Indigo Girls: Shaming Of The Sun

Rumors of an Indigo Girls breakup have circulated in recent months, due in large part to the several years it took for the duo to record a follow-up to the well-received Swamp Ophelia. (The release of a two-disc live album in 1995 didn't help; it smacked of contract fulfillment.) But Shaming Of The Sun is finally out, and it's as scattershot a recording as the band has ever made: There's a crowd-pleasing surefire hit ("Get Out The Map"), a song that actually employs programmed beats and samples ("Shed Your Skin"), and tracks that address everything from immigrant-bashing ("Shame On You") to church-burning ("Leeds") to colonialism ("Scooter Boys"). There's even "It's Alright," a "yep, we're gay" song for those who hadn't figured it out already. Shaming Of The Sun gets increasingly aimless and heavy-handed as it progresses: By the time you get to musically cluttered material like "Cut It Out" and "Burn All The Letters," you'll long for the days when Indigo Girls just made simple, emotionally resonant records that didn't collapse under the weight of their ambitions.