Ani DiFranco
Evolve
Righteous Babe
With seventeen albums under her belt -- counting two with Utah Phillips
that deserve to be counted -- it's not too early to start talking about
Ani DiFranco's career. In particular, it's become obvious that she is
recapitulating Joni Mitchell's career about as closely as anyone of her
generation who doesn't give two shits about Mitchell can be bothered
with. The differences, of course, are decisively marked by history and
class. Mitchell's early work is full of wide-eyed discovery as she
belatedly met the world and established her autonomy and rights there,
which resonated powerfully for a whole generation of young women on the
cusp of feminism. In contrast, DiFranco seems to have figured all of
that out by her early teens. And whereas Mitchell might occasionally
glance beyond herself to reveal a soupçon of liberalism, DiFranco grew
up acutely conscious of how politics and economics impacted her life --
which is why DiFranco's radicalism was, at least initially, so deeply
personal: she was, after all, her own one woman army. And that, too,
resonated powerfully for a whole other generation of young women, for
whom feminism was so obvious it was assumed.
"In the Way" with its bubbling percussion, horn riffs, jazz scat, and
burst of laughter at the end,
"Icarus" starts off with a nice guitar figure
"Oh My My" starts off with a little piano figure and a dab of clarinet
"Here for Now" jumps right out of the tracks, a creature of rhythm,
Track List
- Promised Land - 4:27
- In the Way - 5:17
- Icarus - 4:51
- Slide - 3:39
- O My My - 3:44
- Evolve - 4:15
- Shrug - 4:42
- Phase - 3:42
- Here for Now - 3:09
- Second Intermission - 3:51
- Serpentine - 10:23
- Welcome To - 4:54
Copyright © 2003 Tom Hull. |
