Red Letter Year – Ani DiFranco
Let me start by saying that I love Ani DiFranco. Anyone who can produce over 20 amazing albums in under 20 years, while raising a child, never abandoning her roots in activism, and continually kicking ass pretty much rocks in my book. With her new album, Red Letter Year, DiFranco brings it back to her classic crunchy radical folk rock. For the most part, the older her stuff, the more I like it. But with songs like Alla This, The Atom, and the title track Red Letter Year, this quickly climbed to the spot of one of my very favorite of DiFranco’s albums. (Imperfectly and Living in Clip remain my favorites.)
I’ve grown highly critical of musicians proclaiming to mix feminism and music into one through their art, abilities, and passion. And although a person can always do more, DiFranco has repeatedly found a way to mix it up and make us think. This particular album spans the spectrum including the upbeat (and nearly too sappy for this pessimist) Smiling Underneath – “long as I’m with you/I’ve got a good attitude/long as I’m with you.” My personal favorite track, Alla This, brings me back to the late 1990′s DiFranco – “I won’t rent you my time/I won’t sell you my brain/I won’t pray to a male god/Cuz that would be insane.”
Without listing quotes from each and every song on the album, I’ll sum up by saying that the passionate DiFranco has done it again; only this time, with the wisdom that comes from being a new mom. A great album, even if it takes me months to get used to the occasional sappy lyric.
Filed under: music on December 19th, 2008 by maggiehope
I finally got this album, and honestly, I pretty much only listen to three tracks…. I do like it all, but yes, some of it is quite sappy. Now Ani has every right to be sappy and change her content and tone as she grows and changes, but I’ll never love any album more than “Little Plastic Castle.”
But two of my favorites on it ARE pretty sappy! Present/Infant and Landing Gear are both about her baby, and they are beautiful and quite profound to me.
Hearing (in Present/Infant) that Ani, an absolute goddess/icon/idol of feminist glory, still looks in the mirror and is “mad I don’t look better” is simultaneously depressing and heart-warming to me. I want to believe that some women have truly gotten over worrying about their looks – and if even Ani can’t, who could?! But hearing her admit it is also a reminder that none of us are alone in this tailspin.
And she pulls herself out because people say her daughter looks like her, and she has no question about her daughter’s “perfect right to be.” This is a moving example of learning to love ourselves as we learn to love others. There’s nothing more feminist than that!