Ani DiFranco
Red Letter Year
Release Date: Sep 30, 2008
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Folk
Record label: Righteous Babe
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Album Review: Red Letter Year by Ani DiFranco
Great, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
"Present/Infant" reclaims familiar ground with her acoustic, her plaintive-voiced narrative, and some gorgeous percussion work from Dillon's vibraphone and Allison Miller's killer breaks on the drum kit. The hand percussion on "Smiling Underneath" is a beautifully unsentimental way to execute a love song. In essence, the set feels more like a very sophisticated song cycle, and very much an album.
Based on rating 7.4/10
Another red-letter albumOn first blush, Ani DiFranco’s 20th album is a surprisingly sunny celebration of domestic bliss. “Smiling Underneath” and “Way Tight” chronicle the restorative powers of love in the midst of a soul-sucking world, and “Present/Infant” and “Landing Gear” ruminate on the disruptive but joyful challenges of DiFranco’s new baby daughter. But because this is an Ani DiFranco album, the motor-mouth invocations of Grrrl Power and exhibitions of disarming vulnerability aren’t far behind.
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