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| Track list: 1. Fire Door 2. God's Country 3. You Had Time 4. Buildings And Bridges 5. Coming Up 6. Cradle & All 7. Shy 8. 32 Flavors 9. Dilate 10. Distracted 11. Gravel 12. Untouchable Face 13. Joyful Girl 14. Little Plastic Castle 15. Fuel 16. As Is 17. Napoleon 18. Shameless Running time: 72 minutes Released: 2007 |
At University I had a friend who liked Ani DiFranco a lot, or at least that is my recollection. I saw eye-to-eye with him on a few other artists, but never explored this particular suggestion. I can't remember what made me take a punt on this two-disc collection of DiFranco's work. I can't really remember a strong opinion either way on any of the tracks, but it's fair to say I never developed a love of her work from it.
Breathy, minimalist. That is how we begin. I can barely make out much of what she is singing, whilst the staccato pluckings that form the only accompaniment are devoid of any real tune to provide a thread running through the song. I find myself doing two listens in a day - two long ones at that - out of frustration, listlessness and boredom. I had a break to eat, do a bit of gardening and some noodling around watching YouTube vids but I am frustrated. I am trying to rest my left arm... wrist and elbow have been giving me a bit of pain recently; I suspect some sort of RSI-type thing so I am avoiding what would be my normal fallback time killers.
DiFranco has an interesting vocal approach, I will certainly grant her that. The hushed and whispered, yet urgent delivery is a real feature. She does not seem to be a great singer in the sense of carrying a tune, so it feels like an adaptation to still be effective in that role. I suspect that her primary strengths are more in writing than delivering from the early exchanges - though when that delivery makes it hard to pick out the lyrics (quite apart from the problems of doing that whilst typing this) it could be a bit self defeating, at least for me. Where the first two tunes were urgent little songs, You Had Time is a piano tune, wandering hands over keys, nothing else until quite some way in where the melody appears to transition to guitar and the vocal starts. I'm not sure that both parts of the song work together, but each part is a step up from the previous tracks. The vocal is clearer, the tune more... tuneful. Its a more gentle experience, more room to breathe. When the piano and guitar are in sync as it comes to a close you begin to get a sense of the significance of the opening wandering hands. I like something here well enough.
Maybe Ani DiFranco is an acquired taste? I thought I was starting to like even the slightly scatty guitar licks a bit more as track 4 started, but then the song devolved in chorus to random noises rather than words and I am not so sure. I prefer the tune in Buildings and Bridges, and the verses are decent, but that chorus is painful. It's good that we get a sense of percussion here that has been lacking elsewhere. Its a shame that the song has a dichotomy; like/dislike. I can definitely say I don't like Coming Up though; ugh. The arrangement is just a load of sounds chucked in a blender hoping for the best, and I think in my old age my ear is definitely prone to preferring tunes over songs. At the very least I require the former to latch onto if it isn't something I already know. We get a step up after that though... still breathy and urgent, still a seemingly flighty picking at the guitar strings, but a little more structure and purpose. Perhaps having a bit of a longer run helps. Many of the tunes to this point have been sub 3 minute affairs, though I suspect this is coincidence not causation.
I have issues; plaster coming off the wall through damp. Waiting on the plumbers' report to go make my case to next door that a leak on their side is causing me damage. It's a buy to let; I need to get hold of the landlord. I have to go to the US in a couple of week's time for a week or work, and need to shortchange my niece's birthday and miss a mate's stag do to do so. I curse my isolation, but covet it at the same time. I need to get into my front garden desperately but rain and the fact it is on a main road stay my hand. I feel blocked; frustrated, mostly at myself. This feeling means I feel I relate to the thrust of Shy which, musically at least, carries a sense of exasperation with it.
DiFranco seems to have a knack for catchy little hooks. Fundamentally, though, I feel that you need a little more than that and a sharp wit to make a good song. Many of these are a little light on the extra bits, and I don't find her hooks substantive enough to support tunes on their own. This is why the first two tracks fell down hardest for me. Since then there has been more sense of structure, provided by first the piano in You Had Time and since then through more audible percussion. 32 Flavours takes the latter far too far though, with a long percussion solo that outstays its welcome long before the track ends without returning to the song. What we get next is... yeah. To begin with Dilate is barely a song - more like words spoken (emotionally, but more spoken than sung) by someone who happens to be holding and fiddling with a guitar. Then we get a big dramatic moment which feels out of context with what went before. Afterwards the song feels more song-like but my interest in it was sunk beforehand and even more following the blow up.
