Righteous Babe
2008
Red Letter Year
About This Album
Ani DiFranco's Red Letter Year is, upon first listen, a shock to the ears. It's easily the most lush and elegantly recorded album of the 18 studio offerings she's created thus far. There are precedents in her catalog for music that resembles this: songs with full arrangements and more complex textures and melodies to be sure, but as an album, Red Letter Year stands out clearly in the same way Dilate and Little Plastic Castles did when they were released. Part of the reason for these new musical directions is perhaps her relocation to New Orleans from Buffalo and the building of her own studio there with producer and life partner Mike Napolitano. Another undeniable dimension here is motherhood. DiFranco is not given to giddy sentiment, but the presence of new life is obvious here. Her guests are wildly varied: a string quartet that boasts violinist Jenny Scheinman, guitarist C.C. Adcock, and the Rebirth Brass Band. DiFranco's now trademark style of rhythmic acoustic fingerpicking is largely absent, but it's not missed. It appears selectively on "Present/Infant," "Star Matter," and "The Atom." The album-opening title track is a beautiful hint of what's to come, its slippery horns, Todd Sickafoose's sparse but percussive bassline, and Mike Dillon's marimba pointing the various directions the tune takes from angular pop song to elegiac requiem.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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