4.5 - Indigo Girls > Reviews > Don't waste your money!

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Lacking inspiration
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it rate alongside the competition	Unmemorable
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	Good random selection
Disadvantages:	all songs available on other, better albums

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

In a mad fit of determination to own every single Indigo Girls album without exception (there are 13) I bought 4.5. I wish I hadn't bothered. If you are new to the Girls they are Folk/Country/Rock duo Amy Ray and Emily Saliers from Georgia. They are lesbian feminist ecologist activists and many of their song lyrics reflect and celebrate this. Don't assume that because they are political they are necessarily lacking in actual musical talent....they have ability by the bucket load. They sing counter harmony and use acoustic and electric guitars and the occasional banjo, sometimes they get quite Rocky and tend to hang around in the major keys. They are huge in America (trust me) and REM's Michael Stipe has sung with them on at least one of their albums; you don't get a better recommendation that that! You might even have heard them singing on the "Philadelphia" and "Boys on the Side" soundtracks.

For those familiar with the Girls' music and wondering whether this is worth the money, it isn't. 4.5 was released in 1995 and seems to be a kind of "greatest hits" album without announcing itself as such. Here is the playlist and the album on which the songs first apeared:

Joking ( Rites of Passage)
Hammer and Nail ( Nomads, indians, Saints)
Kid Fears ( Indigo Girls)
Galileo ( Rites of Passage)
Tried to be True ( Indigo Girls)
Power of Two ( Swamp Ophelia)
Pushing the Needle Too Far ( Nomads, Indians Saints)
Reunion ( Swamp Ophelia)
Closer to Fine ( Indigo Girls)
Three Hits ( Rites of Passage)
Least Complicated ( Swamp Ophelia)
Touch me Fall ( Swamp Ophelia)
Love's Recovery ( Indigo Girls)
Land of Canaan ( Strange fire)
Ghost ( Rites of Passage)

It might seem that this is a good place to start for those unfamiliar withthe Indigo Girls since you get a goodly chunk from each of the first five albums. I am going to tell you otherwise. If you want to sample the Girls at their best, get "Retrospective", an official "Best of" and a far superior selection of songs to 4.5, you even get better sleeve notes and more information on each song.

For those of us who already have an Indigo collection 4.5 is a waste of money because it only gathers some of the songs from earlier albums and packages them cheaply and without the excellent sleeve notes and photos that are included with other albums. Shame really, I wish I had known before I forked out my twelve quid...Sniff...