Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year

DiFranco spreads her own good news

“Lately I’ve been glarin’ in the mirrors / Picking myself apart”, claims DiFranco early into her 17th studio album. Judging from the joie de vivre in these songs, with their admonishments to “don’t forget to have a good time”, she’s taken a good look at her lot in life and gotten herself a wide grin as a result. The album’s two years in the making is quite some stretch given DiFranco’s usual prolific output. Mark that down to the arrival of her first child and you get the sense of a life-changing event that’s gone a long way to inform the resulting optimistic groove.

Some of these songs will be recognised by seasoned DiFranco followers, the wryly reflective Present/Infant, and the mission-statement of Alla This were both previewed on her recent Live At Babeville DVD. But the newly-found zest  permeating the album doesn’t replace her familiar defiant and independent state of mind. Instead, it seems the album’s additional gestation period has added another dimension to this most complex of singersongwriters. Take it from the album’s title and find it celebrated in the album’s riotous coda Red Letter Year (Reprise): this is an artiste feeling good in her own skin.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Righteous Babe | tbc

Reviewed by Ian Abrahams
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