Become You

Indigo Girls

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 12, 2002)
• Original Release Date: March 12, 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00006310B
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,597 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Three years after the experimental and not-always-successful Come on Now Social, the Indigo Girls return to a more traditional framework with the acoustic-based Become You. A deft melding of folk, rock, and pop--and laced with Latin and soul around the edges--Become You gets to the heart of what Amy Ray (the rocking half) and Emily Saliers (the gentler half) do best: chronicle the complexities of love and socio-sexual politics from a feminist viewpoint. While the seductive and full-bodied melodies leave plenty of expanse for the duo's gauzy, hand-in-glove harmonies, the majority of the repertoire here carries an undercurrent of dissatisfaction and anxiety, whether about the outcome of a rocky love affair ("Moment of Forgiveness"), the still-extant racism in the South ("Become You"), or the ultimate fate of the Mexican women who fight for change with the Zapatistas ("Nuevas Senoritas"). Poignant, thought provoking, and beautifully crafted, with rapt attention to the interplay of instruments as well as voices, Become You finds Ray and Saliers back in top form and as relevant in 2002 as at the start of their 15-year career. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best effort yet!, March 30, 2002

By A Customer

I have been an Indigo Girls fan almost right from the start and have loved every minute of it. I have found, though, over the years, that it's always taken me a hearing or two to really get into the album. Not true with Become You. This is the first album that I've fallen in love with on the first hearing. It is simply amazing.

Emily has done it again, pouring her heart and soul into songs that are lyrically and melodically beautiful and, at times, mournful and politically charged. Amy delivers her heartfelt political statements in seamless songs that show her ever increasing musical maturity and deepening philosophy of life, while never letting you forget it's really her behind the mic.

If you're a Girls fan and haven't purchased this CD yet, RUN!, don't walk to your nearest available merchant and demand a copy. You won't be disappointed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amy makes the quantum leap, December 5, 2003

By	Paul O'Brian (Westminster, CO United States) - See all my reviews

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.

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Indigo Girls lose some of their edge and emotion, May 1, 2002

By	"nomadindiansaint" (ann arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

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.