Customer Reviews

Canon

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been an Ani Difranco fan for over fourteen years - even having the pleasure of seeing her in small intimate venues before she became quite the force she is today. Like all Ani fans I was very pleased to hear she was "re-imagining" some of her classic songs on this compilation, but I feel kind of ambivalent about most of them. Definitely the two that stick out are "Both Hands" and "Overlap" because they really feel different than the originals, but "Your Next Bold Move," "Shameless," and "Napoleon" don't veer from the originals enough to live up to the hype.

As for the collection itself, I think it falls short in a lot of ways for both the old and new fans. Granted, it's incredibly difficult to sum up a career as prolific as Ani's (18 full-length albums and 3 ep's) in two discs because there are always going to feel like there are songs missing. I say Kudos to Ani for trying to make a career retrospective "that's arranged and intended to be played from beginning to end," as the review on her website says. However, since she's never had any legitimate radio hits, the entire line-up comes off as seeming really subjective. While retrospectives can irk the hardcore fans the most because they are so invested in their favorite songs, I am somewhat miffed that she couldn't find one single song off of Imperfectly to add to the collection (because I think that is easily the best album of her early career).

Overall, I think the first disc has a more accessible track list and is easier to be played over and over. These songs are definitely of a faster tempo because they are from the time in Ani's career when she was more of a folk-punk artist. The second disc is much more subdued being from her later jazzier period. While each has their own merits, I tend to prefer the earlier stuff more. Songs like "Buildings and Bridges," "32 Flavors," "Dilate," and "Little Plastic Castle" never disappoint, even after playing them for ten years.

In general, I think the old fans might be disappointed by the track listing here because it just doesn't do her justice. Whereas the Ani novice isn't really going to get a feel for the magic and intensity of her music just from listening to this compilation either. If retrospectives are a good way to introduce new fans to old music, then I'd recommend Living in Clip (the double-live CD she put out in 1997) or So Much Shouting So Much Laughter (the double-live one from 2002) instead. Both of those albums have a much better track listing than Canon and they are rich and full of Ani's energy, wit and banter to boot.

I love Ani. Her music, her spirit...
I already own everything available by her, but I also like compilations, new ways of listening to what has become too familiar through addictive listening. Even though this compilation does not contain all of my favorites,(Rush Hour ?)... I was sort of pulled in by the advertised alternative versions of songs available here, (they are cool), but I was mostly hoping there might be an up gragde to cutting edge standards of the sound quality. Yippie eye aye, the sound quality met and surpassed all of my hope, uniformly clear and beautiful.
As a long time fan of Ani, I am really glad to own this compilation.

Canon is an excellent starting point for new Ani DiFranco fans, but is by no means a complete "greatest hits" anthology. When creating this compilation, Ani chose songs that she has enjoyed performing over the years. The selected songs are not necessarily her biggest "hits". So although most of the most popular songs from her early folk-rock period are included, several fan favorites (Anticipate; Out of Range; In Or Out; Not A Pretty Girl; Angry Anymore; Swan Dive) are notably missing. From her later "jazzy" albums, again she omitted fan favorites like Evolve, Modulation and Recoil (which she rarely performs live but is her top ITunes download off her Knuckle Down album).

As for the five song "remakes", Both Hands and Overlap are awful when compared to the exquisitely beautiful originals. Shameless is interesting in that this is Ani's trademark rock-out song, but this version is played by just Ani and an electric guitar, sans drums. You can hardly tell that the other instruments are missing until the drum solo section (which is now a guitar solo). I found both Napoleon and Your Next Bold Move to be acceptable remakes, but unremarkable. Ani has done several other, better versions of Napoleon.

In general, the remakes were disconcerting to me because I'm not used to hearing Ani play an electric instead of acoustic guitar, and she sings the remakes in an unusually high-pitched voice (not sure why). Of the 5 remakes, Shameless is the most appealing, and I really hate the new Both Hands. Oddly, Ani's 2007 Canon tour featured a new arrangement of Untouchable Face that's fantastic and superior to any of the remakes on the Canon album. On her Canon tour, Ani's actual live performances of the "5 remakes" are both different from and far better than the versions on the Canon album.

As with all the recent albums from the Righteous Babe, the CD packaging (with complete lyrics and liner notes) is excellent and the sound quality is superb (My early Ani albums were on cassettes not CDs, so I may be comparing apples to oranges). So, Canon is a great compilation which provides an overall feel for the breadth of Ani's music, but should be treated as a starting point and not a comprehensive "best of" collection.

Back in my college days, I was a staunch supporter of the whole grassroots/DIY music scene. One of my favorite artists in this scene was Ani Difranco. I had read quite a bit about her and on a whim decided to check out her music. Unfortunately my taste in music changed over the years and my interest in Ani waned. Recently I tried listening her recent albums but I couldn't get into them. I was very pleased to see that she had finally put out a two disc greatest hits compilation called CANON. CANON did not disappoint me. It was a nice reminder to what made me fall in love with Ani's music. Between the two discs, disc one is my favorite because they contain all of my favorite Ani Difranco songs like "Little Plastic Castle" and "You Had Time". I couldn't get into disc 2 since I am not a huge fan of Ani's more recent material. I thought it was interesting that Ani would re-record a few of her classic songs on both discs. Most of them I didn't mind but I wasn't particularly fon do the re-recorded version of "Both Hands". I think the original version was perfect in every sense of the world. All in all, I think CANON is a good introduction to new Ani Difranco fans as well as a refresher course for old fans like myself.

This album is a two-disc set of Ani's greatest hits...she also has new versions of a few songs. Her new version of "Napoleon" is terrible and the new version of "Both Hands" is quite poppy, but it is growing on me. This is definetly a great buy.

I only learned about Ani diFranco yesterday browsing the net. I heard a couple of tracks and was hooked! I purchased the two-album Canon set hoping it would get me uptodate with this artist - if you know what I mean. I am totally hooked. Her voice is fantastic, musical arrangements are excellent, and the lyrics have substance! I thought listening to 36 tracks in a row might get boring. Not a bit of it. The musical surprises keep coming and I can't praise it enough! I'm not a great fan of folk music generally - but this is great. Enough said. At least listen to the samples to see what you think. (A bit of coarse language here and there.)

Ani is still the cream of the crop when it comes to lyrical poetry and acoustic guitar action. I haven't found any lyricist in any style of music that does it better. Watching her play the guitar is often an exercise in trying not to stare dumbfounded at her amazing & unique technique. The fact that she's cute as hell and twice as entertaining & smart doesn't hurt either. You can't go wrong with Ani in general, and this album is obviously no exception, being some of her best, as well as some reworked material even this fan-from-the-start hadn't heard before.

Great compilation of some of her best work. Of course, some notable songs had to be excluded for the sake of time. Nevertheless, this CD provides a two hour timeline of classic Ani music. I would definitely recommend it!

I bought this at an Ani concert a few months ago and haven't been able to stop listening. The re-recorded versions of a few of the songs are well worth it!
This is a wonderful purchase for less than well off college students (like me) who love Ani, but can't afford to buy every album.

I can summarize this review into one sentence.
Folks, for me this is one of the technically and artistically best CDs I have ever heard.
I have a home music recording studio and record and sound edit myself.
That does not make me any expert, but IMHO, the technical quality of this CD is "to die for!"
The artistic ability of Ms. Difranco is at its zenith (IMO).
If you are an admirer of Ms. Defranco, IMO, it doesn't get any better than this.
Her support musicians are amazing.