Death in Vegas: The Contino Sessions : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

By now you've probably made up your mind about Indigo Girls' folky harmonies, ambitious lyrics and underachiever arrangements. Time to reconsider. For years, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have been making incremental improvements on a timid recorded sound that has rarely captured their onstage charisma. Their seventh studio album hits a career peak by simplifying the purple poetry into far more effective emotional reds and blues while bolstering the duo's acoustic strum. Using an English backing ensemble, Sinéad O'Connor collaborator John Reynolds as co-producer and guest stars ranging from the Band's Rick Danko and Garth Hudson to Me'Shell Ndegeocello and wailer Natacha Atlas, the Girls rock out without abandoning their spiritual roots. The grinding guitars of "Go" and "Compromise" suggest the Breeders, while "Peace Tonight" brings the perfect pop tune that has eluded the Indigo Girls for a decade. This is the culmination of everything warm and mighty about the Lilith Fair aesthetic - without the sunburn. (RS 822)

BARRY WALTERS