Indigo Girls: Become You : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

For Become You, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray did away with the guest stars and studio-hopping of 1999's Come On Now Social, and returned home to Atlanta to make a "back to basics" record. More acoustic guitar, less Joan Osborne cameos. Unfortunately, Become You lacks both the strummy, folk bombast of vintage Indigo Girls (1987's Strange Fire) and the engaging musicality that has made their last few albums worth spinning. The usual topics appear (racism, social injustice, the romantic pitfalls of being nice), and the harmonies are still top-notch and sparkling. Yet too often they're marred by a lack of hummable tunes and the occasional awkward love lyric ("I was born with a hole in my heart the size of my landlocked travels" on "She's Saving Me"). The spunky "Yield," propelled by a driving beat and some frantic mandolins, shows that there's still some spark left. But more compelling material would bring them "closer to fine."

EVAM SCHLANSKY
(March 11, 2002)