Righteous Babe delivers righteous rage
By CYNDI FECHER
I am a huge fan of Ani DiFranco and her songwriting skills, but I don't understand why she keeps putting spoken-word "songs" on her CDs. Ani, you are a talented folk singer, and while you may be angry, you are not a beat poet. Say it with me: Not a beat poet.
DiFranco's newest album, educated guess, features three new spoken word tunes. At her concert at the Chicago Theatre Nov. 16, they were described as "songs, just without the GIT-tar." I think those are called poems, actually, and I don't think they should be on my new CD, with weird drummings and strummings in the background. Hearing a few "poems" live made me only a little more patient with the spoken word thing.
DiFranco gives a beautiful show. After tolerating Noe Venable, the opening act, singing child-like songs about fairies and Aztlan and the Snow Queen, Ani was a welcome change. She opened explosively with "educated guess," the title track from her new album. The concert debuted music from the new album and included songs from evolve, her album from 2003. She performed very few old favorites, but "anticipate" and "swan dive" both made it into the set list. She closed with one of those spoken word tracks from educated guess. There was something so inspiring about it live, like she was sending us out into the world with a prayer.
While it may not show up on educated guess because of her sometimes triple-recorded vocals, Ani is a master on the guitar, and changed guitars almost as frequently as she changed songs. Each song presented thought provoking lyrics (you keep telling me i'm beautiful/ but i feel a little less so each time/ your love is so colorful it flashes like a neon sign/ but i finally drove out where the sky is dark enough to see stars/ and i found i missed no one/ just listening to the swishing of distant cars) and Ani delivered her music with the confidence of the seasoned performer that she is, having been touring for the last decade.
For such an intense songwriter, she's a surprisingly airheaded conversationalist. Several times she forgot what she was saying in the middle of a sentence. I expected to be annoyed by it after hearing similar talking on her live albums, but Ani's admittedly flighty conversation with the audience lightened the mood between her heavily political lyrics.
Diehard fans (like myself) will appreciate educated guess as an addition to their collections and a return to something in her earlier albums.
After years of touring and recording several albums with her band of hodge podge musicians and instruments (passing trains? Random clarinet interludes?), she has thankfully returned to singing and producing solo. This album is not Ani's first try at producing her own work, however it is her first time creating the CD entirely on her own. She wrote the lyrics and music, sang lead and backing vocals, recorded and mixed the album at her home in Buffalo, New York on an old 8 track reel-to-reel.
Regardless of her financial success and the support of every lesbian in the country, and the fact that she has created and owned her own record label for more than a decade (Righteous Babe Records), her newest CD sounds just as grainy as a garage band. But there's something raw and intimate about this almost primitive record. It's as if you're sitting on Ani's beat-up couch, just listening to her mess around on the guitar and throw in lyrics at whim.
For new Ani listeners, this is probably a CD to avoid because of the often cacophonous sounds and clashing harmonies. Oh and also, the spoken word tracks. However, there is a very colorful booklet included in the CD, with some very nice scribbles that appear to be homemade artwork, and three previously unreleased poems. New listeners should check out Ani's older, tamer work like Little Plastic Castle (1998), Not a Pretty Girl (1995), or Not So Soft (1991).
But every Ani listener, whether she owns all 21 CDs or has just heard one song, will appreciate her articulate descriptions of politics and personal relationships. The lyrics on educated guess are another successful example of Ani's trademark fusion of personal, political and religious issues.
The song "animal" criticizes often corrupt religions, and illustrates her point that the human race is self-serving. (more and more there is this animal looking out through my eyes/ seeing that animals only take from this world what they need to survive/ but she is prowling through all the religions of men, seeing that time and time and time again their gods have made them special and above nature's law and the respect thereof.) The spoken word track, "Grand Canyon," addresses patriotism in a hopeful way, although to get the best effect, you should probably just read the lyrics from the little booklet or hear them live, rather than hearing her recite them to you on the CD.
Underneath educated guess' message of activism is one of strong feminism, as the playful song "origami" explains (i am an all powerful amazon warrior, not just some sniveling girl.) Both her new album and live performance are evidence proving that point.
