Bruce Hornsby – ‘Indigo Park’ album review: a uniquely self-aware “old man” album
When songwriters turn 70 and start flipping through their photo albums with a pen and a notepad at their side, the results can routinely turn saccharine and cringe-inducing, as weeping pedal steel guitars, plodding piano, and drum brushes add imaginary depth to paint-by-numbers recountings of one’s glory days.
The Skinny: This is, I must admit, essentially what I expected from Bruce Hornsby’s version of the “I’m 70” record, but as a nice surprise, Indigo Park, while certainly covering the motifs of the weepy genre, consistently subverts them, as well, often letting the obligatory photo album speak for itself in creative, effective, and sometimes genuinely moving ways.
Back in 1985, when Bruce Hornsby and The Range emerged from out of nowhere with the triple-platinum debut album The Way It Is, many people assumed the band’s name was chosen to evoke a sort of idealistic vision of Americana; the same square-jawed cowboys and snow-capped mountains that populated Busch beer commercials. It wasn’t entirely off base, as the Virginia-born Hornsby did have a love for a certain type of American folk storytelling, but what “The Range” really referred to was the artist’s unique versatility as a musician.
Hornsby realised very early in his career that he would either fall between the cracks of pop, country, blues, and jazz, or succeed by tying those genres all together. Right out of the gate, the number one single ‘The Way It Is’ proved that he could do the latter, becoming one of the great socially conscious anthems of the decade, and later inspiring dozens of hip hop samples, including prominent usage in 2Pac’s ‘Changes’.
While Hornsby found continued chart success in collaborations with Don Henley and Bonnie Raitt in the ‘90s, as well as surprising gigs playing with the Grateful Dead and scoring films for Spike Lee, he gradually drifted outside of household name status with most Millennials; a disconnect he began to address with three very interesting albums between 2019 and 2022, which found him working alongside young indie rock notables like Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), Bon Iver, James Mercer (The Shins), Blake Mills, and Danielle Haim.
This journey away from “light rock” into more challenging territory continues on Indigo Park, as the relatively slick production doesn’t take away from the admirably unexpected swings Hornsby takes on tracks like the second single ‘Ecstatic’, a subtly hip-hoppy reunion with Bonnie Raitt, and yes, you heard that right. Here, Hornsby does his best impression of a high school cheerleader’s chant he used to hear at his son’s basketball games, delivering it in a way that teeters on “embarrassing dad” energy and instead comes out on higher ground, giving the words a heavier meaning: “You fouled, you did it, raise your hand, admit it.”
Hornsby is reunited with Koenig, as well, on the bouncy ‘Memory Palace’, a song that feels like it’s going to be a generic “those were the days” bit of ham-fistery, but actually finds the singer more worried than wistful, actively trying to armour up his brain against the very real fear of memory loss. The title track, similarly, deals with memory not in a purely nostalgic way, but through a contextual and analytical lens, as Hornsby recounts the time he tried to impress a crowd at the local swimming pool when he was a teenager by driving right up to the poolside in a borrowed 1941 Chevy, thinking everyone would be impressed. They weren’t.
“It’s sort of a philosophical thing,” Hornsby said in a social media post, explaining the inspiration for the song ‘Indigo Park’. “As you get older, you think back on these memories and realise, you shouldn’t beat yourself up for that. You’re just some young idiot, and things like this happen.” I suppose he stopped himself just short of saying, “That’s just the way it is.”
Memories are all over this record, but they’re often handled best without any particular framing or analysis at all. A standout track is the sparse ‘Silhouette Shadows’, in which Hornsby plays an unorthodox, skittering piano line while describing specific childhood memories in a vivid, almost free-association style. Some moments are random, others are historic, including hearing about the assassination of John F Kennedy while he was at school in 1963, and recalling how some kids celebrated and hoped Richard Nixon could take over. “I was really alarmed and confused,” Hornsby talk-sings in a vulnerable, right-next-to-you voice, “watching children parroting parents’ views.”
Standout Track: ‘Silhouette Shadows’
The Verdict: If you haven’t listened to Hornsby since the days of The Range, or if you just think of him as the kind of artist who you would hear while shopping at the British retail store The Range, this is a good opportunity to reconnect with one of America’s most versatile musicians, still covering a ton of ground and refusing to rest on his laurels, even when he’s mostly looking backward.
Release Date: April 3rd, 2026 | Producers: Tony Berg, Will Maclellan, Bruce Hornsby | Label: Zappo Productions / Thirty Tigers
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