Ani DiFranco – Evolve – 2003 (iTunes – Amazon)
Ugh.
This album, as I’ve read, is the swan song for the Ani DiFranco “band” and I couldn’t be more ready to kiss that crap goodbye. I think the woman that I fell in love with for her ideas, ideals and attitudes, has been bogged down on the ability to experiment and possible cajoled and seduced by other musicians.
But that’s not fair because that statement takes the onus off Ani and strips her of the responsibility for these borefests that she’s been proffering.
Songs like O My My are the type of syncopated Jazz influenced stuff that, well, I despise. Maybe it’s great but it offers me nothing. I’m just not wired to like this stuff.
I think, at this point, it’s obvious that Ani Difranco and I do not own any of the same records in our collection. She’s got a lot of Utah Phillips, Miles Davis, and protest stuff and I like Queen. I’m also pretty sure that falling in love, having a child, enjoying life, has stripped AD of everything I liked about her.
I need my Ani angry. Not happy.
Her music has never been of interest to me. It was the music coupled with her worldview that made it all work. Now that she fancies herself a “musician”, I’m left cold.
Grade D
A Side: Evolve, Here for Now
BlindSide: —–
DownSide: Shrug, Serpentine
