“The most vituperative “fuck you” in the history of the music.” Robert Christgau
Ani DiFranco – Dialte – 1996 (iTunes – Amazon)
Christgau was referring to the opening track on Dilate, “Untouchable Face”. As in “Fuck you and your untouchable face!” For a woman whose lyrics have so often danced around with poetry and volume one wouldn’t expect something as base as this and yet, it may be her most accurate and devastating lyric yet.
Dilate doesn’t change the Not A Pretty Girl formula. And thank goodness. It’s just heartbreak, frustration, need, despair and love with a little bit of socio-politics tossed in for good measure.
The title track is Ani at her most longing. Something must have happened over this past year between the two records because there is a lot of unrequited love on this spin.
It’s a weighty record, perhaps her darkest. It’s also more experimental, with negative space abounding and electric guitars crushing the folkiness.
I could do without a 7 minute meditation on “Amazing Grace” but, it is what it is: A pretentious cover. And I never need to listen to it again.
And there’s the sequel to “Million that you never made” in “Napoleon” which is angrier and more frustrated and, in many ways, better, at the very least a worthy successor.
Dilate is less accessible than Pretty Girl but it still packs quite a wallop.
3 in a row, Ani. Nice.
Grade A-
A Side: Dilate, Untouchable Face, Superhero
BlindSide: Napoleon, Shameless, Joyful Girl
DownSide: Amazing Grace, Going Down
