Ani Difranco – Up Up Up Up Up Up

For someone who is generally considered a folksinger, Ani DiFranco sure loves noise. A good portion of DiFranco’s twelfth studio album finds her experimenting with new sounds and instruments, while orchestrating five-minute-plus freeform jams recorded live in the studio. While that may be fine for Phish, it’s far from what DiFranco does best.

When DiFranco resists the temptation to tinker with overdubs, echoes and amps, her songs are powerful statements on their own. On “‘Tis Of Thee” and “Trickle Down”, she delivers a biting state of the union address without slipping into cliches or pretension. And “Angry Anymore”, with its decidedly alt-country feel courtesy of an accordion and banjo riff, is a haunting ode to a dysfunctional family. On these songs reminiscent of her earlier work, DiFranco demonstrates the poise and precision that have made her arguably folk music’s most vital contemporary artist.

But elsewhere, she just goofs off. On “Angel Food”, she spouts Dadaist lyrics over a lengthy, lukewarm funk jam. The closing track, “Hat Shaped Hat”, plods on for 13 tiresome minutes of nonsense; it may have been a blast to record, but it’s a chore to have to sit through on the other end.

DiFranco’s fierce independence and articulate songwriting have earned her an ever-widening cult following, and aiming to expand her sound is understandable, even admirable. On her recent album Dilate, she successfully incorporated samples and loops into some of her songs, enhancing her sound without diluting her message. While presumably striving for the same goal this time around, DiFranco got lost along the way, and wound up settling for self-indulgence.