Explain what you hate about Ani DiFranco.

this is the pinnacle of eloquence and you hit every annoying notion that represents "Ani-dom" to me!!!
WELL DONE!!!!
and let's face it, it's ALL about the fans near fanatical defense of everything she's ever done that put most people off...as is the case w/ most band, innit?

and hey, i'd know - my ani obsessive phase began my freshman year of high school and ended my freshman year of college, when i replaced her with sleater-kinney and le tigre and the slits and bratmobile for my feminist girlpunk jollies.

but her good stuff (imperfectly, out of range, dilate, to the teeth, parts of little plastic castle) is some of the best, most tough and smart and sensitive songwriting i've ever heard. i've finally come round to liking her again, and i must say, dilate still remains one of the most heartbreaking relationship albums, right up there with "blood on the tracks" and "the meadowlands". i really don't like her warbly ness and weird vocal tics, but when she's just singing - angry or sad - it's very powerful stuff.

and she is an absolutely brilliant guitar player. her fingers must be made of some space age material that never scuffs or anything. seriously.

like someone said in a previous post - she just needs an editor, or at least shouldn't record and release what seems like every single song she ever writes. her last few albums have been depressingly mediocre.

She uses some kind of false press-on fingernails (reinforced w/ glue and/or tape) for picking IIRC.

ended my freshman year of college, when i replaced her with sleater-kinney and le tigre and the slits and bratmobile for my feminist girlpunk jollies.

Also, she seems to be a gateway artist: a bit eccentric while still accessible, but mostly a bag of stems and seeds, hooking nascent music nerds and guiding them towards the uncut stuff. Like Jane's Addiction. Is there a thread on bands like that?

i used to admire the way she approached her career (diy, yadda yadda yadda) until i found out that her parents hired a harvard mba (at a cost of $30k/year) to manage her career when she was starting out.

Not as indestructible as you might think - she had to cancel a tour recently to recover from some nerve damage issues with her hands. One of those "take a break or you'll never play again" things...

I've barely heard her music, aside from like one or two songs someone brought into an undergrad Music & Gender course I took. If it garners comparisons to Rush and Ali Farka Toure it's probably worth hearing though.

i used to admire the way she approached her career (diy, yadda yadda yadda) until i found out that her parents hired a harvard mba (at a cost of $30k/year) to manage her career when she was starting out.

a) Rush is not lifeless. at all.
b) Difranco's pre-fame records, of which there are many, are basically home recordings -- vocals and guitar -- and are the polar opposite of "slick"
c) the harvard mba thing sounds spurious, at best

What irks me is the seemingly endless parade of Ani wannabes, and lest you think I'm dealing in strawmen here, I sat through more than my fair share of them during my open mic-attending college days. All of the fire, twice the passion, but not a single coherent statement, engaging lyric, or memorable melody in the bunch.

I also have a funny story involving her ex-drummer, but that's another rant for another time.

This is the red light.

And while it's unfair to blame a musician for their imitators, gawd she has the worst.

I haven't listened to ani in literally years but for some reason I've had a couple of her songs running through my head the last couple days. I spent a while being really into the stuff she realeased in the late 90s and as annoying as I eventually grew to find her whole shtick, she's a talented woman. Also, seeing her play this in NM in 1998 was one of the two times I've cried at concerts. It was incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwEI6UNMkag&feature=related

so cleaning out my section of the office I found an unopened promo copy of Evolve beneath a pile of folders.

Tim says it's bleh. Should I try it?

Ask John maybe, I got rid of that one years ago.

Knuckle Down from a few years afterwards was great though.

boy Jon Hassell sounds great on "Pulse."

It seems like she was popular because she presented a confident image and said what a lot of young women needed/wanted to hear. As a songwriter and performer I find her abysmal -- obvious, didactic lyrics with awkward phrasing, worst guitar tone I can imagine, not catchy

good to know dude

Explain what you hate about Ani DiFranco.

Casual fan here, albeit one who hasn't heard anything she's put out since around the turn of the millennium, but there there is a certain type of gay guy who is obsessed with her that was a bit annoyingly overrepresented in my social circle for a while.

Ani's in that select group of people I hate but have no desire to slag in public

(i do not consider hurting's post a slag btw)

the new album is great

The first half sounds like she has been listening to D'Angelo.

Agree this is great, trying to decide whether it's her best since Knuckle Down or Red Letter Year or Allergic to Water (though really the albums after Knuckle Down tend to blur together for me).

Am I inventing this memory or did she complain that Eno “stole” her observation that the Eventide H3000 Ultra Harmonizer sounds great when you overdrive it?

I can’t find it anywhere on the internet right now. And yeah, dudes take credit for women’s ideas all the time. But even still, this is some weak sauce.

"shrinking violet" is achingly perfect. it's like "if i believe you" (the 1975) mixed with "tolerate it" (taylor swift)

There's nothing I can say
Beyond this whispered wish
Your anger has a hunger, mister
And I'm its favourite dish
There's nothing I can say
So I don't make a sound
I just wipe the counter and I
I keep my head down

The last Secondary English Curriculum I used incorporated the lyrics of her song “Amendment” and asked students to analyze the language she employed. I got more out of it than the kids, but they’re apathetic to everything

Gotta say I did not expect to see much Ani love on ilm, but heartened nonetheless. I listened to her a ton in college, then fell away for a bit but have been paying more attention to her recent stuff. Hoping to get my copy this weekend.

"shrinking violet" is achingly perfect. it's like "if i believe you" (the 1975) mixed with "tolerate it" (taylor swift)

OTM but also lol at this Beatlejuice-like attempt to manifest Brad in this thread.

I realized that I hated my roommate 26 years ago when he asked me if I liked Annie. Me thinking Annie Lennox replied, “Oh my God I totally love her!” and then he started playing Ani Difranco… 🤢

Ani Difranco has no redeeming qualities to my ears. Sorry to those who like her but fingers on a chalkboard are more appealing than her incessant whining and dreadful stream of consciousness word vomit.