Last night was a fun time at an
art opening hosted by our friends Justin and Vero. I met a lot of very cool people, and got reacquainted with some others I hadn't seen in a while. All in all a great time, and now after a good sleep in I’m sitting safely inside on a windy
Saturday talking about one of my favourite things – music.
Disc 489 is… Shaming of the Sun
Year of Release: 1997
What’s up with the Cover? Ah, folk artists – you continue to underwhelm me with
your album covers. Here we have a couple
of old dolls in a broken piece of wall which I believe are supposed to vaguely
resemble Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The brunette
“Amy Ray” doll stares creepily into middle distance while blonde “Emily Saliers”
doll looks like is has been hanged. The
crime, no doubt, was this album cover.
How I Came To Know It: This was just me digging through their collection,
after having been hooked on their sound early in university on albums like
“Strange Fire” (reviewed way back at Disc 50) and their self-titled
effort, (reviewed at Disc 412). I
wasn’t terribly impressed with “Swamp Ophelia” three years earlier and this was
my last chance to get re-energized with their sound. “Shaming of the Sun” was better, but not
enough that I kept going. Maybe one day
I’ll return, but not today.
How It Stacks Up: The Indigo Girls have thirteen studio albums, but I only
have six of them. Of the six, “Shaming
of the Sun” is not my favourite. I’ll
put it 5th.
Rating: 3 stars
This album
is a reminder that long after an artist falls from the larger public
consciousness they can still keep making quality music. Of course the Indigo Girls were never really
in the larger public consciousness; another example of why being popular is
largely overrated.
“Shaming
of the Sun” is tastefully restrained at twelve tracks and only fifty minutes of
music. A lot of artists in recent years
have used the opportunity afforded by the larger storage available on CDs to
make bloated records.
“Shaming
of the Sun” is not bloated, but it is still uneven and not at the same level as
the Girls’ first four records. I found
some of the tracks dragged, and had me glancing at the MP3 player to see if it
was going to be over soon. “Caramia,” “Don’t Give That Girl a Gun” and “Everything In Its Own Time” all had this effect on me, and none of
them is a particularly long song. It is almost like in their experimenting to
find more unique melodies and production additions the album sometimes loses
sight of making sure the music is listenable.
However,
when you have the wherewithal to stick to twelve tracks, a few forgettable ones
are much easier to bear – see how that works?
It also helps that the album has a lot of very strong songs.
“Get Out the Map” and “It’s Alright” are bright spots, and both are Indigo Girls standards. These are songs that dole out lessons in
a lighthearted non-judgmental way even as they remind you that everything isn’t
going to be perfect in life. We’re all
going to lose friends, and we’re all going to encounter prejudice, or have it
hurt someone close to us. Just take a
deep breath, relax, and take it as it comes.
These are songs that are about attitude, and how that attitude can
sometimes give you all the direction you need.
As they sing in “Get Out the Map”:
“Get out the map, get out the map
and lay your finger anywhere down
We’ll leave the figuring to those
we pass on our way out of town.
Don’t drink the water, there
seems to be something ailing everyone
I’m gonna clear my head, I’m
gonna drink that sun
I’m gonna love you good and
strong while our love is good and young.”
Sounds
like a reasonable set of directions to me – and a helpful public service announcement about the water to boot! Fortunately, I’m a man who isn’t afraid to
ask for direction once in a while. We do
exist.
The
album also has some interesting musical experiments. “Shed
Your Skin” begins with a turntable scratch that had me thinking of Public
Enemy. It shouldn’t have worked, but
strangely it did.
The
album wraps up on a high note, with “Hey
Kind Friend,” a song about being physically separated from the people we
care about, but how they still positively influence us and give us comfort just
by memory. It features some gorgeous
guitar picking and a relaxed feel that at 5:46 in length, actually left me
wanting more, not less. Also, the song
features my home town of Victoria!
“Hey kind friend don’t know when
I’ll see you again
On a ferry boat bound for Victoria
laying down to hide from the wind.”
Welcome
to Victoria, Emily and Amy! Sorry to
hear you’re missing your friend, but our town is lovely and clean with lots to
do given our humble size. I recommend
you check out the Bug Zoo, but skip Miniature World – even I build better dioramas than
that.
Anyway,
this is a good but not great record. The
musicianship is strong, and the girls still sing beautifully. There are a number of good tracks and one or
two that make you self-examine in a healthy way. If they sound preachy in places or drone a
bit, it doesn’t happen too often.
Besides, after all the great music they’ve given me, I think they’ve
earned the right to try a few new musical tricks, and maybe even give me a
piece of their mind.
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