Wednesday, April 29, 2020

The Album Thing: Indigo Girls, Rites of Passage

The album thing again! It’s a Facebook fad that’s going around. You’re supposed to post a picture of albums you especially love. Since I’m going to the trouble to share it on social media, I might as well share it here, too.

Don’t worry, eventually we’ll get to the instrumental selections, and you may find some musicians you’ve never heard of. If this is annoying, then blame Facebook. But here's today's selection.

There are so many good songs on this album. The album helped me pivot from depression into hopefulness. “Love Will Come to You,” in particular helped me learn how to talk hopefully to myself—something that had been difficult-to-impossible when I’m in the midst of depression. But this song helped me to make that pivot.

Having hopefulness is a helpful illusion, I think. Sometimes in the deeper parts of depression, hopefulness feels like the cruelest hoax. At such times I have hunted for songs that offer the kind of bittersweet hope that only a fellow sufferer can convey. “Joy” isn’t the word for it, but it opens the door to the party at least.

Music has sometimes functioned like a drug for me, and often not in a good way. I don’t listen to the Indigo Girls much anymore. Most of what I listen to is instrumental. The vocal music I listen to tends to be classical or jazz, where the artistry and styling accentuates the theatrical aspect of the lyrics, which helps me remember that the singing is a performance, a role, a mask, and not necessarily a personal truth.

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