The Indigo Girls thread (...also for Indigo Bros; 'B-grade movie' lovers; and other Swamp Opheliacs)

(...because they deserve better than those BS extant threads.)

I've been enjoying going thru their stuff – focusing on the early-ish years so far – and not sure why their rep isn't stronger? Neither their singing nor playing is excellent – I guess "endearingly ragged" would describe both – but their songwriting often is... and there's something so pleasing about their big, earnest melodies, trademark vocal harmonies, and "f yeah!" studio performances (good lyrics, too).

I have the sense that they had some heat after their (awesome) S/T major-label debut; and then the music world kind of gradually lost interest as they released album after album, every few years, each with a few hot singles and a bunch of other (good) tracks, but without changing up their approach in a way that would keep folks interested? (The snide tone of this Trouser Press entry seems typical of their general reception.) I get the Lilith Fair / candles & tapestries stereotype – but they're actually a pretty "meat-and-potatoes" folk-rock act (inapt as that metaphor feels).

It's interesting that they almost never co-write their stuff – each song is either Ray or Saliers – and it seems like a pretty equal division of labor (although I guess Ray is more prolific, as she has also released a bunch of solo LPs on the side). Ray is more the rocker, and Saliers seems to sometimes get into droopier/wispier material... but you can pretty much drop the (digital) needle anywhere on these LPs and pump your fist along.

Any other true Indigo Headz in this house??

I’ve always been pretty neutral on them, don’t hate them but was a little overexposed to them in college and have yet to find the urge to dig back in.

My wife saw them a few weeks ago and said it was really rough, Emily’s voice is apparently shot and she just did not sound good at all and the skipped a lot of songs that she might normally play a bigger part in. Looking online this seems to be a common complaint in the past few years. Lots of rumors too, which I won’t take seriously, but it’s a real shame.

Sometimes I think “Kid Fears” is the best REM song.

^the final half of that song (once Stipe comes in, and Amy & Emily start harmonizing with him) is so ridiculously good, it makes me laugh... like, just imagining them getting done recording it and knowing what they had on tape.

I do wish I’d been following their career long-term, and had digested each album on the natural timeframe… it’s kind of hard to differentiate the LPs now, in retrospect (even listening to each one a few times before moving on), they sort of blend together.

I can see why the duo may have had trouble building a broader fanbase; seems like despite writing some poppy hits and changing up their production from album to album, they always end up sounding like… the Indigo Girls.

…although interestingly, their albums actually peaked on the charts in the mid/late-’90s.

Shaming of the Sun (1997) is their highest-charting LP (#7), and I don’t recognize the singles from that album offhand (the way I do their earlier ones).

Shaming of the Sun is a good album; guess you could say it’s a bit more “alt-rocky” than their previous fare. The opening song sounds like Counting Crows…

I definitely heard "Shame On You" (the Counting Crows-y song) on the radio as a young'un, and then never thought about it again until this very moment. Good band

"Touch Me Fall," from Swamp Ophelia, is sort of their take on a proggy epic... check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqq2ofGhDTg

i enjoyed reading this! it was very enjoyable.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/opinion/indigo-girls-barbie-cringe.html

While I prefer not to click on an NYT Opinion piece with “cringe” in the URL (my loss, perhaps), I’ll just note that I thought the use of their song in the movie was great. (Also another song, by a different artist, which I won’t spoil)

Funny line in that song is stopping by a bar at 3am. Are bars typically open at that hour? Point of order, Emily!

I liked that piece too, though I think her description of "cringe" is off, or at least too narrow

Funny line in that song is stopping by a bar at 3am. Are bars typically open at that hour? Point of order, Emily!

― Nonhuman biologics enthusiast (morrisp),

ohhh yeah

bars can stay open until 4am in NYC. that's the only place i know like that. but i don't get around much.

"(my loss, perhaps)"

no big loss. but its sweet!

xp With this awareness, I will sheepishly but swiftly shut down my long-running effort Mansplaining the Indigo Girls: An AUDIBLE™ Podcast

Their S/T (which I've dipped back into, thanx to this revive) is just banger after banger... what a debut

Some of R.E.M.'s best backing performances imo

Yeah that song "Tried to Be True" cracks

I liked that piece too, though I think her description of "cringe" is off, or at least too narrow

― rob, Tuesday, August 8, 2023 1:01 PM (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it does get to something i've been thinking about a lot recently. artists are afraid to express heart-on-sleeve emotions for fear of seeming uncool. i maybe would've used "corniness" instead of "cringe" as the operative thing that artists are desperate to avoid, but "cringe" is trendier bit of slang

that's interesting, and a good subject for a not-the-Indigo-Girls thread lol. I was listening to a lovers rock comp the other day and was struck by how sincere the emotions are compared to "love" songs today that really are much more mercenary (...I think, or maybe I'm just 44)

but I think I mostly object to the vaguely reactionary spin Polgreen puts on it. or not "object" really, but I don't see that as being central to its everyday usage. like Ben Shapiro posting a 45-minute video of him dressed like Ken and burning Barbie dolls (or w/e I didn't watch) because of this movie is certified cringe

yeah, that's why i think "corniness" is a better word than "cringe" for what polgreen is going for here

agreed, or maybe "earnestness"

it is a good piece though! I especially liked:

But as I get older, I’ve come to see that nostalgia is not just about looking back at good times. It can also be a remembering of the exquisite pleasure of longing, of anticipation of the life you want so badly, of the self you will make of the materials you collect along the way.

that helps me think about what forms of nostalgia have hit me lately

yes, good piece

Thought of them after Sinead’s death as far as late-80s activist folk making its way to the top 40.