Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle -1998 (iTunes - Amazon)
After breaking into the mainstream with the live album Living in Clip and the two phenomenal albums before it Ani was presented with a new challenge. Namely what to do with this newfound respect and notoriety. Should she still be the pissed off bisexual? The angry feminist? The lovelorn folkie? The punditizing troubadour?
Or all of it? But, with two fabulous added ingredients: A band that has really come together over the years and, um a sense of humor.
Opening with the brilliant mariachi strains of the title track Ani takes stock of who she is, what she is and, at coffee she notes to her companion that "you are by far the cutest" but they should be careful because, "these people want to shoot us."
Only Ani isn't defiantly angry about that. In fact, she's a little more pissed that the culture of rebellion in rock has so quickly given over to "cross-marketing" it's about product and sunglasses and the "font of teriyaki". The semi-spoken word "Fuel" addresses this with great alacrity.
For the first half of this album Ani gives the sense that she knows that the world is watching. She isn't compromising but she's not selling out, either.
The traditional noodle-fingered folk rock doesn't really make an appearance until the second half of the album (Loom) but even then, the band won't let her get away with that. This is a big sounding record for her. They are all having a grand time playing with tempos, styles.
I just remembered that this was really my last dance with Ani at the time. Yes, I bought more albums. But I actually never listened to them. I've only gotten the more recent ones for this retrospective.
While LPC was always in my 10 disc cd changer in my car, I never once listened to the second half of the album. So, just hearing it now is a surprise. There is nothing familiar. I would be ashamed but on the other hand I get to experience this and the rest for the first time.
There are a couple curios on this album. The strange, haunting "Glass House" for example. While I am sure that it's about dealing with her critics and/or those who would judge her, its the first time in eons, if ever, that the music of the song outweighs the lyrics. The words are almost buried, the melody more of an improvised music line than melody. And it really works.
The other is "Pulse" a 14 minute (!!!!) spoken word relationship elegy set to a smooth jazz background. It actually kind of works BECAUSE of the music. It's hypnotic and easy to fall into and Ani's voice is jazzy with just the right amount of smoky late night bar. It's easy to forget that it's playing and I would have been happy to fade out about 4 mins in at the seemingly endlessly repeated chorus of "I would give you my pulse, I would offer you my breath." but then, after about a minute of what sounds like a concertina Ani suggests that they "hold here", which is the cue for John Hassel's trumpet to take us on the rest of this dream. The instruments then trade off, the sound gets lusher, moodier. It's lovely.
Grade: A
A Side: Little Plastic Castle, Fuel, As Is,
Blind Side: Two Little Girls, Deep Dish, Glass House, Pulse
DownSide: Nothing.
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