Ani DiFranco
 

The first song I heard by Ani was "Grey", and oddly enough my girlfriend was the one who introduced it to me. She knew I could always appreciate new music (especially when I'm getting it from someone who discovered it before me), so she pulled this song out from a dance competition she did a few years ago and played it for me - and I loved it. The song is slow, droning, depressing, emotional, melodic, and most of all, Ani has character; her voice is genuine and clear. Being the music addict that I am, I went home and downloaded Not a Pretty Girl and was equally blown away. The music is incredible. Who else digs this chick?

Well, she plays guitar like a mad woman. That bit's great!

I just have a hard time with the constant political talk/singing.
My girlfriend loves her, She saw Ani the night I saw Bowie, now she's kickin herself... Ani will come back!

LOVE Ani Difranco<3

I like her a lot. Coast to Coast is a wonderful album.

My boyfriend loves it. I never got to listening to it.

Ani DiFranco
 

hello. havent made a thread in quite a while, or post anything for that matter.

i quite like ani. i bought her album 'evolve' the other day, and its very very good. the title track is probably my favourite. i posted this thread in general because i didnt really know where to put her, since shes kinda jazzy and folky. i'd get more albums but theyre at a ridiculous $30 australian. so **** that im not gonna pay that, evolve was $17, pushing it a bit, but much better than $30. DISCUSS.

YouTube - Untouchable Face = her best song. I only have Dilate though.

very good song, i can relate to it. the whole **** you thing, it really puts a great spin on a otherwise verbally clean love song.

yea and try to download ''oh my my'' or the song ''evolve''. very crazy song that one. i think you'll like it a lot.

I like Ani. I only have Dilate, but its really good

I picked up Evolve, Knuckle Down, and Educated Guess all for $3 each this past weekend.

I have never really listened to her music before I purchased these albums, but I heard she was great... And what I heard was true. I love all three albums Knuckle Down being my favorite out of the three I bought. Hopefully I can get a few more of her albums.

Not a Pretty Girl and Dilate are quite good, but I stopped following her after the truly awful Up Up Up Up Up. Great guitarist... People who like Dilate will probably like Living in Clip as well.

same here,...up was truely a disappointment,.....
however 'pretty girl' is still my angry anthem music

Too stunning for words really.

Ani is...Amazing.
She actually has a message to her songs, and isn't superficial like so many other artists these days.

Ani is such a dynamic singer, and I love Evolve, its really a strong album compared to her earlier releases. Pretty progressive of her too, especially on Promised Land.

Probably my favorite song she's ever done. In her old age, she's become more a musician, but her early lyrics had a way of just capturing the ****tiness of relationships that I don't think anyone has.

I randomly thought "I wonder what she's up to today." Turns out she released an album this year, and I'm too lazy to do a full album review. So anyway, here's goes:

Revolutionary Love, by Ani DiFranco. Clocking in at 56:33 on (what else) Righteous Babe Records. By my count, this is DiFranco's 30th release since the 1990s Ani DiFranco, and as one might expect her sound has changed substantially over those 30 records and 3 decades. And Revolutionary Love bears little resemblance to those early, sparse albums of 6 strings and her vocal chords.

Revolutionary Love is a solid album, showing an artist at the top of her game, writing songs and composing arrangements that deomstrate a lifetime of experience, and that isn't afraid to use the hard-earned wisdom DiFranco has picked up over the years. The title track is a 7 minute soul-infused jam that let's go of much of her early poetics and focuses on the groove. The lyrics could come off as uninspired at first, but DiFranco has the confidence of a writer that knows she can outwrite most of her contemporaries and chooses instead to focus on the groove and let it do the talking.

Throughout the album, songs will borrow from soul, jazz, and (at times) bossa nova in a way that doesn't feel forced, and isn't overly worried about how pure or not that sound works. As an example, the amount of flute on the album, and when it comes in and goes out, sounds like early Van Morrison and Curtis Mayfield.

The album isn't all without politics. Tracks like Do or Die make no bones about her worldview and stance clear.

Do you wake up in a cold sweat?
Well, that's sane
Least you got a little brain left
You've got a little brain
'Cause there's foxes in the hen house
And bad news every day
And right there on Pennsylvania Avenue
The sheetless KKK
And there's models wielding microphones
Chasing maniacs around
And everything's on fire
And there's twisters touching down

A lot of this album could be considered adult contemporary. It's got the smoothness that comes with the aging process of many artists - a good thing; the 40-somethings attempting to capture their youthful rage is never a winning formula - but DiFranco's compositions feel less like a fading star and sound more like a woman that's become comfortable both in her skin, and with the ways of the world.

While the mid-2000s saw experimentation that felt like a new direction for the sake of it, Revolutionary Love feels like the album you put together when your principles and your curiosity comes together, and this is absolutely one to check out. Though 30 years on, it might be what you put on in the background of a dinner party, rather than your art project.