Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have come so far out of their closet, they've gone out the front door, clear across the street, and they're probably somewhere on Ellen's front lawn. Wearing their sexual politics on their musical sleeve, has made them heroes in the gay community--and there's nothing wrong with that--but I think it's also been something of a detriment to their music. It's almost as if they never really capitalized on a type of music that they helped to pioneer.

On Come On Now Social, only three of the songs deal with homosexual issues in an overt way--and I'd have to say this a pretty nice piece of work. It's starts off on a strange note, with a Ray song that sounds almost exactly like Neil Finn of Crowded House. Once you get used to it, it's actually a pretty good song, but it gets the record off to an odd start. The rest of the album stays within the folk pop framework The Indy Girls are known for--including a couple of particularly lovely ballads--my favorite being a track entitled "Andy." They also get Social with the help of guest performances by Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne and Rick Danko and Garth Hudson formerly of The Band. I think it's their most even work to date. Two thumbs up.