Explain what you hate about Ani DiFranco.

-- Kenan Hebert (edito...), November 10th, 2003."

Oh, c'mon, I want to kick Darren Spooner down the stairs after her...

I am bothered by:
*her weird vocal affect
*her guitar tone (thuddy, jarring)
*her general aversion to melody

I am much more bothered by:
*listening to people trying to imitate her weird vocal affect at open-mic nights
*listening to sound engineers at my college tweak the EQ on any acoustic guitar to make any acoustic guitar to make it sound like hers
*her popularity among my ex-boyfriends

"Folky Drivel" would be a great name for a record label. Better than "Righteous Babe", at any rate.

Now where did I put that "A Mighty Wind" DVD?

Although maybe she's hot. Is she?

Incidentally, the irony of Sasha's complaint is that Ani's old (and not especially numerous) feminist rants were always funnier and more involving than the more generalised Mike Moore style anti-military/industrial complex stuff that she does now (though in her defence "Your Next Bold Move" - which I disliked initially for the aforementioned reasons - utilises its inter-connected metaphoric imagery superbly)

http://www.righteousbaberecords.com/images/m_chunkmagnets.jpg

Haha Revelling/Reckoning was my introduction to Ani! And it's ironic given what's generally considered to be her biggest flaw (self-editing) that her double album is the only consistently brilliant LP I've heard of hers. Dilate comes close, but nothing else.

Yeah what's also weird is that all the Ani fans seem to rate To The Teeth and Evolve - neither of which really struck a chord w/ me bar a few fantastic songs on the former - and dislike Revelling/Reckoning.

Here's what I wrote on R/R when I got into it.

"So What" might be one of my favourite Ani songs... lyrically amazing, and I love the distant jazz clarinet circling her.

"So What" *is* great - the 3 drinks/2 drinks bit in the chorus, or "but nothing comes at first/and little comes at all/and when inspiration finally hits you/it barely even breaks your fall". Likewise I love the line in "Rock Paper Scissors": "Desire drags me right out of myself/like a gas-soaked rope tied to a piece of coal/i'm getting pretty good at looking on the bright side/while the flames rip along the sand and swallow me whole." Or the extended riff in "Marrow" on "a taste of your own medicine". Great stuff! Some of my favourite lyrics ever.

The 3 beers/2 beers line - yes! Also, the munificence of metaphors on "School Night", and the "you were the make-me-mad guy... now I am the bad guy" couplet on "Sick Of Me". R/R is a perfect summer album, actually - the ballads are all languid and warm, and the more upbeat ones are totally sun-kissed. "OK" in particular needs some love!

now i have to find out what alex in nyc looks like.

*cough*FranklinBruno*cough*.

Disapointment awaits ye

Yeah the whole house burning down metaphor thing in "School Night" is amazing. It's almost as if she realised at some point that formulating extended metaphors was her special skill like a strong backhand or something and just spent months and months stretching it and stretching it. Love "OK" too!

Ani is attractive.

The extended metaphor thing also works really well on the more political songs on R/R too - Ani's so much better when she makes her point by twisting and bending language rather than sloganeering. It comes across in the performance too - the way she rhymes on "Tamburitza Lingua" is so offhand and natural, in stark contrast to something like "Serpentine" which is very forced.

I suspect the reason why the political songs on R/R work is that she sounds so tired of didacticism. In a funny way I suspect that September 11 "rejuvenated" a lot of occasionally political musicians like Ani in a manner that was ultimately negative - the perceived urgency of saying something once again took priority over the other two crucial issues: whether something can be said, and, if the answer to that is yes, how it should be said.

"i search your profile for a translation
i study the conversation like a map
'cause i know there is strength
in the differences between us
and i know there is comfort
where we overlap

come here
stand in front of the light
stand still
so i can see your silhouette
i hope
that you have got all night
cause i'm not done looking yet

each one of us
wants a piece of the action
you can hear it in what we say
you can see it in what we do
we negotiate with chaos
for some sense of satisfaction
if you won't give it to me
at least give me a better view

come here
stand in front of the light
stand still
so i can see your silhouette
i hope
that you have got all night
cause i'm not done looking yet

i build each one of my songs out of glass
so you could see me inside them i suppose
or you could just leave the image of me
in the background i guess
and watch your own reflection superimposed

i build each one of my days out of hope
and i give that hope your name
and i don't know you that well
but it don't take much to tell
either you don't have the balls
or you don't feel the same

come here
stand in front of the light
stand still
so i can see your silhouette
i hope
that you have got all night
cause i'm not done looking yet"

I love how each verse introduces a slightly stronger note of doubt and bitterness into what is, musically and in its chorus, a very sweet love song. And again the the use of extended metaphors: the notion of glass houses used to imply both transparency and reflectivness.

It all probably comes across as deeply unimpressive to the non-fan...

Similarly I love the first stanza of "This Bouquet":

"Got a garden of song where I grow all my thoughts
Wish I could harvest one or two for some small talk
Seems like I'm starving for words whenever you're around
Nothing on my tongue, so much in the ground..."