"Prom" by Amy Ray

Ok, I have to admit, I am a bit obsessed with Amy Ray's new cd Prom. Though I only got it yesterday, I have been listening to it incessantly, and if her first solo album Stag was any indication, Prom will be in heavy rotation for months to come.

Just for those who are unaware, Amy Ray is one half of the Indigo Girls. Having been an Indigo Girls fan for a number of years, I have appreciated the underlying creative tension that has inflected their work -- that tenuous dance between straight-out rock and folk. I would sometimes sit and listen and wonder when Amy was going to launch into blistering guitar solo. Stag had a friend wondering if the Indigo Girls were parting ways, as it was preceded by a Indigo Girls retrospective album. As time has told us, Stag was just Ray's letting her rock freak flag fly proudly.

Prom begins with a riff that easily recalls "Lucy Stoners" from her first disc before launching into lyrics that those of us who grew up queer in the South, or any red state, knows is true. Ray is more comfortable here with a full-on rock back-drop. "Give In" will have you bouncing, while "Covered for You" will have you reaching for a tissue with its gut wrenching tenderness, and "Blender" will have you wanting to put a fist in the air as it channels the pop-punk of the Ramones (sorry Green Day). Like Stag, Prom is full of gems; for me, my favorites are the above mentioned, plus "Rural Faggot" and "Let it Ring."

Prom is what one might expect from the Indigo Girls' rocker if left to her own devices, and like Stag does not disappoint. Besides, the photos of Amy Ray in various high school archetypes is worth the price of the disc itself.