Ani DiFranco – To The Teeth – 1999 (iTunes)
Is Ani DiFranco advocating blowing up and destroying media and corporations? On the title track it sure seems so. Thing is, if this was the younger Ani the song would be an onslaught of frenetic fingering and it would have resonance. Now it just sounds like big chord, semi-country, latter day Springsteen insta-epic.
The SECOND record in one year from Ms. DiFranco starts off just as dour as the previous and seems to be a big middle finger not to her enemies (selling out, corporations, mean people) but, instead, to the fans who have been following her for the past decade.
She hasn’t as much grown up as she seems to have grown weary. She’s found the key in jams and improvs and Jazz and I’m not sure it’s helping her.
This album is her, what, 10th in 9 years? It’s been quite the decade for her. I don’t know of any other group or musician that I know of whose sound has changed so vastly over such a short period of time. Wait, I do. Between 1974 and 1984 Queen went from glam rock to disco to hodgepodge metal. This is sort of the same to me.
It feels like I’m being left behind. Like everyone is being left behind. Whoever thought that Ani was their voice was really wrong. She’s not the voice of lesbians, girl power, feminism. She’s the voice of Ani DiFranco. She’s just following her muse.
If it’s possible, if you can believe it, Freakshow, one of the better tracks actually sounds like what would happen if you took Madonna and forced her to record Sheryl Crow songs but told her that they don’t have to be that good, so don’t hire the best producers, kay?
I’m halfway through and I gotta say; This is a really boring record. She still writing songs. But there’s nothing to hang on to in any of them.
Wait. Rap. There’s rap on “Swing”. Rap does NOT belong on an Ani DiFranco album. And electro-techno programming on “The Arrival’s Gate” which loops a banjo sample and pairs it with a fluid bassline. Ani’s lyrics, multi-tracked vocals make this track a treat. It’s the most lively on the album. I could actually get into more of this, please.
Now playing: Ani DiFranco – The Arrivals Gate
via FoxyTunes
Oh, and Prince, PRINCE(!!!!) adds backing vocals to Providence. How did THAT happen??? The groove and swinging balls on this song almost redeem the album. I wish it was a) shorter and that b) it had opened the record.
This is my second least favorite Ani record. But, given that its the second one in a row, I don’t have a lot of hope for the records of the new century.
Grade: D
A Side: Freakshow (but it’s really not that good.) The Arrival’s Gate
BlindSide: Clloud Blood, Swing(….almost but then….), Providence
DownSide: Swing…there’s fucking rap on this. Maceo Parker’s brother fucking raps on this. Carry You Around
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