Wednesday, August 03, 2005
a little bit of folk won't do you harm
This week's Album of the Week brought to you by all those crossover Tori Amos/Ani DiFranco fans who finally convinced that Ms. DiFranco was someone I needed to look into. Oh, and thanks to Conan O'Brien who had her on his show a few weeks back, which I TiVo'd and watched about a dozen times before it got carelessly deleted.
I must admit, I've never been a big fan of folk music or spoken word. Since that was the extent of my knowledge of the music Ani DiFranco is so famous for, I pretty much ignored the idea of listening to her to any real extent (similarily to my situation with Sleater-Kinney and the riot grrrl genre). I'd gotten over my indie-folk fears since becoming a Cat Power enthusiast, yet still, my exploration of the genre ended there. While spending a significant amount time in the company of Tori Amos fans at the signings and meet & greets, many of the gals mentioned their love of Ani, saying how she's different musically from Tori, but delivers a similar passionate aggressiveness. Since passionate aggressiveness is exactly what I look for in a recording artist, I decided to trust my fellow music lovers and give Ani a chance.
Dilate seems to be the Ani DiFranco album that everyone talks about, so I started there. It's the only album of her's that I've had the opportunity to delve completely into so far, but after getting through its entire one-hour length, I must admit that Dilate has forced its way into my list of one of the most inspired albums of the 1990's.
Ani is what they call urban-folk, or "punk with an acoustic guitar in the hands of an edgy and intellectual singer-songwriter", as I would best describe it. What surprised me the most about Dilate (again, this is the result of my flawed assumptions of her music) was funky and almost indie/lo-fi inspired integration of guitar rhythm, drums and the occasional growl of an electric guitar. There are, of course, softer sounding folkish songs, with Ani and her acoustic guitar, picking with a brilliant ferociousness, but the result is not yielding as much has the folk genre has the tendency to be. Songs like "Untouchable Face", "Superhero" and "Joyful Girl" employ this style, but the intensity of her lyrics (which often unravel the cloak of a broken heart) oppose the melodic rhythm of her voice in a agreeable but almost unnerving way.
The real surprise—and treat—was the urban beat element of the album. "Outta Me, Onto You", "Amazing Grace", "Shameless", and "Going Down" all use a heavy, gritty, funk-inspired beat thumping in the background, which adds an immediate edginess to the twang of her guitar and her often melodious voice. There's anger flowing through these songs, and it's most obvious when her voice converts to an almost Polly Harvey-inspired "scrowl" (my term for the screaming growl) she busts out with in "Adam And Eve" and "Napoleon".
I suppose what mast captivates me about this record is Ani's range. She goes from indie-funk rock to soulful soul-searchers, all while maintaining a loose but conscious grasp on composure. Dilate is creative, honest, beautiful and demanding — a winning combination.
Oh, and her seven-minute version of "Amazing Grace" is nothing short of, well, amazing.
Downloads:
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