Review: Ani DiFranco’s “Red Letter Year”

It’s amazing to think that it’s been almost twenty years since Ani DiFranco debuted.  Frustrated with the corporate recording industry, she decided she didn’t need them and formed her own record label, Righteous Babe.  Since then she has released roughly one album a year.  It’s not a bad business model.  You can’t help but admire her as an indie-minded visionary.  As a songwriter, she has always been strong, even if sometimes her style can be an acquired taste.  Thankfully, “Red Letter Year” is a very appealing, accessible record which very well could convert some of her critics.  The quick strumming which has become her trademark is instead traded for many different sonic elements.    The album begins with the atmospheric title track.  Some acoustic guitar accents and a distant horn section usher the track in.  It’s an off-kilter waltz, of sorts about how everything has changed this year. Like many of her signature songs, it is an extremely political song.  The echo on her voice makes DiFranco sound like a goddess calling from the top of a mountain.  Bells add punch to the song’s arrangement.  Next up is the upbeat “Alla This,” which finds DiFranco sounding her most commercial  while maintaining her strong Feminist message. “I won’t pray to a male god, /  Cuz that would be insane.” Next she has pointed words about the war and the administration when she says, “I can’t support the troops, / Cuz every last one of them is being duped.” If you have a problem with lines like these, this is probably not the record for you.  “Present /Infant” is next, and it’s another highly atmospheric song.  Keyboards are buried in the background beneath DiFranco’s acoustic shuffle.  Turned up, on a high-end stereo system, this record must sound amazing, especially once the drums kick in.  “Smiling Underneath” begins with a fuzzy guitar chug and then a drum-machine enters, ushering in a slightly trippy mood.  This is the closest she’ll probably ever get to a pop love ballad, as she sings, “Long as I’m with you, I’ve got a good attitude.”  What’s funny is that this loving sentiment comes along with lines like, “Don’t mind the stoner waiter or the poorly cooked food. / Don’t mind Little Miss Kitty and her knuckle-head dude.” DiFranco truly does set a scene and her unique perspective is one of the many reasons she has legions of loyal fans.  “Way Tight” is DiFranco in acoustic ballad mode.  She’s always been an impressive guitarist.  Even with a slowed tempo, her jazzy chording sounds skilled.  She brags, “Children seem to like me and animals too.”  The song would sound like it could be from generations ago were it not for DiFranco’s modern lyrical references and phrasing. Take away the keyboard elements and just leave the guitar and melody and you have something impressively retro.  “Emancipated Minor” brings the funk as a disco romp.  It’s got an effective repeated guitar riff, and some appealing textural sonic elements.  In the chorus it changes tempos and pounds away as if it’s driving in a point.  A low piano bangs away, mirroring the drums.  DiFranco has indeed created something very interesting here.  “Good Luck” begins as a quietly orchestral piece as DiFranco spews masterful beat-poet lines like, “Sanity painting her mask on / All the way across town. / A compact frown / Projected on her retina upside down.”  As the song continues, a tripping beat enters and this becomes another ground-breaking exercise. Once again, I marvel at Mike Napolitano and DiFranco’s amazingly intricate production.  “The Atom” is a hymn to science, praising “the smallest unit of matter.” This is no doubt a jab at those who don’t believe in science or evolution.   ”Oh holy is the atom / The truly intelligent design / To which all evolution is graciously aligned.” “Round a Pole” sounds very bare at first, but again shows DiFranco to be a very jazzy vocalist.  Her rasp is distinctive and full of mischief.  The arrangement bounces around.  Touches of keyboards come and go as if improvised.  It makes the track sound very spontaneous.  “Landing Gear” takes an acoustic guitar, pairs in with a subtle beat and some spacey keyboards. It’s a song seemingly about a global warming-ravaged (perhaps post-apocalyptic) Earth.  She sings “You’re gonna love this world / If it’s the last thing I do / The whole extravagant joke / Topped in bittersweet chocolate goo.” There’s odd warmth to her voice and to the song even as she mentions “a drowning polar bear.” DiFranco has always loved to play with language and contradictions.  Her reference to Adam’s rib brings to mind a new beginning to the world and not an end.  Like many of her songs, this one is lyrically dense.  If she wasn’t a songwriter, she could easily have a career writing books. “Star Matter” is once again, a sparse, warm jazzy number.  A soft trumpet gives the track a hint of elegance.  The album ends where it begins with an extended reprise of the title-track.  That reprise seems to be in title only as the track is a joyous, marching-band-style romp.  The beginning of the album was dark and moody.  Perhaps this is DiFranco’s way of going out on an optimistic note.  “Red Letter Year” is another strong entry into DiFranco’s extensive catalog.  It should please old fans and it should win new ones as well. It is very clear that after all these years DiFranco is more “righteous” than ever.