A friend of a friend I knew through a listserver wanted to intro me to Ani's music, so he sent a mix tape from Maryland full of poorly reproduced, third-generation copies of songs: his favorites, soon to be my favorites. As each one of the songs on the album became memorized word for word as well as an anthem for me and my friend Kim, I found myself spending every dollar I brought to the first South florida visit of the Lilith Fair tour on Ani CDs because it was the first place I had actually ever seen one for sale. I bought Not a Pretty Girl and Out of Range. Since then, I have purchased nearly every album she has released.
If you listen to the raw wit, fury, and grace she displayson her early work such as Out of Habit and Both Hands or My I.Q., you see the passion of a young woman emerging into the world she will claim as her own through trial,pain, and triumph. But listen to each song as if it were teaching you something about her, about your ex-girlfriends, about yourself, and you will see an amazing growth process unfurling before your eyes. As Ms.DiFranco moves from humor and spirit in Shameless to the raw emotional power of Wish I May, you may notice the subtle transitioning of a young, playful city girl into a woman with powerful emotions wrapped in a world far more real than she'd like to admit. She matures: visible in her lyrics, in her storytelling, in her persuasive political messages, in her musical composition and experimentation.
She is capable of expressing thoughts so brilliant, humor so human, and pain so real that we can all relate. She bleeds herself into her songs, she becomes a real person, and she develops a rapor with her audience that very few musicians will ever hope to understand. Even more than that, seeing her in concert feels to old fans like going over to chill at a good friend's house. To people who have never even heard her songs before, seeing her in concert is like falling in love.
She is graceful, she is potent, and she is human.
I would highly reccommend To the Teeth. Along with Little Plastic Castles (of which I also have a vinyl remix version) and Living In Clip this one is one of my all time favorite albums.
songs of note: (I may not remember all the appropriate source albums)
The Whole Night (Like I Said)
Out of Habit (Like I Said)
Shameless
Both Hands (Living in Clip version has a beautiful symphony intro)
Wish I May (to the Teeth)
Overlap
Come Away From It (Up Up Up)
Jukebox (Up Up Up)
Napoleon
Providence (to theTeeth)
Pulse (LPC)
Shy
How Have You Been(Out of Range)
Letter to a John(Out of Range)
The Diner
Roll With It
Work Your Way Out
She Said
Rush Hour
Loom (LPC)
As Is (LPC)
She also did an interesting cover of "Wishin and Hopin" on the soundtrack for My Best Friend's Wedding.