Customer Reviews

Red Letter Year

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

I was always crazy about Ani's solo work, going back to the early 90's, but I have always regretted her decision to try to develop a full band -- the amazing qualities of her musicianship and songs never translated to an upright bass, terrible horns, and marginal rotating bandmates. However, the new album achieves some awesome heights, particularly the tracks 'Red Letter Year', 'Alla This', and 'Smiling Underneath'. Her signature percussive guitar attack is all but gone, but I think she finally may have found a sound with her band. The drums are extraordinary throughout, and some very interesting effects/sounds pepper many of the songs. However, even more so than the improvements in the band, Ani's voice has reached an incredible maturity. In many songs, there's a simple (yet very strong) sweetness to it, and very seldom do you hear the overly-affected vocal tremolo that has marred her singing style on the last few albums. If you take away the inexplicably horrible final track (which sounds like a bunch of drunk high school band castoffs trying very unsuccessfully to sound "fun"), this album is truly a treat. Highly recommended, especially for those who may have been avoiding her recent albums due to the reduction of the visceral results of her and her acoustic guitar. Great job Ani!!

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).

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 has become the Lindsey Buckingham of her generation. Once an amazing guitarist and lyricist with wicked hooks and brilliant metaphors and use of symbolic visuals, she is now one step away from puting out an over-produced album of her banging on pots and pans with her "band-mates" howling in the background and playing xylophones. Everything since Evolve has been complete trash. And don't think she doesn't know it. How many more live albums does she have to put out to cover the wasted effort of all her new stuff. I have seen Ani in concert over 20 time over the past 15 years but after seeing her last year I cant take it anymore- It's like going to the funeral of someone you once admired and loved. Please Ani, pick up a guitar again and take another creative writing class at the New School or NYU, or maybe just walk down a ghetto street- please do something to get it back, cause baby, you have lost it- take that metaphorically if you like...

Personally, I can't see how anyone can not notice the difference between early- and mid-era Ani, and this. The poetry has gone, the easy facility with words. The insight. But mostly, the passion. It's partly that this album took a long time to make, so it lacks the urgency and "splurgey"ness which gave her earlier work such vitality, and partly that she has much less to sing about these days. That's not a criticism of her. She grew up, her perspective changed, she got sick and tired of being sick and tired. Unfortunately her wonderful biting anger hasn't been replaced by wisdom or mellow humour, just a cardboard version of itself.

Aside from the woeful lack of inspiration evident on Red Letter Year, it is horribly over-produced, so that it feels like not only were the lyrics laboured, the sound was too.

Ani is open about being ashamed by her work afer it's done, because it's an in-the-moment blurt-out full of mistakes and fleeting emotion. She said she's much happier with this one because she took it slow. Ironically, that's what makes it, in my view, so awful.

I will admit my dislike of this album is partly because Ani and I appear to have parted ways in terms of belief and concerns. "The Atom" makes my toes curl. I have a problem with the sentiment, which would be okay except its delivered so awkwardly, it's basically an ill-informed, over-opinionated rant. I cannot listen to that song.

Like many reviewers here I have been an Ani fan for over a decade, but I can't see myself buying any more of her work. Her latest unreleased songs aren't terrible but they're not great either. There seem to be a number of newer fans who really like this stuff, who see "change" where I see "decline", and more power to them. I'm backing out at this point, it's too painful.

