Ani DiFranco is thoughtful, passionate, angst-filled, political and self-righteous all at the same time. She is a folk singer who looks like a punk, with her dreadlocks (or formerly, shaved head), piercings and tattoos. Well known for her marathon touring schedule, huge output of albums and status as a feminist icon, Ani's new album demonstrates both her maturity and her ability to collaborate and learn from experience.
"Knuckle Down" presents a number of new challenges for Difranco. First, the album is a collaboration with Joe Henry, another performer and songwriter, who produced half the album and adds some calm and melody to Ani's famous strong, hard chords and voice.
Second, there is no obvious mention of politics, a change for DiFranco, who made her name singing about abortion and other feminist issues. This is an album about family, identity, aging and love: the more mundane aspects of our lives. In one song entitled "Sunday Morning", the artist sings about frying eggs, reading in bed and the comfort of love on Sunday mornings.
The album's title track and first song is perhaps the most energetic and forceful on the album. The rapid folk-style strumming more closely resembles Ani's earlier work. Yet even here she demonstrates a new maturity, opening the album by hollering, "I think I'm done gunnin' to get closer/ to some imagined bliss/ I gotta knuckle down/ just be ok with this / course that star struck girl is already someone I miss."
The track "Parameters" is truly demonstrative of Ani's maturity, a reflection on life at the age of thirty-three. More a poem than a song, Ani speaks the words over a few soft guitar chords, saying, "even after you've long since gotten used to the parameters/they can all change/while you're out one night having a drink with a friend/some big hand may be turning a big dial/switching channels on your dreams."
Perhaps best known for her 1995 album "Not a Pretty Girl," DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York in 1970. At the age of 15, feeling alienated by her family, she left home to live on her own and play in the club circuit. By 19, she had written over a hundred songs. In 1990, DiFranco founded her own record label, Righteous Babe Records, to distribute her music more effectively.
As DiFranco's popularity grew around the country, mostly as a result of her incredibly busy schedule, major labels took an interest in her. She rejected all of them and continued making music on her own label. Ani has produced over twenty of her own records and has still found time to be a fervent political activist. In fact, many of Ani's critics fault her for producing too many albums, rather than choosing her best work for release.
For that reason "Knuckle Down" could come as a disappointment to fans expecting more of the same. It lacks the political bent and the angst of her old music. Indeed, many of Ani's fans like her for just that reason: she is angry, forceful and political.
To less avid fans, however, her music can be self-righteous and difficult to stomach. Often her anger and "feminist hero" image overshadow her talent and passion.
Ani is a unique, ambitious, and impressive woman. "Knuckle Down" is undoubtedly her most mature work to date, and her fans will probably embrace it wholeheartedly. To the rest of us, however, it's more of the same: a mediocre CD that should have been trimmed down.