Oh, Distracted is a live recording. DiFranco's intro for the song does not endear me to her - less so for the message but for the way it is imparted. The overly sharp lift off from the guitar picks is a bit too distracting. I dunno what to make of this. Perhaps its just my Britishness, or just that I was familiar with her first, but I prefer the slightly more understated angst of early Thea Gilmore over this. Gilmore's hooks are less catchy but the tunes more rounded; her lyrics are less bite-y but every bit as thoroughly considered and politic. Oh! Hah. Distracted was an interlude; the song I was reacting to was Gravel. I see, well the point and comparison still stands. We all have favourites; different strokes for different folks and all that. And so much the better for that - it'd all be dull otherwise.
Well, I don't think I've heard someone say (or sing) "f*** you" so softly before.
There are still another six tracks to go and another disc after that. I have about had my fill of her style for one sitting by this point, but I need to soldier on for another 25 minutes or so. Why? Well it is a little samey. Sure, the individual songs are all different hooks but hook and wit only goes so far, and the wit does not quite gel for me as much as it might. On reflection, I think DiFranco's style might work better in person, and her songs would certainly give you something to talk about. For home listening on a lazy weekend in mid-life with no immediate connection to her issues it all falls a little flat.
The songs have gone very low key and quiet... hah! Just as I type that Little Plastic Castle gets clown shoes - aka an arrangement more elaborate than anything that has gone before. Horns, distant but there nonetheless. I rather like the surprise, and whilst it was unexpected and comical in the vein suggested, it makes the tune work. I was about to add "and dull" and the interjection stays that boredom. Fuel is conversational in tone. It's really laid back and interesting for that as this choice lets the lyrics shine in a way that all those hooks did not quite achieve. So... had my fill? Maybe not; just heard the wrong bits. Sure, it devolves a bit by the end; repetition of a chorus-style line doesn't really sit well with the pace and tone of what went before to my ear, but it is probably my favourite of the tracks to date.
Are these later tracks softer in tone? They certainly feel less urgent and angsty and better for it. As Is carries the laid back feeling of Fuel forward with a much more melodic hook than I had come to expect. The lyrical delivery is still hushed tones, but the breathy anger is now a gentle recounting. It is far more accessible for me.
The final two tracks have [New Version] appended to their title in my player. Well I don't know the "old" versions so... That said, it feels like I have heard Napoleon before. There is a different timbre to the recording of the guitar, whilst it is a step back towards the front end of the disc in terms of how the instrument is used there is more life in this performance. I find myself thinking of Kristin Hersh for some reason whilst liking the song but finding it to just go on a little too long. The extensive use of expletives needs a mention too - it works here, but I kinda wish it didn't because, well... overuse devalues them. Shameless keeps the cleaner sound recording in common with Napoleon, but falls back into the flighty playing that characterised the opening tracks. As a result it is less impactful for me. It doesn't feel like a closer, it feels like a spare part. So I make it one, along with a handful of others. I am keeping more than I expected to from this though, and have some genuine hope for some good stuff on disc 2.
Breathy, minimalist. That is how we begin. I can barely make out much of what she is singing, whilst the staccato pluckings that form the only accompaniment are devoid of any real tune to provide a thread running through the song. I find myself doing two listens in a day - two long ones at that - out of frustration, listlessness and boredom. I had a break to eat, do a bit of gardening and some noodling around watching YouTube vids but I am frustrated. I am trying to rest my left arm... wrist and elbow have been giving me a bit of pain recently; I suspect some sort of RSI-type thing so I am avoiding what would be my normal fallback time killers.
DiFranco has an interesting vocal approach, I will certainly grant her that. The hushed and whispered, yet urgent delivery is a real feature. She does not seem to be a great singer in the sense of carrying a tune, so it feels like an adaptation to still be effective in that role. I suspect that her primary strengths are more in writing than delivering from the early exchanges - though when that delivery makes it hard to pick out the lyrics (quite apart from the problems of doing that whilst typing this) it could be a bit self defeating, at least for me. Where the first two tunes were urgent little songs, You Had Time is a piano tune, wandering hands over keys, nothing else until quite some way in where the melody appears to transition to guitar and the vocal starts. I'm not sure that both parts of the song work together, but each part is a step up from the previous tracks. The vocal is clearer, the tune more... tuneful. Its a more gentle experience, more room to breathe. When the piano and guitar are in sync as it comes to a close you begin to get a sense of the significance of the opening wandering hands. I like something here well enough.
Maybe Ani DiFranco is an acquired taste? I thought I was starting to like even the slightly scatty guitar licks a bit more as track 4 started, but then the song devolved in chorus to random noises rather than words and I am not so sure. I prefer the tune in Buildings and Bridges, and the verses are decent, but that chorus is painful. It's good that we get a sense of percussion here that has been lacking elsewhere. Its a shame that the song has a dichotomy; like/dislike. I can definitely say I don't like Coming Up though; ugh. The arrangement is just a load of sounds chucked in a blender hoping for the best, and I think in my old age my ear is definitely prone to preferring tunes over songs. At the very least I require the former to latch onto if it isn't something I already know. We get a step up after that though... still breathy and urgent, still a seemingly flighty picking at the guitar strings, but a little more structure and purpose. Perhaps having a bit of a longer run helps. Many of the tunes to this point have been sub 3 minute affairs, though I suspect this is coincidence not causation.
