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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Anticipate |
| 2. Rockabye |
| 3. She Says |
| 4. Make Me Stay |
| 5. On Every Corner |
| 6. Small World |
| 7. Not So Soft |
| 8. Roll With It |
| 9. Itch |
| 10. Gratitude |
| 11. The Whole Night |
| 12. The Next Big Thing |
| 13. Looking For The Holes |
| 14. Brief Bus Stop |
Product Description
CD Description
Not So Soft is bot h lullaby and wake up call. Ani s rhythmic acoustic guitar playing and politically dense lyricism make for a melodious journey of personal discovery. The Folksinger s sentiments are as witty and humorous as ever. Using her voice as musical accompaniment the effect is stunning. This solo record is filled with honesty and the quiet plucking of heartstrings. Anticipate and Not So Soft sometimes sneak their way into the setlist and are undoubtedly crowd pleasers. Ten other tunes at large in the shadow of A merica s landscape range from bedroom scenes to bus stops. AIDS, corporate structure, gender dynamics, war and love are some heavy topics made light. Gratitude and The Next Big Thing explore feminism through stories of expectation. She Says , Make Me Stay , Itch , Rockabye , and The Whole Night spin tales of love and desire. Not So Soft is full of guitar grooves and philosophic musings from someone who s not afraid to talk to strangers. In a desert of recycled rhetoric this one is as original as the forest floor.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album is written when Ani was still in her acoustic phase, and not yet using any percussion. Right from the opening song "Anticipate", which I had only ever heard performed live, I knew it was going to be good! Buy it if you want to find out more, you won't be disappointed!!Especially with the title track "Not So Soft", which will leave you feeling mellowed out, and wanting more! Don't be fooled by the slightly boring front cover, this is a brilliant album!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
18 reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Early Gem
9 Feb 2001
Format:Audio CD
This is the album that got me hooked on Ani Difranco so long ago. Every single song is an old friend to me now. After sitting in the mud in the pouring rain at Calgary Folk Festival in the early nineties and gaping at Ani's stunning performance, I scrambled to buy this CD from the table nearby. These songs ring with poetry, melody, harmony, and rhythm. This is an Ani Difranco classic. Any who don't appreciate it must, in my opinion, be crazy. At the time I thought..."Why haven't I heard of this woman?" Friends looked at me with pity when I asserted that she would one day be a household name...without selling out. To them I say HA...FOOLS....DOUBTERS...she's done it!
Favourites of mine include "Make Me Stay" for it's crackling self-esteem, "On Every Corner" for tackling AIDS at a time when others weren't, "Small World" for the long note near the end, "Not So Soft" because I can quote it verbatim (same inflection), "Roll With It" for its protest weight, "The Whole Night" for its bold sexuality, "The Next Big Thing" for the line 'my thing is already just the right size', and "Looking For the Holes" for its lyrics. Did I miss any? ah yes..."Anticipate" because Ani tore up her guitar one day, playing this song in Calgary, Canada in the pouring rain....and I found my favourite musician. Buy it.....it's vintage Ani.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
the more i listen to upX6, the more i want to listen to this
2 May 1999
Format:Audio CD
i own all of ani's albums, and until recently, i didn't really like this album as a whole. I really dug "She Says" "Gratitude" "Roll With It" and "Brief Bus Stop" but couldn't really appreciate this album. But now when I listen to UpX6, all I can do is regret that I didn't appreciate this album when i got it. I still don't like the concert staple "Anticipate" but there is something so simple, so beautiful, and so rhythmic in these earlier Ani albums that seems to be missing in her newer work. These days I can't seem to let a day pass without listening to "Small World" a song that i once skipped. Amazing guitar work, beautiful poetry, absolute heartfelt emotion. Ani says that she loves what she does, and at the point in her career when this album was written, it is true. it's impossible not to see. these days though......i dunno. it seems a little tired and forced. I recommend this album if you're "looking for the holes" in your music collection
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
"it's better to be dusty than polished"
15 Nov 2004
Format:Audio CD
One of Ani's classic albums, this isn't one to skip. I sometimes wonder what Ani now thinks of her earlier albums such as this one. Always an intellectual with soul and compassion, she can't help but to have grown as a person since the release of her earlier albums. I wonder if she herself still relates to all her earlier songs the way she once did. I know I do. Most people at age 40 can't even write songs with the depth and emotional power of these songs, so it makes it even all the more impressive to think how young Ani was when she wrote these.
I assume over the years she has outgrown (or at least doesn't really enjoy performing) some of her older songs, but in the case of some of these great songs, I just think maybe she is so prolific that she just doesn't remember her own songs anymore. Roll With It is one example I'm thinking of here. I should look up some recent setlists to see if she has played this one at all in the past couple years. Over 10-years-old now, Roll With It has never (since it was written) been more appropriate to the USA's current mess than it is right now. This song deserves to be performed again if it has been years since she last brought it out.
Anticipate, Roll With It, Gratitude, The Whole Night, Next Big Thing, etc... this album has everything a classic Ani album has... lyrics that will pull you together, lyrics that will break you down, great guitar playing, and expressive singing. Not So Soft itself, always one of her best spoken-word pieces was great when first unveiled here, but now that there have been so many fantastic, yet drastically different live variations of it, this studio one doesn't have the impact it once had. The words are still perfect, but in the years since, it has been delivered better elsewhere.
I assume over the years she has outgrown (or at least doesn't really enjoy performing) some of her older songs, but in the case of some of these great songs, I just think maybe she is so prolific that she just doesn't remember her own songs anymore. Roll With It is one example I'm thinking of here. I should look up some recent setlists to see if she has played this one at all in the past couple years. Over 10-years-old now, Roll With It has never (since it was written) been more appropriate to the USA's current mess than it is right now. This song deserves to be performed again if it has been years since she last brought it out.
Anticipate, Roll With It, Gratitude, The Whole Night, Next Big Thing, etc... this album has everything a classic Ani album has... lyrics that will pull you together, lyrics that will break you down, great guitar playing, and expressive singing. Not So Soft itself, always one of her best spoken-word pieces was great when first unveiled here, but now that there have been so many fantastic, yet drastically different live variations of it, this studio one doesn't have the impact it once had. The words are still perfect, but in the years since, it has been delivered better elsewhere.
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