Why is Indigo Girls on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Folk rock that bridges the gap from the 1960s for the Lilith Fair generation.
Some stats & info about Indigo Girls
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Folk Rock, Alternative Folk, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Rock, Rock Music, Athens Georgia Bands, Singer Songwriter
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Indigo Girls released? 1989
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #911 out of 1,000\
Indigo Girls on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Indigo Girls mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
As you’ll read a little bit more about below, while this album was released in 1989, I associate Indigo Girls strongly with early college days in the early 1990s in Binghamton, New York, and particularly my freshman year. So there’s a strange wave of nostalgia that washes over me when I revisit Indigo Girls.
“Closer to Fine” is simply a gorgeous folk rock song that bridges the gap from hippie and folk rock acts of the 1960s with an updated sound for the Lilith Fair generation. The strumming guitar is perfect and the vocals are perfectly early ‘90s with fantastic harmonies. This is curl up with tea or coffee and hang out at a coffee shop with your scruffy alternative friends stuff.
“Secure Yourself” is more of the same, with the tempo toned down a bit and a little bit more of a country rock feel.
“Kid Fears” features support from a little band from fellow Athens, Georgia outfit, R.E.M.
Here’s a great live version, featuring Michael Stipe on stage with the band.
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Indigo Girls
When I was in college in the early 1990s, I had a little joke – a little chiste as I like to say these days – that was not particularly funny, but it was kind of the cliché of what you would find in every girl’s freshman dorm room. One thing was those rocks that are split open and you can see crystals (or something?) inside. That was a big one. And then there would always be some combination of posters involving the Indigo Girls and/or Sarah McLachlan.
If you’re wondering, there was a hint of sneering in my observation about college dorm life which I’m not particularly proud of. Part of it was that I probably presented a veneer of Indigo Girls and Sarah McLachlan on the basis of pure attitude and style, even though I liked (and like) both quite a lot, even then.
Beck weirdly sums up and kind of amplifies this attitude into something kind of mean and, I’ll admit, kind of funny on “Nightmare Hippie Girl,” off Mellow Gold.