On First Listen…
Issue date: 9/24/02 Section: Music
- Page 1 of 1
| |
|
by Ani Difranco
(Righteous Babe)
3 out of 5
Back in 1997, Ani Difranco produced her first live album, a vital and characteristically visceral creation, titled Living In Clip. It was a strong, personal album, the way that most of Ani's albums are, and it encompassed her early career as a quirky, politically aware riotgrrrl folk singer as well as introducing fans that had not experienced her music live to her unique and humorous personality.
Fast forward five years later and Ani's music has morphed into something even more potent. Less angry, to the chagrin of a small set of so-called fans, Ani's song writing has become more focused on the personal and sometimes, even the more joyful experiences of life.
However, her edge is still there – she's still the same punk poetess writing compelling political diatribes in verse and backing her anti-corporate views with her own business savvy.
With her new live album, So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter, it looks as if she's hoping to reach out to those old fans and reel them back in.
The album's name comes from the song "Cradle and All" which first appeared on 1995's Not A Pretty Girl, a sure sign that Difranco selected songs from each aspect of her song writing career in order to introduce new fans to what made her what she is today, while rounding up fans of her old musical style and showing what she's still got to offer.
So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter is divided into two CD's of recordings from her last tour. The first CD, "Stray Cats" is an assortment of Ani songs of every kind – from the jazzy emotional moments, to the angry-with-the-world, and back down to the funky and confident. The best of the songs included here are "Swandive," where she sings, "I'm just going to get my feet wet/Until I drown," and the wonderful anti-industry cry, "Napoleon," rumored to be written for Suzanne Vega, which has been recorded live before, sounds as tough and extraordinary as ever.
The second disc, called "Girls Singing Night" includes Ani's more feminine songs, celebrating and sometimes agonizing over, the experience of being a woman. The songs are chosen perfectly to fit such a theme, as with "My I.Q", in which the speaker hits puberty with the realization that "a woman had come in the night to replace me/deface me."
Inevitably, to make a live album great and worth the price, a singer must choose to include some of her onstage musings aimed at her audience, as well as offer a previously unreleased track or two and Difranco does both. This second disc, for instance, includes "Self-Evident" – clearly a response to Sept. 11.
It's the sort of gut-wrenchingly emotional song that makes the hairs on the skin rise and shows real understanding of the collective devastation that such a moment in time has caused. "And the shock was subsonic/and the smoke was deafening," she sings.
Still, despite such heavy topics, Difranco can joke to her audience and attract a varied cult following with her fierce independence and musical eccentricity – and will likely be doing so for years to come.
—Louise Tripp
How Animals Move
by John Parish
(Thrill Jockey)
3 out of 5
Music producers and engineers often release solo projects, if not only as a creative outlet for their talents, as a way to show off their talents without another band in the studio.
John Parish, who helped arrange and produce music from Sparklehorse, Blinker the Star, PJ Harvey and Eels showed off his immense talent on How Animals Move, his latest album with Thrill Jockey Records.
Containing few vocals, most of How Animals Move is a showcase for John Parish's arrangements. Strings, guitar, and rhythm build and ebb in every track, revealing and covering great depth and sophistication.
Not entirely instrumental, Parish uses ghostly vocals on "Shrunken Man," and "Stable Life." The last track, "Airplane Blues," uses wild vocals from Polly Jean Harvey.
How Animals Move is a fine exhibition for John Parish's talents, but many people not accustomed to mostly instrumental music will undoubtedly be bored with the album, despite the great depth and sophistication of the music.
—Cary Weisgram