Ani DiFranco – Reprieve – 2006 (iTunes – Amazon)
An interesting thing happened while listening to Reprieve. I found myself caught up in the mood and ambiance that had left me so cold on the most recent DiFranco records.
The slow, almost inert opening track, “Hypnotized” actually succeeded in keeping me just that. As the album progresses its obvious DiFranco hasn’t abandoned her politics. She’s still angry only this time her venom is focused less on bad relationships & the record industry (that stuff still lingers) but she takes aim at Halliburton and others on tracks like “Millenium Theater” and “Shroud”. It’s just that the music is, as so often displayed over the last 2 decades, boring. Uninspired. Overt in it’s self-indulgence.
Reprieve isn’t a bad record. Ani DiFranco is simply not the same person who recorded those first 8 records. She’s, well, she’s boring.
Grade C-
A Side: Hypnotized
BlindSide: No surprises
DownSide: Nothing that great.
