Elevate Difference

Poseidon and the Bitter Bug

For more than twenty years, the Indigo Girls have been known for their gorgeous, close harmonies and riveting, emotional lyrics. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are both exquisite singers and talented guitarists. Poseidon and the Bitter Bug is sure to delight fans with ten tracks of mostly-folk songs with pop, rock, and soul influences. The songwriting is top-notch and the award-winning duo has never sounded better. 

The album starts strong with “Digging For Your Dream,” a heartbreaking, determined ballad with a chorus you’ll find yourself chanting along: "Every day that you get up and force your cards/ You’re playing your story in fits and starts/ You take your prospects and your pick axe and you trudge down to the stream/ And you bloody your hands digging for your dream."

“Driver Education” opens with the line, “I fell for guys who tried to commit suicide” and takes the listener for a compelling and quick-witted ride through high school nostalgia, crooning, “Where were you back when I had something to prove?” The naked self-criticism of “I’ll Change” makes it one of the album’s most stirring tracks. The singer compares herself to a snake that “bites the hand that feeds it,” and claims, “I’ve been running long before I learned to crawl.” 

The most political track is probably “Sugar Tongue,” a hectic indictment of colonialism sung in vulnerable tones. Poseidon is not an overtly political album, even though the Indigo Girls are well known for their political activism on behalf of gay rights organizations and the environment, the rights of Native Americans, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

A second disc is included which features acoustic versions of all the songs, plus a bonus track, “Salty South.” The band versions and acoustic versions aren’t radically different, but especially hardcore fans will enjoy comparing them, anyway. Every song on Poseidon is beautiful and you’ll want to listen to them again and again. 

Written by: Kellie Powell, April 24th 2009

I love the Indigo Girls and had no idea they had a new album out! Thanks for this review, I'm definitely going to pick it up.