Ani Difranco - Reprieve

Grows on you like fungus!!!

Let's face it Ani Difranco is definetly an aquired taste musically. Most people are put off by her "women lib rants", her "quirky cartoon vocalizations", or her "hyper-caffeinated guitar strumming". If your a fan of folk or even singer songwriter fare you owe yourself a deep listen into her prolific body of work. Being somewhat familiar with her body of work I was immediately put back by the somberness of this album but after repeated listens this album really grew on me. This album is really reflective and really can't be appreciated in a more upbeat state of mind. This album is like a warm cup of coffee being cradled and sipped by someone living in cold dreary storm-drenched cabin in the pacific northwest. Given that example you should listen in the right atmosphere:perhaps a long lonely drive somewhere or a housecleaning session in solitude. I think you get the vibe now...
Anyways the album sounds like what an Ani Difranco trip-hop album might sound like but with the emphasis on more live instrumentation. The atmosphere is heavy and very visual. The lyrics and the ambient textures jump out at you at the cue of her voice. It's really not your standard album as much as it is more like a soundtrack for poems.
"Inside the margins" is probably one the most touching songs she's done maybe since "joyful girl" as it celebrates the splendor of life and the bewilderment of forgetting it. "Hypnotize" is probably one of the more clever songs about relationships that I've heard in a while; where she questions how her and someone else manage to stay together saying"maybe I had just enough pathos to keep you hypnotized..."
All in all I think this is great album sonically and lyrically and deserves several listens. This nothing like other Ani records and isn't really trying to throw bunch a hooks at you. Also the fact that it is somber makes it work because Ani's reserved delivery really lets the material shine musically and lyrically. I don't think Ani is mellowing out or loosing her bite because subtlety wasn't really ever her strong suit but on this album she is definetly developing it. I think she's on her way to making a really interesting album if she could fuse both of these elements....!!!!!!!! January 23, 2008

Not her best

I adore Ani but this album is not so great. It doesn't have as much of the syncopated rhythms that I'm so fond of in Ani's other music. The whole album is sort of monotone and the only lyrics that I find very poignant are those in "Unrequited". If you're going to buy a "new" Ani album, I'd definitely choose "Knuckle Down" over this one. November 27, 2007

Ani at her most boring

One thing I always admired about Ani is that with each album she's not afraid to try something different. From her early coffee shop folk days to her jazzy period to now, one can never expect the same thing from our favorite Righteous Babe.

Unfortunately, Ani misses her mark on this album. Ani's a great lyricist, but here she focuses too much on the lyrics, leaving the melodies to be BORING! She plucks only a few notes on her guitar throughout the songs, as if she's only trying to create some background ambiance and nothing more. You'll enjoy the album more if you just read the lyrics and not listen to the CD at all...which is maybe what Ani wants you do to.

I would recommend you buy "Knuckle Down," "Evolve," or "Not a Pretty Girl" instead. July 2, 2007

At her best

Reprieve is Difranco's best work yet. She is at her poetical and musical prime. Songs like "Millennium Theater" are a call for Americans to get out of their cocoons and wake up to what's going on with a corrupt corporate controlled government. Not a filler song on this one. The CD artwork is superb as well. March 21, 2007

decidedly depressing

In music years, Ani DiFranco is old; Reprieve-her 18th album with her own label Righteous Babe Records-is a decidedly depressing step in what has been a sometimes-rocky aging process. In all honesty, listening to Reprieve made me sad more than anything else, not least because at her best Ani is so brilliant. Here is Ani without the eloquence, without the poetry, without the originality, and, more than anything else, without the raw energy. The sparkle is smothered beneath a somber, glutinous collection of songs, and even when her lyrics are beautiful, Ani herself sounds detached and exhausted, her vocal prowess hidden in a cacophony of electronica. Much of the album sounds a little uneasy, as though Ani is uncomfortable with her own experimentation but equally unable to re-embrace her acoustic roots. There is also an odd, dissonant, randomness that transcends simple ambient noise; on one track there is a recurring sound as if someone in the studio turned on a static radio in the background.

One of my favorite things about Ani is her easy, playful way with words, but it's tough going on Reprieve. In the song "Nicotine" she sings, "you sang that song in my ear/and it tickled those tiny hairs." In another, "Subconscious," appears the line, "Sealed windows, forced air/gazillions of cell phones/beaming through my hair." Things get a little better later on-the title track (also the token poem) is full of interesting, darkly lyrical moments, and spoken over a decidedly eerie little guitar part. It is here, though, that I find what really bothers me most about the album as a whole; it is all of the discontent with none of the fight, none of her spirit. Perhaps Ani sums up my review best in the chorus of "Subconscious." "I ain't in the best shape/that I've ever been in/but I know where I'm going/it ain't where I've been." Ani, I admit I am still pretty attached to where you've been.
January 24, 2007

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