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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Red Letter Year |
| 2. Alla This |
| 3. Present / Infant |
| 4. Smiling Underneath |
| 5. Way Tight |
| 6. Emancipated Minor |
| 7. Good Luck |
| 8. The Atom |
| 9. Round a Pole |
| 10. Landing Gear |
| 11. Star Matter |
| 12. Red Letter Year (Reprise) |
Product Description
Album Description
Red Letter Year is the mesmerising new album from the legendary Ani DiFranco and is her first collection of new material in 3 years."I've got myself a new mantra," Ani DiFranco shares on her new studio album. "It says `Don't forget to have a good time.'" This mantra has clearly influenced the dozen tunes on Red Letter Year, which celebrate existence, profess love and tackle thorny political issues with an infectious sense of glee. It's one of Ani's most joyous records to date.Red Letter Year wasn't just recorded - it was sculpted over the course of two years. This period allowed Ani to concentrate on the growth of her craft - and her new daughter. "I think I sorely needed to be slowed down, and finally a little person came along powerful enough to do it," Ani reminisces. If a few of these songs are familiar to fans, it's because they've been thoroughly road-tested and approved. And all of them have benefited from a couple years of tender loving care; this is focused, layered, panoramic music. Ani DiFranco's feeling good, and she's in a giving mood - Red Letter Year isn't just a party, it's a music lover's gift.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I am a huge fan of The Little Folk Singer, The Righteous Babe, the one and only Ani Difranco. So it is with a heavy heart that I report that 'Red Letter Year' is an ultimately disappointing record.
Tempted by pop psychology and cliche, it might be said that Ani has lost her edge since having a baby. But some of the best tracks here ('Present/Infant', 'The Atom') were inspired by that experience. No, it seems more that this continues the decline hinted at by her superior previous effort 'Reprieve'. The musical flourishes are familiar, as are the lyrical stylings. They sound fine. There are no huge clangers, no totally misguided descents into new instrumentation or new sounds. Todd Sickafoose on bass and Allison Miller on drums add something, although not quite as much as they do live.
No, 'Red Letter Year' just lacks. It is just stale enough, just devoid enough of the kind of energy that characterised the other records, just self-indulgent enough, to render it forgettable.
Those who have never heard Ani Difranco before will doubtless find this pleasing. But they are strongly advised to choose a record from the near-perfect run of 'To The Teeth', 'Revelling/Reckoning', 'Evolve', 'Educated Guess' and 'Knuckle Down'. Or pick up one of the live bootlegs.
Stand-out tracks: 'Alla This', 'Present/Infant' and 'The Atom'.
Tempted by pop psychology and cliche, it might be said that Ani has lost her edge since having a baby. But some of the best tracks here ('Present/Infant', 'The Atom') were inspired by that experience. No, it seems more that this continues the decline hinted at by her superior previous effort 'Reprieve'. The musical flourishes are familiar, as are the lyrical stylings. They sound fine. There are no huge clangers, no totally misguided descents into new instrumentation or new sounds. Todd Sickafoose on bass and Allison Miller on drums add something, although not quite as much as they do live.
No, 'Red Letter Year' just lacks. It is just stale enough, just devoid enough of the kind of energy that characterised the other records, just self-indulgent enough, to render it forgettable.
Those who have never heard Ani Difranco before will doubtless find this pleasing. But they are strongly advised to choose a record from the near-perfect run of 'To The Teeth', 'Revelling/Reckoning', 'Evolve', 'Educated Guess' and 'Knuckle Down'. Or pick up one of the live bootlegs.
Stand-out tracks: 'Alla This', 'Present/Infant' and 'The Atom'.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Let's face it...it's a grower but what a grower! Don't expect anything like Not A Pretty Girl or even Puddle Dive. It's something new, fresh and original. I always avoid comparing early works with more mature ones, one might like them or not, they're just different. Red year letter is different but it can also open new doors for her music. It's her most homogeneous and maybe adventurous she has done (lots of synthesizers) since Up Up Up Up Up, even better. It's a very good album, it feels distant after one listen but it just forces you to get back to it over and over again until you actually love it. It's an album to be drown in. The sound is cool (in every way and meanings), laid-back, fire within ice. She's constantly changing and her music is following her. This new stage is very welcome and I hope she will go further than that in the future.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
29 reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Eh. Just ok.
1 Dec 2008
Format:Audio CD
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.
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.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Finally, the band works!
2 Oct 2008
Format:Audio CD
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!!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Conquering/being conquered by New Orleans
10 Oct 2008
Format:Audio CD
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).
"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).
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