It's true, her music has evolved, furthering itself, keeping its shape but shedding old skin, snake-like. Ani DiFranco consistently bests herself with an album release a year, sometimes more, each one subtly departing from its predecessor. More mature even than "Revelling/Reckoning," "Evolve" takes music and lyrics up another notch and experiments with new approaches to both.
Evidence of her and her band members' influences is more prominent than ever, as different genres swirl together in a blurred synthesis of sound: a mix of jazz, swing, funk, folk, blues and latin. "Promised Land" has traces of big band, translated to fit a ballad with sweeping horn swells. "In the Way" gets the funk to the forefront, swinging itself around before finally collapsing on the floor to catch its breath, while "Here for Now" combines scat and salsa. Both "Welcome to:" and "Evolve" feature DiFranco's voice sliding between notes like only a blues mama's could.
With such a wide variety of sounds, it should be hard to hear the album as a whole, but each song stands so tall on its own it's easy to put them next to each other. Musically, however, "In the Way" sticks out like a patch of yellow in a field of blue, its happy-go-luckiness more fitting for "Revelling." The tone of "Evolve" ranges from somber to indignant, lightened up only by "In the Way," album closer "Welcome to:" and the jazzy, piano-driven "O My My."
Lyrically, DiFranco's touch has lightened over the years, a good thing for those turned off by fiery language and an in-your-face political agenda. The agenda's still there, especially on the title track and "Serpentine," but it's turned inward, more an expression of an opinion than an attempt to sway listeners.
As usual, DiFranco's diction is impressive -- lots of unlikely words that somehow fit into her tunes without becoming distracting. "Serpentine" is queen of such unwieldy words. A 10 minute opus played on solo acoustic guitar, "Serpentine" sprawls for three minutes, showing off DiFranco's instrumental prowess, before settling down. Whereas her previously released spoken poem "Self-Evident" made the mistake of boldly pronouncing political views on anything and everything, "Serpentine" sharpens her wide-angled dissatisfaction into acute sadness tinged by heavy frustration: "Pavlov hits me with more bad news / Every time I answer the phone / So I play and I sing and I just let it ring / All day when I'm at home."
Verging on didacticism but apologizing for it mid-song, "Serpentine" ends where it starts and uses a year's supply of stylistic voice techniques to get there. DiFranco reportedly worked for months on this spoken poem. Unhappy with every take, she finally chose the one that brought tears after she performed it. That sadness permeates through the recording. Some listeners may not agree with her views on the Republicrats or the music industry, but anyone who has felt frustrated with the status quo will relate to the beautifully expressed helplessness pulsing through "Serpentine."
After putting forth such a demanding song, "Evolve" takes a breather, closing with "Welcome to:." A live version was released on "So Much Shouting/So Much Laughter" in the fall, but this recording reveals more clearly the song's darker side. The first verse resounds with loneliness -- "Welcome to: / No amount of stoned makes you feel okay" -- before the song opens up in a harmonious chorus of lungs and horns. It's refreshing to hear DiFranco take the chip off her shoulder for once, opening up her face up and singing, "At least you don't have to play along today."
But that chip will come back soon and with good reason. Some dismiss DiFranco as a whiny radical liberal who is full of a lot of hot air. But you wonder where songs like "Serpentine" come from and how her sentiments are reinforced. You can bet last week they were reinforced to the point of shadowing everything else, when Clear Channel, a sponsor of her show at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, threatened to cut off her microphone if there was any political speech onstage. To a musician who has built her career and her reputation without financial help from a major label or radio promotion from a behemoth like Clear Channel, you can imagine how deep such a wound runs. Fuel for another album, at least.
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