Ani DiFranco - Imperfectly - 1992 (iTunes - Amazon)
Remember that song by Joan Osborne about God being a slob on the bus, like the rest of us? Yeah. That one. It's nothing compared to the desperate, neurotic terror displayed by Ani DiFranco on the opening track on this, her 3rd album in as many years. Dreams get shattered when you grow up and it isn't all princesses and dresses. Maybe God isn't there. Maybe you have to live your life. Maybe.
DiFranco opens her musical pallette with instrumentation and production and thank goodness because she was in danger of becoming a one note parody of dred-locked lesbian coffee shop music.
The pining of the narrator on "Fixing her Hair" is so pinpointedly accurate a depiction of a woman longing for a woman who has so obviously chosen the wrong man. If only she would listen. But she just keeps. fixing. her. hair.
Wow.
If there can be one complaint it's that DiFranco doesn't seem to be cultivating a sense of humor. She's all talons and teeth and very little laughter. But I don't miss it because what i am hearing is an artist, a young woman trying to figure out who she is and does she belong? On "In or Out" for example. And she's also seen the country (Every State Line, an a capella beauty where I can imagine Ani sitting in her cheap motel room in Alabama reflecting on just how hard this touring thing is). I do get the sense that DiFranco spent a lot of her days at the movies when she was on the road, as the cinematic idiom works its way into a few of the songs here.
What's really nice on Imperfectly is that DiFranco's singing is as assured as her playing and production. She's a singer as much as a musician. Her extraordinary talent forged in smoke filled bars across the country and Canada. Outlier, indeed.
Ani's own label's website refers to this records as "The Lesbian One". I won't argue. It's a good spin. But not the best place for the casual listener to start.
Grade: B+
A Side: What if No One's Watching, Fixing Her Hair
BlindSide: Every State Line, Make them Apologize
DownSide: The Waiting Song,
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