Sorrow and Joy are not oil and water

May 29, 2020 4:58 PM

A little new listening for your weekend: Indigo Girls have a new album out, Look Long. It's full of collaborators old and new. Here's the official YouTube playlist. Here are the lyrics at lifeblood.net.

[Ed. note - I've listened twice now. It's good, and it's going to grow into great, I can tell.]

posted by hippybear (11 comments total)

If I'm going to put one track from this album in front of you, I would put Country Radio, an Emily track that hit me pretty hard. It echoes across generations and spreads a net much wider than its immediate topic.
posted by hippybear at 5:22 PM on May 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

Thrilled. I love them. As soon as I read this post I ran to iTunes and bought it immediately. One of my husband's and my bestest memories is seeing them in concert on the pier in Seattle, while we were surrounded mostly by gay women softly humming and singing along.
posted by bearwife at 10:46 PM on May 29, 2020

Going to try and track this later whilst sitting on the porch.
posted by terrapin at 7:58 AM on May 30, 2020

Thank you! Just bought it in iTunes and am listening to it now as I fold clothes. I like. So far it’s a lovely balm for my soul. I can see this being my soundtrack for the summer.
posted by kimberussell at 9:30 AM on May 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oooooh, thanks, enjoying very much, would not have know about otherwise. I, too, think I will be buying. We missed them when they came through town, but at least I can support them by buying their music.
posted by dawg-proud at 3:10 PM on May 30, 2020

Thanks for the tip. I can see why hippybear said that this good going into great. I’ve shared my love and stories about Indigo Girls before here, but not that I have not felt a connection in the LPs for a few years. This one feels right to me. It will definitely be in rotation for a while.

Question: Any idea why the only instrument not apparently mentioned on Wiki is drums? And the follow up question: who plays the drums on this LP?

Actually banjo isn’t listed either but I assume it is Emily.
posted by terrapin at 7:19 AM on May 31, 2020

Um... it's right on the Wikipedia page: John Reynolds – drums / percussion - keyboards, production

Reynolds has done percussion on several of the albums he has produced for them.
posted by hippybear at 7:50 AM on May 31, 2020

The banjo credit, though... Howl At The Moon, right? That has to be Emily. I have never seen Amy play banjo ever once, and I remember seeing them on tour while they were writing Shaming Of The Sun which was right when they were branching out into newer instruments. Also, it's a banjo part very much in Emily's style of playing.
posted by hippybear at 1:53 PM on May 31, 2020

This album... is so full of reflection and mortality. I feel like it's coming at a perfect time in my life (A+E aren't that much older tham me), and it's coming at a perfect time in my life (there's so much shit going on). It's full of such positive reflections and realizations about what it means to be older and to have a new context.

I'll be honest, when they said they were writing a new album, I am always hoping for something as galvanizing as Come On Now Social, or something as truly classic as Rites Of Passage or Swamp Ophelia. But I think they've managed something else here, something that is really special.

Every one of these songs is a reflection upon life from the vantage of experience. Every track is dripping with insight from a life lived, and is filled with a perspective that is worth being reminded of. It's hope during hopeless times. It's all recognition of humanity in tiny slices or in big moments, and it's all full of wisdom that can only be gained across years.

I haven't always connected with each new IG release all that well (despite my best efforts), but this one really feels special to me. I don't know what the juju is that is present in this that isn't necessarily there in previous albums, but this one... Man, wow.

I don't know how lifeblood got the lyrics so quickly, but they're accurate, and they've been a huge help with me processing this new album.
posted by hippybear at 2:11 PM on May 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

Also Favorite Flavor so directly calls out all their own favorite instruments and then is deliberately a track with none of them being played. Is it the first IG track ever not to have even piano on it? I love the irony.

I'm reminded of Emily's solo album where they wrote all the songs and then removed all of Emily's instruments from the arrangements so it would have a different sound from what was expected.
posted by hippybear at 2:19 PM on May 31, 2020

You can check out ~20:30-41:00 of this podcast Folk Alley for an interview and two acoustic duo performances, Country Radio and Howl At The Moon.
posted by hippybear at 10:06 PM on May 31, 2020