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intereact!Ani DiFranco
Retail Price (not our price): $16.98
Release Date: 2003-03-11
Manufacturer: Righteous Babe
Format: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Track List
Now here, for your listening pleasure, the tracks...
| Disc 1 |
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com
Some 15 years and nearly as many albums into her career, Ani DiFranco--the original girl-power prophet and folkie punk--is still as willful as ever. Her lyrics remain poetic, polemical, and yes, occasionally maudlin; her musical explorations sound more like refinement than radical revision, but it's clear that she's still, well, evolving. Always a strikingly gifted and expressive singer and guitarist who employs her voice and guitar as both rhythmic and melodic instruments, DiFranco builds this set of songs on those basics but draws generously from the wide range of styles she's sampled since her stripped-down early days. A slinky Latin guitar line snakes through "Promised Land," gutsy New Orleans brass adds swagger to "In the Way," and jazzy keys, cool clarinets, and mournful muted trumpets lend color and tone to nearly every cut. Hooks are scarce in the disc's mushy middle, but the lush, horn-laden groove of "Here for Now" recaptures the momentum, and DiFranco even drops a signature 10-minute epic in "Serpentine." Like Evolve itself, "Serpentine" is sprawling, funny, angry, compelling, and entirely unafraid. --Anders Smith Lindall
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
1) Hmmm... [Rating: 2 out of 5]
I've had this album for several weeks, and I'm still not sure of my stance on it. I've listened to it about eight times, and I really think I don't like it. I want to like it, but I just feel that it's not the best than ani can produce. I know she has better. I think this album might be the product of so many releases... (26 albums and 3 EPs in 16 years? Ani, you might be overworking yourself. But then again, I know nothing) Anyway. I love it, because it's part of my never-ending ani difranco collection, but like I said, just not to ani's caliber.2) The Worst! [Rating: 1 out of 5]
I started listening to Ani in 1996. I immediately loved her music. The first song I heard was "Gratitude" followed by "Untouchable Face". I own all of her albums, excluding the spoken word ones, "Knuckle Down", and "Educated Guess". Ani was my very favorite musician from 1996 to 2003. I saw her in concert numerous times. She is an exceptional lyricist, and though some find her music to be harsh and her voice unappealing, I love her singing and instrumentals also. I loved every album that she released up to this one, including "Reveling/Reckoning," which some of her older fans didn't like.I hate this album. I find it horribly disappointing. Even if it weren't Ani it would be disappointing, but the fact that it is makes me dislike it all the more. It's depressing and boring. The lyrics are not up to her usual standards, or even the standards of a lesser artist. The sound is dull and unpleasant. She should have taken a long vacation rather than record this album. Her heart is so obviously not in it. It's forced and often incoherent. It's like she had nothing to say, but she tried to say something anyway. It's self indulgent and somewhat pathetic sounding, like she's complaining in a half assed way about something she isn't even clear on. I also think the instrumental aspect is overdone.After listen to this album a few times I found that not only did I never want to hear it again, but that I couldn't even listen to Ani's older albums for quite some time. That's how disgusted I was. That was my honest reaction. I just felt so ripped off and disillusioned. I know that some people like this album, and that is almost inconceivable to me, especially considering the quality of Ani's earlier work. I did not buy another Ani album again. I did listen to some tracks off of "Knuckle Down" and "Educated Guess" online, and I didn't like them either. I have only recently started listening to her pre-evolution works again.I would not recommend this album to anyone, Ani fan or not. It's just awful. Buy something released before 2003.3) At least she's consistent..... [Rating: 3 out of 5]
As is the case with most Ani albums in my opinion she's got a couple jems on there and that's about it. This album didn't even have many gems the one song that stood out (And really held it's ground.) Was the song Evolve itself. That tunes was almost worth the $18, and there are a couple other tunes that aren't bad but then the rest of it as is the case with all of her other albums is kinda bland.4) A disappointing effort from a brilliant artist... [Rating: 2 out of 5]
I'm not going to compare this album with her brilliant previous efforts like "Dialate" and "Living in Clip"; it's quite obvious that Difranco is reinventing her sound (again), heading off in new directions and veering away from the 'grrrrrrraaaaarggh' sound that encapsulated her early work. It's also quite frustrating because it's desperately trying not to sound like' Reveling and Reckoning', but the effect is the same: an incredible blend of texures and complex metaphors ,all mixed and honed for maximum precision until it resembles a lyrical Concorde ready to rip through the clouds. Sadly however, this plane dosen't have any gas to speak of. There's no energy, no forward momentum, nothing to pull this thing along and keep the the album's EEG active. I'm not saying she needs a throbbing precussion or rythym section, but there's so much going on here, and so little moving it, that the listening experience is quite like running in place. Her live performances aside, Difranco has produced far lesser material than this, and excuted better, which come off sounding better than 'Evolve'.5) Evolve means NOT sounding the same [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This album came out when I was going through real dark times and it's darkness sort of picked me up, saying: we can go thru this together. When I listen to the newer albums [Evolve and onwards] I never expect them to sound like, say Out of Range or Little Plastic Castle; they can't be, because it's impossible to be in a state of mind that you were yesterday or the day before. All those "righteous babes" who have their "panties a little too tight" -- loosen up and embrace her as she is changing her colors. I think Evolve is a turning point, from girlhood to womanhood sort of way, it's not a happy album, it's a bridge that goes on to another sombre phase [Educated Guess] that can be best described as "akimbo."