Ani Difranco

Ani DiFranco
$9.98
(Actually **1/2 but Amazon doesn't allow half stars.)

This is a promising debut that includes the beautiful "Work Your Way Out," a song that makes me wonder wistfully why Ani doesn't spend more songs singing over a low rumbling piano. If you like Ani, I think the album is worth tracking down for that song alone because the version on Like I Said is done with a guitar and loses something thereby. But this here self-titled debut also has several songs on it that are just downright bad, which is a bit unusual for Ani DiFranco but hey, it's her first record ever. On "Talk to Me Now," Ani sings one of the clumsiest and most amateurish lines I've heard from her: "In this cii-ii-ty, self-preservation is a full-time occupation." Gods that annoys me. "The Story" is one of those light-on-melody, should-be-an-essay Ani songs where I think well, I agree with that, but I don't think I'll ever want to listen to it again, and I'm not entirely sure I'd even classify it as a song. But on the bright side this is the one that has "Fire Door" and "Out of Habit" on it, which are both excellent indications of just how talented Ani DiFranco would turn out to be. Plus there's the original recording of "Both Hands." That solo acoustic original now stands with head humbly bowed in the long, long shadow of the lush, lovely orchestral version on Living in Clip, but if you're curious about how Ani started then it's worth a listen nonetheless. Actually come to think of it that's not a bad metaphor for how this whole debut album stands in relation to the rest of her catalog.

Song by song:

1 Both Hands ***
2 Talk to Me Now *
3 The Slant **
4 Work Your Way Out ****
5 Dog Coffee ***
6 Lost Woman Song ***
7 Pale Purple *
8 Rush Hour ***
9 Fire Door ***
10 The Story *
11 Every Angle ***
12 Out of Habit ***

Red Letter Year
$16.98
Ani has become the Lindsey Buckingham of her generation. Once an amazing guitarist and lyricist with wicked hooks and brilliant metaphors and use of symbolic visuals, she is now one step away from puting out an over-produced album of her banging on pots and pans with her "band-mates" howling in the background and playing xylophones. Everything since Evolve has been complete trash. And don't think she doesn't know it. How many more live albums does she have to put out to cover the wasted effort of all her new stuff. I have seen Ani in concert over 20 time over the past 15 years but after seeing her last year I cant take it anymore- It's like going to the funeral of someone you once admired and loved. Please Ani, pick up a guitar again and take another creative writing class at the New School or NYU, or maybe just walk down a ghetto street- please do something to get it back, cause baby, you have lost it- take that metaphorically if you like...

Emancipated Minor
$0.00
A smashing rocker that seems to get better as it goes. Best zero cents I ever spent!!

Dilate
$16.98
I played the cd and one track skipped a lot, but I cleaned the cd and it plays great now!