Indigo Girls Album: “Become You”

Let me start with this: the Indigo Girls have been a huge part of my growth as a young adult into an adult. "Swamp Ophelia" was one of my first CDs, and I loved it. I have all of their studio and live albums, several promo singles, and a few bootlegs. I've seen them in concert 10 times in the past few years.

I think this is one of their least satisfying efforts.

To be fair: there are some excellent songs here. Amy continues to impress me with her artistic growth and range of emotion. And Emily can still write ballads that tear at my heartstrings. My review here will focus on criticism.

But the truth is, this album is more of a rehashing of past successes than a true coming-home album.

I really liked Come On Now Social. Not at first, of course, but after a while, the complexity of the songs and their messages grew on me and rewarded me after repeat listening. And it's good to see excellent artists pushing themselves in new directions, even if they aren't always as successful as their original efforts. If it wasn't for experimental, risk-taking music, I don't know *what* we'd be listening to these days.

Despite her growth, Amy can't write new chord progressions. My favorite song on the album, "Become You," has a verse that sounds nearly identical to "Jonas & Ezekiel" from Rites. "Yield" recalls "Devotion" from the Retrospective. And there are more offenders. I guess that it's not really that important; after so many albums in the folk-rock genre, I-IV-V progressions are tempting. The chord progressions aren't the center of the music.

But my real qualm here is with how meek the material is. Emily's new tunes (especially Hope Alone and Collecting You) sound like 80's adult-contemporary hits. There's a thin line between touching emotion and mainstream, easy-listening cheese, and Emily crosses that line more than once on this album.

Moreover, Emily's metaphors are stretching a little thin these days. Take "Deconstruction" for example. When I heard it live last summer, I loved it. But after a listen or two, the imagery seems lackluster and contrived. "the trash truck making its way through the neighborhood ... we get to decide what we think is no good?" Please. It saddens me to hear lyrics such as these coming from the woman who wrote Ghost, Love Will Come to You, and Love's Recovery.

That's my two cents. Take it or leave it. Maybe it's because my musical tastes have changed that I don't like this album as much as I want to, but I'd prefer Swamp Ophelia with all its flaws to Become You any day.

I am a tremendous fan of the Indigo Girls, but have been let down by the past two albums to the point where I probably would not have purchased this album if it were not for the glowing reviews from other longtime fans on this site. Emily's songs are her best since her outstanding contributions on 'Swamp Ophelia', and you have to go all the way back to 'Rites of Passage' to find a consistent collection like this from Amy. If you have been dissatisfied with their recent work, do not hesitate to get this one!

I've been an Indigo Girls fan for years, but I wasn't as fond of their last album, COME ON NOW SOCIAL. I felt it lacked focus and was community-oriented at the cost of quality. BECOME YOU, though, is a different story. It's always fun to hear artists return to their musical roots, but the Indigo Girls did more than that on this album. Amy Ray, in particular, took a quantum leap in songwriting skill on this record; songs like "Become You", "Moment of Forgiveness", and "Yield" are miles ahead of anything else she's ever written. Amy's increasing prowess is visible in Epic's selection of her songs for radio. Before this, it was always Emily Saliers compositions like "Closer to Fine" and "Galileo" that became singles, while Ray's songs found more of a cult following among IG fans. Now Amy's getting the A&R nod, not that Emily's songs are slouching -- I thought Saliers took a similar songwriting leap on SHAMING OF THE SUN a few years ago, and now they're both writing at a terrifically high level, making BECOME YOU one of the best Indigo Girls albums in years, if not the best ever.

...This album does sound different from their other albums but that is what I really like about it. I wanted to hear a different sound from these guys and I really like how they played around with some new sounds. I like the Norah Jones Bluesy sound on "You've got to Show" and I LOVE the banjo and bluegrass sound of "Bitter Root". I would LOVE for these guys to do more songs that have that kind of sound to it. I LOVE the song " She's Saving Me". I think the words are beautiful and nostalgic. I don't know who "she" is but I think it's Mother Earth. I also love "Deconstruction" and although a previous person thought the lyrics were sub-par I think they are brilliant. I love the lines that say....

"We're sculpted from youth, the chipping away makes me weary

And as for the truth it seems like we just pick a theory

The one that justifies our daily lives

And backs us with quiver and arrows

To protect openings cause when the warring begins

How quickly the wide open narrows"

I also love the song Collecting You. I thought the lyrics in that were wonderful as well. I don't think you need to be as poetic as they were in a song like "Ghost" to say something powerful and meaninful.

Buy this album. You won't regret it. I love it...

From the toe-tapping start of "Moment of Forgiveness" to the final wistful note of "Nuevas Senoritas", BECOME YOU is a triumphant return to the Indigo Girls of yesteryear.

Both 1997's SHAMING OF THE SUN and 1999's COME ON NOW SOCIAL featured a more produced sound, a harder edge. The music was great, as always, but the sound was different, emphasizing the Girls' backing band and de-emphasizing the harmonies of which the duos' fans had become so fond. Though the new music was fine, their older albums spent more time in my CD player.

BECOME YOU is a return to the minimalist sounds of earlier Indigo Girls albums."Deconstruction" and "Become You" are just two of the songs to showcase their marvelous harmonies. "Become You", especially, is a tremendous song, perhaps their best, and sounds similar to the music on 1992's RITES OF PASSAGE.

Emily's songs are, as expected, mellow and introspective. "You've Got to Show" is almost jazzy. "Our Deliverance" is a beautiful, idealistic hymn to pacificism in which she sings "There is no nation by God exempted -- lay down your weapons and love your neighbor as yourself." Her best work on the album is the almost-visual "She's Saving Me".

Though Emily's songs are great, I'm an Amy fan: her songs are upbeat, direct. She sings with a fiery intensity that I love. The aforementioned "Become You" is a standout, as are the country-tinged "Bitterroot" and the subtle "Starkville". Throughout her songs, Amy demonstrates her new-found harmonica skills.

This album reminds me of the music my parents played when I was growing up: Simon and Garfunkel; Peter, Paul, and Mary; Neil Diamond; John Denver. It's folk-rock in the classic mode. It's folk rock that is itself destined to become classic.

The Indigo Girls have enjoyed a stealth popularity for over a decade, never quite achieving mainstream success. This may change with BECOME YOU, their best album yet. It's an album that will live in my CD-player (or on my MP3-player) for years to come.

"It took a long time to become the thing I am to you...It took a long time to become you."