Ani DiFranco - Not a Pretty Girl

Ani DiFranco's fondness for cheeky self-effacement marks her fourth album, Not a Pretty Girl. Having redefined our whole concept of cult following, the funky, punky singer/songwriter has parlayed her prowess for six-string blues guitar into an unique alternative acoustic sound. This album marks real growth for the musician. Songs like the title track or "Worthy" are more fully realized than many of her earlier pieces that lean toward artful scat or spare guitar and vocal arrangements. It also precedes DiFranco's more experimental work, a characteristic recurrent with increasing frequency on subsequent recordings. --Nick Heil Amazon.com essential recording

My Favorite Ani Album

As a person that owns every CD that Ms. DiFranco has made must say that Not A Pretty Girl is my absolute favorite. The songs are edgy and completely rocking. Its political and emotional and just AMAZING!! I think this album is grossly underrated by her fans. The title track has quite possibly the best lyrics that she has written ever. It speaks to me as a woman and an individual. The songs on here changed my life. January 21, 2008

Ani rarely dissapoints

Yeah, sure, Ani is a pinko commy, and I vehemently disagree with almost all of her politics(which she discusses very bluntly in her music). However, she does make some very good music, and this album is no exception. September 11, 2007

two and a half

We are all pretty familiar with the concept of over-acting. You know, like Al Pacino in Scarface. But is it possible to "over-sing." I think it is, and I'd argue Ani does it in every single song she's ever written. "eaaarggAh! OhheeeeOO!, UyayayayayEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Probably it does the trick if you're PMSing real bad, but as a dude I have a little trouble relating. For a while I thought she had bad lyrics. But then I tried just reading them straight up and realized hey they are totally decent, it's just the vocals that make them tough to stomach. Shakespeare would probably be bad if you said, "the-e-e-ea-a-a- quAAliteee-e-e-e-eEEEEEE of mer cy is not STRAYEEEYYAAAYYEEEAYYEEEAAAAAAnedahugooooh!...." That said, even though they aren't bad perse, they are sort of annoying. I don't like coffee houses, or people who frequent them. Which seems to be sort of the Ani universe. On the other hand, if you like to get an expresso before catching the subway downtown to catch the Innercity Radical Anarchocommunist Existential Collective's screening of their latest short film about transgender intellectual insurgents in the world of independent media publishing in Seattle, where you'll meet a group of girls wearing different colored socks and quirky glasses, and at least one radical photographer named Jeremy, with whom you plan to go backpacking this weekend on a scenic trail where you'll write obsessively about yourself in a journal, all the while missing the amazing plants and animals because you don't know anything about nature except that you hate corporations who want to destroy it, and you're too busy journalling about the flaky dudes you sleep with, plus your parents were hippies and you're exactly like them and not original at all, you'll probably totally dig the vibe here.
On to the positives, Ani is a great guitarist. I dig her style, and wish she was a little more guitar-based and less vocal based, because this is really where she stands out in the singer-songwriter genre. She doesn't just lay down some simple chords, she works the strings, and she has skills. Actually, if she stopped singing, and got someone else to sing while she wrote the music, I think she'd probably be great.

Also, she should get someone else to produce these albums. You have to turn all her albums way up to hear anything but her voice.

If you like her voice though, this would probably be a 5 star album. July 28, 2006

A little out there just to be out there, but worth it

I don't know, maybe it's me but I get a little "activism-for-the-sake-of-activism" from this album... Or maybe "shock-value-for-the-sake-of-shock-value"... But that doesn't stop it from being good most of the time.

Unique and fantastic things she does with a guitar. February 23, 2006

my first ani album

the queen of do it yourself rock. she owns her own record company. writes and produces her own songs. plays all the instruments and has enough gusto and energy to power a train. i can't say which tracks i like because every time i play this i listen to straight through. plus, she's a hell of a poet. she said the reason she created righteous babe records was because she didn't want to make music the way the big boys did. records like this capture the true spirit of indie rock. it sounds raw, not perfect or polished. December 16, 2005

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