I have issues; plaster coming off the wall through damp. Waiting on the plumbers' report to go make my case to next door that a leak on their side is causing me damage. It's a buy to let; I need to get hold of the landlord. I have to go to the US in a couple of week's time for a week or work, and need to shortchange my niece's birthday and miss a mate's stag do to do so. I curse my isolation, but covet it at the same time. I need to get into my front garden desperately but rain and the fact it is on a main road stay my hand. I feel blocked; frustrated, mostly at myself. This feeling means I feel I relate to the thrust of Shy which, musically at least, carries a sense of exasperation with it.
DiFranco seems to have a knack for catchy little hooks. Fundamentally, though, I feel that you need a little more than that and a sharp wit to make a good song. Many of these are a little light on the extra bits, and I don't find her hooks substantive enough to support tunes on their own. This is why the first two tracks fell down hardest for me. Since then there has been more sense of structure, provided by first the piano in You Had Time and since then through more audible percussion. 32 Flavours takes the latter far too far though, with a long percussion solo that outstays its welcome long before the track ends without returning to the song. What we get next is... yeah. To begin with Dilate is barely a song - more like words spoken (emotionally, but more spoken than sung) by someone who happens to be holding and fiddling with a guitar. Then we get a big dramatic moment which feels out of context with what went before. Afterwards the song feels more song-like but my interest in it was sunk beforehand and even more following the blow up.
Oh, Distracted is a live recording. DiFranco's intro for the song does not endear me to her - less so for the message but for the way it is imparted. The overly sharp lift off from the guitar picks is a bit too distracting. I dunno what to make of this. Perhaps its just my Britishness, or just that I was familiar with her first, but I prefer the slightly more understated angst of early Thea Gilmore over this. Gilmore's hooks are less catchy but the tunes more rounded; her lyrics are less bite-y but every bit as thoroughly considered and politic. Oh! Hah. Distracted was an interlude; the song I was reacting to was Gravel. I see, well the point and comparison still stands. We all have favourites; different strokes for different folks and all that. And so much the better for that - it'd all be dull otherwise.
Well, I don't think I've heard someone say (or sing) "f*** you" so softly before.
There are still another six tracks to go and another disc after that. I have about had my fill of her style for one sitting by this point, but I need to soldier on for another 25 minutes or so. Why? Well it is a little samey. Sure, the individual songs are all different hooks but hook and wit only goes so far, and the wit does not quite gel for me as much as it might. On reflection, I think DiFranco's style might work better in person, and her songs would certainly give you something to talk about. For home listening on a lazy weekend in mid-life with no immediate connection to her issues it all falls a little flat.
The songs have gone very low key and quiet... hah! Just as I type that Little Plastic Castle gets clown shoes - aka an arrangement more elaborate than anything that has gone before. Horns, distant but there nonetheless. I rather like the surprise, and whilst it was unexpected and comical in the vein suggested, it makes the tune work. I was about to add "and dull" and the interjection stays that boredom. Fuel is conversational in tone. It's really laid back and interesting for that as this choice lets the lyrics shine in a way that all those hooks did not quite achieve. So... had my fill? Maybe not; just heard the wrong bits. Sure, it devolves a bit by the end; repetition of a chorus-style line doesn't really sit well with the pace and tone of what went before to my ear, but it is probably my favourite of the tracks to date.
Are these later tracks softer in tone? They certainly feel less urgent and angsty and better for it. As Is carries the laid back feeling of Fuel forward with a much more melodic hook than I had come to expect. The lyrical delivery is still hushed tones, but the breathy anger is now a gentle recounting. It is far more accessible for me.
The final two tracks have [New Version] appended to their title in my player. Well I don't know the "old" versions so... That said, it feels like I have heard Napoleon before. There is a different timbre to the recording of the guitar, whilst it is a step back towards the front end of the disc in terms of how the instrument is used there is more life in this performance. I find myself thinking of Kristin Hersh for some reason whilst liking the song but finding it to just go on a little too long. The extensive use of expletives needs a mention too - it works here, but I kinda wish it didn't because, well... overuse devalues them. Shameless keeps the cleaner sound recording in common with Napoleon, but falls back into the flighty playing that characterised the opening tracks. As a result it is less impactful for me. It doesn't feel like a closer, it feels like a spare part. So I make it one, along with a handful of others. I am keeping more than I expected to from this though, and have some genuine hope for some good stuff on disc 2.
