Red Letter Year

I've been a die-hard Ani fan for 12 years. I buy each album she puts out without question, and will probably consider to do so, hoping she will shock and awe me as she once did in the days of Dilate and Little Plastic Castles.

Red Letter Year seems to be at the bottom of a downhill slide that started when she began playing with the voice-synthesizer and instrumentals. So much of Red Letter Year has been so overly-synthesized that you can barely hear her voice, much less make out what she's saying. Sure, some of it rings through, and you get those wonderfully Ani lyrics, but, despite much searching, I can hardly find anything here that reminds me of why I love her.

Normally, I find one or two (or three or four) songs per album that I replay incessently for weeks and months on end. There's nothing here that made me want to listen to the CD more than once. I am saddened by it, but hope that Ani will make a comeback with something more relevent, something more "ani", for her old, diehard fans.

listen to this garbage:

"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
and i can't support the troops
cuz every last one of them is being duped
and i will not rest a wink
until the women have regrouped"


2008, and Ani is still trying to sell feminists and baby lesbians on the idea that women are being kept down and that a "male god" that half of them don't even believe in oppresses them with its maleness somehow. Ani is cynically selling class warfare and men vs women activism like its still 1960. She's the feminist equivalent of Jesse Jackson at this point. Don't even get me started on the anti-soldier rhetoric

Not to mention that her voice on all these tracks sounds like she's singing underwater. They've mixed it with the instruments crystal clear and her speaking/singing totally washed out. You can't even hear what she's saying in several places in each song

For a woman who's done numerous spoken word pieces, and who has published her lyrics as a book of poetry, you'd think letting people actually hear her would be more important than that. Although, when the lyrics in question are as lame as those i just quoted, i guess you could be forgiven for trying to make sure no one can hear them

I've been an Ani fan for 12-13 years, been to more live shows than I can count, have more bootlegs than i can count, and of course own every cd she's ever put out, most of them on tape and cd, and one of them on vinyl too.

But this is my last Ani-related purchase. She's been on a downslide for 3 or 4 years and I thought she'd come out of it at some point, but its only getting worse and I'm not going to throw away my money on drivel like this. I'm ashamed to call myself an Ani fan, literally ashamed. I'm afraid that people will think of this cd when I say it instead of Dilate or Little Plastic Castle, or something she did when she was actually good and relevant

I have never been as upset at spending money on anything as I was when I put this in my cd player. I'm sure 99% of the reviews will be glowingly positive, but if you're an Ani fan over the age of 20 you might want to think twice before you get this one

This is going to be my favorite Ani album since Little Plastic Castle. I enjoyed Knuckledown and Reprieve, but I love it when she experiments and puts a bit of groove and fun into her music. It's good to see her in a good place again--musically and personally. Buy this album. It's fun; it's groovy; it's refreshing!

As some reviewers have pointed out, this album might be a disappointment for those who are deeply in love with the 90's Ani.
It's much like To The Teeth, Revelling/Reckoning, Knuckledown or Reprieve (specially very similar to this one), but actually a lot more future-oriented, sonically fairly innovative, tight and song-by-song perfectly crafted.
I'd like to say which songs are my favourites, but.. I can't mention none in particular.
I love The Atom, Emancipated Minor, and the three first: Red Letter Year, Alla This and Present/Infant. But all the songs of this excellent album are truly standouts.

Ani Difranco relocated from Buffalo to New Orleans, and this has clearly had a profound effect on her writing and musical style. And at all that (plus having become a mom) hasn't stopped Ani from continuing to be the prolific writer that she's always been. This is Ani's 18th proper studio album (never mind the many live albums and compilations).

"Red Letter Year" (12 tracks, 47 min.) brings a renewed focus from Ani. After a disappointing opening title track (yes, we get it, you don't like Bush) that is simply not interesting musically, the album kicks into gear with "Alla This", which immediately brings forward the influence of New Orleans and the Louisiana music underground. The album features plenty of horns and other brass music, and Ani makes the best of it. There remain of course several tracks of more traditional Ani songs, sparse, with acoustic guitars (such as on "Star Matter"). One of my favorite tracks is "The Atom", a beautiful pensive tune with such lines as "I had a great great uncle who worked on the atomic bomb/He got a nobel price in physics and a place in this song", hehe. The album closer is an instrumental reprise of the title track, a full brass all-out re-interpretation, just beautiful.

In all, "Red Letter Year" is a most welcome addition to the rich Ani Difranco catalog. I saw Ani in concert earlier this year at the Langerado festival in South Florida, and she brought a tremendous set, playing many of the classics along with a couple tracks from this album (which by then was not out yet).