Indigo Girls - All That We Let In with Bonus Video 320vo (Big Papi)

Four stars is not accurate. I would give it 4.5 stars, but that is not an option with Amazon.
Let me say off the bat that I have had this CD for a few months (promo copy). At first listen, I wanted to throw it out of my car window and scream. The over-production and the arrangements drove me crazy. I had heard every song except for "Rise Up" live numerous times on tour over the past year. In fact, I have heard most of the songs from their earliest rawest forms before the album was even recorded. I felt that a lot of what Amy and Emily were trying to say got lost in Peter Collins' arrangements.

After listening to it obsessivly for a month, it started growing on me. Sure, what happened to "Heartache for Everyone" is a shame. And I miss Amy, her mandolin, and nothing else on both "Cordova" and "Dairy Queen," but they are still great songs.

The lyrics are there -- they are classic Indigo. "Perfect World" and "Tether" (the best track on the album, in my opinion) are some of Amy's strongest songs, lyrically, ever. I would have had Michelle Malone do the backing vocals for "Tether" instead of Joan Osburn (Malone did backup vocals on the November 2003 tour) And "Come on Home," an unusually dark song for Emily, is classic Emily in that it will move you to tears. The finale, "Rise Up," leaves you feeling upbeat, more classic Emily.

All That We Let In is still Indigo despite the accordians, wurlitzers, pianos, organs, etc.