Ani DiFranco heads back to where she came from on her latest album Educated Guess.
That's almost right. DiFranco has returned to that uncomfortable space close-up and breathing in your face with her sound and message, but each album brings us a new Ani and the 18-year-old girl just ain't coming back.
Still, for those DiFranco fans who felt left behind when the folksinger veered away from the urgent intimacy of her early albums and into bigger, many-piece band territory - this one's for you.
DiFranco did all the work on this album, everything short of hand-delivering it to your house. She wrote the songs, of course, played all the instruments, made most of the artwork in the CD jacket and did her own back up vocals. She recorded and mixed Educated Guess on old school, reel-to-reel equipment in a "shotgun shack in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans," according to a news release.
It's obvious that DiFranco is feeling a little more grown-up, but the wizened bard is still singing about the same things. Some topics just seem to haunt her life.
Fresh angles keep the work alive and represent a view that resonates with maturity. Her political poetry has grown more sweeping, holistic even, and her love songs contain a deeper, more vulnerable hurt - likely due to her recent separation from her husband. Though her powerful sense of humor doesn't take the main stage on Educated Guess, it's writhing restlessly just beneath the surface.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The result is a fragmented, ugly little album that emphasizes contrasts with fractured, squeaky noises, weird twangs and bluesy vocals.
So, how did this twisted monster end up being so singable? Some people just know how to write songs.
From the opening track, the dissonant and lively "Swim," to the final song, the painful and striking "Bubble," DiFranco stays the course she set at the beginning of her career on her latest effort. She's honest, even when it's not easy.
Aside from only a couple of diversions, the majority of Educated Guess seems to be an attempt for DiFranco to process her loneliness, her restlessness, her insomnia - basically, the feelings that make up a lovelorn state.
So the portrait of DiFranco on this, her 16th album, is perhaps a little more fragile than usual, but the staples remain in tact.
She preserves the lyrical genius she is known for. She hasn't backed away from her controversial politics and maintains an awareness of power imbalances in personal relationships and global situations.
In short, she still isn't a pretty girl.
