It's nigh on 20 years now since we first got an earful of the Indigo Girls brand of southern folk, their passionate harmonies, and hard wrought takes on love and relationships. True there's been a few footfalls along the way, mostly those that have found the duo trying to keep step with the varying musical flavors of the month - Shaming of the Sun being the most glaring example. But over the course of their last 3 records the musical climate has allowed them to find their way back to where they began. They're older, they're wiser and their roots are showing.

Long before Melissa Ethridge came flying her colors proudly, Amy and Emily had blown the door off of their respective closets and they continue to bang the drum for many a liberal cause. Their candor and passion for their loves and lifestyle has always been part and parcel with their art, and on All That We Let In, they show no indication of backing down. And regardless of the specifics their songs speak to the universal matters of the heart, and the tumultuous nature of life both internal and political.

On "Tether," one of the album's more raucous and raw rockers, they seem to take on both of these battle fronts at the same time. Joan Osbourne takes the lead vocal on this one and to the backdrop of distortion-heavy guitar squalls (ala Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse) she cries "Do we tether the hawk, do we tether the dove?" In vintage Indigo fashion Emily trades on her ability to evoke emotion and melodic melancholia with a song about a bittersweet reunion with an old friend "Something Real." And Amy takes her trademark activism out for another stroll through the darkness of regret and recrimination in "Cordova." These are inspired tunes that reminds one of why we've been fans of these two as the decades go by.

Happily the album isn't all about dwelling on life's harder lessons, in fact there's a good bit of fun to be had on the second track "Heartache for Everyone." This one is a light bit of raggae-tweaked, ska-chon-the-rocks good times, a happy hour sort of "comrades in commiseration" anthem. And the album's first single "Perfect World" is a well-crafted up-lifting song that delivers that amazing intertwined torch of an instrument that Amy and Emily create with their vocal harmony. Here's to one more decade!