Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
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Free Music Notes for So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter
Free Music Review: More from the little Jazzsinger
Hit: 4 Stars
This album proves what all Ani fans have been suspecting since To The Teeth, that she is no longer a folksinger, but a jazz musician. Wouldn't recommend for first time Ani listeners, cause it'll ruin '32 Flavors' for you forver, and you'll probably get irritated that she just seems to have neglected to tune her guitar on more than one occasion. Go for Living in Clip if you want live, Out of Range for older school acousticy ani, or Up x6 for some more techy work. For more familiar fans, this album is worth buying for the live performance of 'You Had Time' alone.Free Music Review: Ageless Ani fan
Hit: 4 Stars
This is one of those live recordings that you have to listen to a few times to appeciate. Being an Ani fan of old, I expected more but then I spent some more time with it and realized she truly is an amazing woman who can take her own past and make it new. I would let my least favorite friends borrow this because I know it would make them a fan of Ani even if they had never heard of her. A truly amazing piece of live Ani that should not be passed up.Free Music Review: Ani Difranco album
Hit: 4 Stars
Yeah, I like her style a lot. A "New York" folk singer, as she refers to herself. Laid-back, progressive political outlook. Way out on the left, really. The way I like it. A great poetess, as the words to the songs can attest.Free Music Review: Great Album
Hit: 4 Stars
I love the new album. Its a great piece of work. I always enjoy listening to Ani. Of course I love all her great songs like 32 flavors,dilate and jukebox.I highly recommeded if you like this album to check all the others out.Free Music Review: A mixed review for a mixed album.
Hit: 3 Stars
When I first listened to this disc, I thought, "They're all gonna come back." The songs that launch the first cd addictively, energetically bridged the Ani Gap--you know, that windswept land of obvious jazz and funk influence where so many fans began to peter off, after, say, Up Up Up Up Up Up, and had completely disappeared by Revelling/ Reckoning. "Swandive", a great song from probably her most accomplished album so far (Little Plastic Castle) was right out of the middle. It had what they dig: Ani, overtly teed off, mostly guitar, and as lyrically and instrumentally plucky as the pursits prefer. Then "Letter to a John"--an "oldie." It's such a staple of the "old" Ani, but she and the band revamp it and it makes sense with the keyboards and horn that turned of so many fans. And then, right when she's got them to appreciate her new angle, she goes into the "new" Ani--"Tamburitza Lingua"--and it's so fun! It makes sense! They're gonna get it! They're gonna come back! Up Up Up Up Up Up and To The Teeth sales will soar!!Unfortunately, that doesn't keep up. Granted, it shows again with the version of "Gratitude," and to a much lesser extent with "My IQ." And some of the people put off by anything after Dilate might come back to her last three albums with more openness. Those albums deserve it. I'm a big fan of the last three albums. But not all the versions here make such a case for a second listen. Ani Difranco fans nowadays generally seem to be one of two sorts: either they insist on the superiority of her stripped down guitar/direct and overtly political days, or seem to worship her without considering what she is actually doing. Let's face it, something is often askew with the new approach, and it really shows on this disc. I am not sure what it is. The musicians' ability? Their comfort with each other? Their passion? It feels a little forced. And it gets so old: the same old couple of piano keys, the same trumpet notes and same flippin' trumpet intros. Or, a bunch of half-funky noise. On her most recent albums the trumpet and keyboards mostly work--but not here, and not nearly as often. Way too often her new songs and delivery on known songs are just not engaging. Sometimes, god forgive me, fan that I am, I feel like I'm listening as a favour. Her version of "Loom/Pulse" is a case in point. Nothing is much fun there. The vocal delivery, the drums, accordian, trumpet, electric guitar...you are not interesting, intelligent, creative, or a fun just because you play with Ani or play Ani Difranco songs. And that includes Ani. Think of the Living in Clip and Little Plastic Castle versions of these songs--they are fantastic. Go back and listen to "Jukebox" on Up Up Up Up Up Up. It's obvious that the passion and ability is on that record, as promising as this version begins. "You Had Time" is so promising, but then we get a couple of musicians who come off like they are thinking of being somewhere else. On "Shrug," it sounds like no one wants to be there.
Having said such possibly scathing things, let me state the obvious that this set is worth owning for the phenomenal "Self Evident." On music alone! If only all her performances with the band could have been so sharp! *That* is what they are capable of, that is what they should be doing. (It makes their other work here twice as embarrassing, frankly.) It really is amazing, folks. Ani nails the grief, significance, and the double-pronged peversity of 9/11 . Truly not to be missed. You'll understand and feel more each time you listen to it. So...five stars for Self-Evident. Four stars for a handful of performances, and a reluctant three stars at the rest of the tunes. It's not whether or not I like the cd that I can't figure. I do. It's how much. When you buy it, I hope you find it frustrating less often than I do.