 |
 |
Ani DiFranco
Knuckle Down
(Righteous Babe/Outside)
After reaffirming her independence and getting back to basics with last year's one-woman-show Educated Guess, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco returns to the land of collaboration on her superior 17th release Knuckle Down.
Artfully but sparsely produced by Joe Henry, this dozen-cut set has everything fans have come to know, love and expect from Ani -- the percussively spiky acoustic guitars, the wordy beat-poet lyrics, the mix of personal and political themes -- backed by just enough jazzy accompaniment to nudge these songs out of the bedroom and into the club.
From the Waitsian noir of Seeing Eye Dog to the haunted paranoia of Parameters, it's solid, impressive work -- not that Ani seems concerned with impressing anyone anymore. "I'm done gunnin' to get closer to some imagined bliss," she decides on the title cut. "I gotta knuckle down, just be OK with this."
Thankfully, it isn't hard to feel that way about Knuckle Down.
Track Listing:
|
1. Knuckle Down
2. Studying Stones
3. Manhole
4. Sunday Morning
5. Modulation
6. Seeing Eye Dog
7. Lag Time
8. Parameters
9. Callous
10. Paradigm
11. Minerva
12. Recoil