intense feelings, but indistinct enough to be interpreted in a lot of different ways, making it fit a lot of different situations. It’s occurred to me that it could be about evading a literal pursuit, or about oppression in general. The “fugitive” in question might be an LGBT identity, or any other personal vulnerability. I personally tend to interpret it as referring to some form of mental illness, as is my wont.
The song Reunion is similarly flexible-yet-strong, but more cheerful, and makes a good running song Somehow the Wood Song and Fare Thee Well haven’t quite struck a cord with me yet, but that might be because I haven’t heard them at the right time yet. It used to be the case with songs such as Dead Man’s Hill, which I never quite understood until recently, and then suddenly felt very drawn to.
The whole album makes for fun listening no matter what the situation, and since I got it it has always been on my short list for CDs to put on when I’m not sure what to go for. Like a comfortable shoe, it just fits.
Next: Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
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