Independent singer/songwriter/guitarist Ani DiFranco’s new release “Knuckle Down” is another hit for the musician who creatively blends “folk punk,” jazz and her own innovations to continue in new musical directions.
It is the follow up to last year’s “Educated Guess,” which DiFranco performed solo, played all the instruments, recorded the tracks at her home in New York and engineered the disc herself for her record label Righteous Babe.
The new album welcomes musician Joe Henry as co-producer and a handful of musicians that lend a communal feel to this unforgettable work.
“Knuckle Down” should be listened to with the intention of reflecting on the material that comes pouring out conversationally. DiFranco’s unique voice projects as if she is reading from her journal and not afraid to share her honest emotions.
“Knuckle Down” abandons some of the louder, more urgent work in earlier albums, like “Up Up Up Up Up Up” and misses some of the great, unabashed politics in songs like “Serpentine” from 2003’s “Evolve.”
However, it continues after 2004’s Grammy nominated “Educated Guess” with more personally contemplative pieces that continue to please. While the melodies are smoother and softer, the lyrics continue to pose tough questions and invite serious thought.
Her songs are empowering and each one tells a story. Her fans will appreciate classic DiFranco style, and people new to her work might find something of themselves in her words and embrace the camaraderie she easily creates between singer and listener.
In her title song, DiFranco croons about the naïve search for perfection and uninterrupted happiness in life and finds out that this “imagined bliss” has no place in reality.
Instead, she sings, “I gotta knuckle down and be ok with this.”
“Studying Stones” and “Recoil” are particularly moving. “Parameters” is a haunting spoken word piece about a woman finding a strange man in her bedroom one night.
“Paradigm” explores DiFranco’s family and her politically conscious roots: “I was just a girl in a room full of women/licking stamps and laughing/ I remember the feeling of community brewing/of democracy happening.” When most major radio stations continue to play empty songs with unimaginative lyrics and melodies, musicians like Ani
DiFranco continue to produce albums with meaning that intensifies with each listen.
Bailey Porter can be reached at porterb@ulv.edu.