Reviews
Artist:Ani Difranco
Album:Red Letter Year
Label:Righteous Babe
Tracks:12
Website:http://www.anidifranco.com
The album Red Letter Year takes it's name from the term 'red letter day', which means a day of personal or social significance. And in retrospect, 2007 and 2008 have been a time of great change and significance within the Righteous Babe camp. They've finished renovating and rebuilding their new headquarters, 'Babeville', received a new arrival in the form of Ani's first child, and she has finally released her first album in two years… which is, believe it or not, the longest time that Ani Difranco has gone without releasing an album in her entire career (this is of course completely ignoring the live official bootlegs, the DVD, the books… she is nothing if not productive).
All of the press surrounding this release has focussed on what she states as being her new mantra; "Don't forget to have a good time". This is presumably inspired by her new home in the heart of New Orleans; as she says herself, the home of some of the most oppressed and long-suffering peoples in all of America, yet they still produce some of happiest party music on the continent. Many of her new songs not only reflect the upbeat optimistic mood of the city, but even draw on it's lively rhythms and jazz tunes. She opens with Red Letter Year, a song that goes from upbeat and joyful to reflecting on the terrible effects of the New Orleans and the political incompetence that followed, but goes on to close the album with a very-rare instrumental, Red Letter Year Reprise, a lively Mardi-Gras style tune. In accompaniment to her usual band line-up of Todd Sickafoose, Alison Miller and Mike Dillon, Ani has also recruited a range of brass and string musicians who add a lively new face to the music, some of which has already been 'tested' on audiences in the recent DVD and live shows.
In her usual style, Ani's lyrics are as sharp and intelligent as ever; she comments on everything from global-warming ("Cause I am exhausted as a drowning polar bear, swimming around, looking for a ride" - Landing Gear) to motherhood to the Bush administration to simple love-stories (Smiling Underneath), but never in the obvious ways. She weaves beautiful little metaphors into her lyrics, making subtle but pointed commentaries on her life and the world around her.
As I mentioned before; musically there has been a slight but significant shift in the sound of the music itself. As Ani Difranco's career has moved forward it appears that she has continued to absorb more and more influences and nuances into her style, and she is certainly embracing both the music and attitude of New Orleans, which is no bad thing. Every one of her enormous discography of albums has been different to all of the others but everything she releases has the feeling of opening more doors to new sounds and styles that she hasn't yet fully explored, and this album is no exception. You get the impression that with all the personal changes in her own life, she is taking on a new attitude, and in turn is dipping her toe into a huge new ocean of influences and with it comes the opportunity for even greater Ani material in the future. Without being cliqued; this is an album full of hope. It signifies not only a change in terms of her own personal life but a change in the world; it is full of hope for the planet and environment, for America and their government, and hope for the future of her children.
For fans of her early solo work, some may be disappointed. In terms of her storytelling, she is still a folk-artist through and through, but she is no longer the angry-girl-with-guitar that she once was. She has a developed her own sound and if you didn't like her last three or four albums then you probably won't like this album. She is continuing down a similar route, although having soaked up a few new influences along the way from her last album. The album truly kicks off with the second track, Alla This, but other highlights include The Atom which is dark and reflective and Present/Infant, a touching but not mawkish track about her daughter. Red Letter Year might not please every fan but it is a positive and engaging album. It might not be her strongest complete album to date but there are individual tracks that are amongst some of her greatest, and verses in some of the other songs that are worthy of poetry books in themselves, and overall the album works very well in itself - like a good book with a couple of chapters that will knock you out of your chair.
Alice Ralph