Taken with permission [...] Michael Devlin, Editor

Much of DiFranco's catalogue is autobiographic, so being a fan of Ani is somewhat of a serial experience. Teen fans have quite literally grown up with her, blogging every beat of the heart on her sleeve, while the folks in my somewhat older generation have been cheering her on as she matures. For a restlessly creative artist such as Ani DiFranco, there will be some albums that are interesting transitions and experiments, but make no mistake, Red Letter Year is an arrival! It's not hard to connect her biggest arrival, daughter Petah, with the changes in her music. The teen who started her own record company is now a woman with a one-year-old boss, and a world of love that was previously inaccessible. Ani has always had the tools, the ferocious guitar playing, bunk-defying lyrics, openness to influence and total commitment to her music. Now she has a deeper well of joy in which to base her talent. The songs visit many of the same themes as she has on previous albums, politics, relationships, feminism and self-definition, but she's doing it all from a fresh perspective. Co-produced with partner, Mike Napolitano, the songs are crafted with as much or as little backing as they demand, drawing from indie rock, electronic, acoustic, R&B and even the New Orleans sound of the Rebirth Brass Band. There are many satisfying, beautifully conceived songs to enjoy, but it is hard not to be most charmed by the songs that deal directly with Petah and her birth. In particular, "Landing Gear" is a song I'll want to share with friends expecting a child. Red Letter Year is a very special convergence of a reason to sing and an artist ready to do so! --Michael Devlin

I've been a hard core Ani fan for over a decade and have all her albums (except this one which after listening to it a couple of time I've decided I will not buy). There were always people around to say how her work was getting worse- blah blah. I loved all her albums. My least favorite being To the Teeth which I still liked enough to buy & listen to over & over. Well that's not my least favorite album anymore. I was surprised by the stellar reviews- until I actually read some of them. Even people who give this album 5 stars are stating it's her worst. Some say that they hated it the first 5 - 10 times they listened to the album, but now they love it??? If you have to make yourself listen to an album that many times to make yourself enjoy it there's something wrong with it, sorry. I suppose the ratings are given out of loyalty to the artist from her fans. I can certainly understand that, but I try to be objective myself regardless of how it hurts me to give my favorite artist only 2 stars.
The problem I have with red letter year is many of the songs lack alot of the poetry that Ani has been known for. She just comes out and says that War Sucks, That Republicans Suck, that Anti-Feminism sucks... A lot of it is just flat out her opinion which we ALL know by now. And though I agree with much of her ideals it really gets old hearing the same stuff over and over after so many albums. After listening to this album I started thinking about why it is her earlier work continues to be popular while her later work falls by the way-side. The problem is that Ani's work has become more and more complex. In every art form the masters always say that simplicity is key. The best & most renowned chefs make their recepies as simple as possible, The best painters and sculptures use the simplest techniques, The best poets often use the most basic vocabulary- In music it is the same way. Very often a basic accoustic guitar with a slow & romantic tone is more moving than the most synthasized and worked with piece. Ani was simpler- more basic then. She has evolved well through the years and has added a little spice now and then- but this album is more bulk than spice. So much is synthasized including her own voice. The fact that she makes so many songs with words specifically about what "she" thinks (which is individual) rather than what she "feels" (emotions being more universal) can come across a bit narcisistic and deprives the listener from being included at times. Regardless of the fact that I believe in her idealisms, who wants to sit there and listen to anyone rant about what 'they personally' believe for hours on end? What another reviewer said about Ani's feminism lyrics has some truth to it. I definitely consider myself a feminist, but some of her lyrics in this album can come across as anti-man. I don't think Ani realizes how many male fans she has. Though you see mostly woman at her concerts here in nyc her I once knew a few heterosexual guys who collected all her albums and proudly displayed them on their walls. A good artist will be celebrated by everyone regardless of their beliefs as long as she doesn't alienate people. I found this album to be alienating both musically and lyrically. I still love Ani and when people ask about my favorite solo artist she's still my #1, but I'm sad to say this will be the first & only Ani cd not to be found in my collection.

I love Ani. Several of my most-played songs on iTunes are Ani songs. But this album... I hate to give Ani one star, but I thought this album was horrible. I guess every artist needs to experiment--and Ani is a great artist--but I like Ani best when it's her and her guitar. Most of the songs felt cluttered. The other instruments weren't doing it for me, and I didn't keep a single song from RED LETTER YEAR.

The engineer, producer & artist need new ears!!! Either that or need new mixing speakers that give you a real idea of the mixes!!! If someone did not know Ani's music they may never find out what the music is really like based on this!!! Ani fire everyone and try new people!!!