Ani DiFranco
Up Up Up Up Up Up
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Ani DiFranco
Up Up Up Up Up Up
Righteous Babe, 1996
RiYL: Indigo Girls, Suzanne Vega, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell |
She's been performing since her teenage years and started her own record label (Righteous Babe Records) in 1990. Since then, she's been releasing albums nonstop and basically doing what she wants to do when she wants to do it.
Most importantly, she's managed to take her blend of acoustic folk, angry rock, and occasional hip-hop leanings and create some of the most emotionally potent, intelligent music to be heard in this decade.
Never one to slow down, DiFranco endowed the follow-up to the then still-recent Little Plastic Castle with the vexingly-titled Up Up Up Up Up Up. Maybe it was the lack of think time between albums, or maybe it was just time for her momentum to take a break, but Up is decidedly average with respect to DiFranco's growing catalog of recordings -- though "average" for DiFranco is still pretty good.
Returning to her acoustic beginnings, the singer shies away from many of the "extras" (such as horns and various electric equipment) that were used on her last few albums. Even with the presence of a defined band (Jason Mercer on bass, Andy Stochansky on drums, and Julie Wolf on keyboards, accordion, and backing vocals), this album brings the focus back to the folksinger and her guitar. Unfortunately, the ferocity DiFranco has trademarked is, well, not as ferocious.
Gone is the sheer emotive force that made you cheer her along on songs such as "Every State Line" (Imperfectly) or sigh at "Falling Is Like This" (Out of Range). DiFranco once proudly shouted, "You're looking at the million that you'll never make," ("The Million You Never Made") on 1995's Not A Pretty Girl. She now quietly sings, "I'm not angry anymore" ("Angry Anymore") on Up.
But to say that this album represents a DiFranco content to sit back and sing love songs would be inaccurate.
"'Tis Of Thee" paints a bleak vision of our self-destructive society ("Why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun / 'cuz we'll never live long enough / to undo everything they've done to you"). Meanwhile, "Trickle Down" takes a personal approach to the plight of the factory workers in DiFranco's hometown Buffalo, N.Y. -- "They explained about the cutbacks / all with earnest frowns / But what they didn't say was that the plant / was slowly shutting down".
Of course, there are love songs on this record. DiFranco gently tries to coax a lover away from drugs on the musically weak but lyrically sweet "Come Away From It" ("And I don't like the extravagance / or the way you taste when I kiss you.") And the organ-soaked "Angel Food" is nothing more than a sort of love letter ("Come to me ready and rude / bring me angel food").
If you've seen DiFranco perform (or heard her double live album Living In Clip) then you're familiar with her affection for grabbing a chord and jamming on it for awhile. This spirit is captured on the almost giddy "Hat Shaped Hat," which starts as a typical song and then launches into a ten minute jam session.
It may be this song's successful reproduction of DiFranco's live performance, in fact, which makes it so immediately likeable -- a fact that suggests that the rest of this album's songs will sound better in the live setting.
As an album, Up is a solid example of DiFranco's talent as a guitarist and songwriter, if this was DiFranco's first album, this page would be overflowing with praise for the honesty with which this woman expresses herself. In the nine years she's been producing records, however, DiFranco has shown what she is capable of. And within that context, Up is a little disappointing.
KATHARINE KELLY |