Amazon.co.uk Review
Reckoning/Revelling is the 13th album from the resolutely independent
Ani Di Franco. Released as always on her label, Righteous Babe, Di Franco has fashioned a so-so album that covers both the edgy break-up songs of her early career as well as her political and more funk-tinged material. Lavishly packed in an origami sleeved box (as if by the Next catalogue), this double CD of 29 songs is split between two CDs and distinct musical moods. That's the idea anyway. Di Franco fires on all cylinders, lyrically, (best lines--"TV is after all the modern day roman coliseum... and now millions sit jeering collectively cheering the bloodthirsty hierarchy of the patriarchal arrangement.--"Garden of Simple"). Musically, it's wallpaper, plain guitar plucking, bolstered occasionally by the odd stab of brass. Much of it sounds the same. However the songs are all pleasant in a low-key Me'shell N'dege Ocello kind of way. Of the two CDs, Reckoning has the strongest material-"Your Next Brave Move" and "So What" are the standouts. As a whole, it's chunky-post-pop-cum folk is a little too tired to sustain the course. Although the wild eclecticism of
Little Plastic Castle was rightly praised,
Reckoning/Revelling doesn't represent a revolution for this righteous babe. --
Helena Dvorak
CD Description
There was hardly a year in the '90s that didn't see a full-length release from Buffalo, New York's anti-folk rock icon and ultimate symbol of D.I.Y. success Ani DiFranco. So it was hardly surprising that she rolled into 2001 full-blast, sounding fully refreshed, spreading over two hours of inspired, defiant songs onto the double album REVELLING RECKONING. With her latter '90s output she had deftly cast off any shredof criticism that her earlier work possessed a certain monochromatic feel. REVELLING RECKONING continues her musical exploration.
The album finds her unique brand of mellow folk-rock imbued with a bluesier, jazzier feel than she had previously displayed. Songs like "Ain't That the Way" are a sweet yet gritty mosaic of melody. Her friend Maceo Parker drops by, saxophone in hand, for a radiant turn on "What How When Where (Why Who)", a breathy, brilliant, nomadic tune also featuring Hans Teuber's brilliant flute, which sets the sweet, misty tone of the whole album. DiFranco's knack for telling a story, and her skill in turning simple lines like "I'm learning how to be alone", on the beautiful "Marrow", into something special, persists throughout.