Ani DiFranco’s New Album “Which Side Are You On?” is Both Good and $4

Last April, bcw and I, aka The Ani DiFranco Appreciation Club, caught Ani in concert at The Filmore in San Francisco. Typically I hate it when artists play songs from their new/upcoming albums at concerts because it takes a few listens for me to really like a song but mostly because I clearly came there to hear the songs I already love, but live and in a room with a bunch of other fans who know all the words.

But we left the concert genuinely pumped about the new album, Which Side Are You On?, which comes out today and is only $4 on Amazon dot com! I just bought it and I feel really good about it, like that was definitely the best purchase I made all day. If you like it you should probably go to your local independent music store and buy a hard copy as well, just for funsies. From her website:

Which Side Are You On? marks DiFranco’s first studio album in more than three years. The collection features 11 new songs alongside a radically reworked rendition of the classic title song, famously popularized by the one and only Pete Seeger nearly five decades ago, but no less relevant today…

“I’m testing deeper waters with the political songs on this album,” she says. “I feel a little bit frustrated, politically desperate. After having written hundreds of songs over decades, I think, ‘Now what? How far can I go with this? Can you sing the word ‘abortion,’ can you sing the word ‘patriarchy’ – what can you sing and get away with? I guess I’ve been pushing my own boundaries of politics and art. Seeing what people have the ears to listen to. How big is my mouth? What can I get out of it successfully?”

Perhaps this occasion calls for a track-by-track Ani DiFranco Appreciation Club Meeting post? Time will tell…

 

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

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22 Comments

  1. DAMMIT. I got an e-mail from Ani’s website with a code to listen to this album for free before it came out and I totally forgot to do that. Oh well I guess I’ll have to wait till I buy it to hear it.

  2. yay! i’ve listened to about a minute and a half of the first song, and so far it sounds really good!

  3. I pre-ordered on vinyl (because I am that pretentious) and got it a few weeks ago. I was pretty underwhelmed. It mostly just felt really, I dunno, vague. That’s not really the word I want to use, but that’s the only one I can think of.

    “Mariachi,” is fucking brilliant though, and sounds incredible. That and “If Yr Not” and “J” are probably the highlights. I feel like the title track probably works amazing live, but falls a little flat recorded.

    • i had the same feeling zach, but i’m still determined to give another go. it’s difficult to face a mediocre album by an artist you love and admire, isn’t it? :(

  4. “Perhaps this occasion calls for a track-by-track Ani DiFranco Appreciation Club Meeting post? Time will tell…” YES. I will help you write it if you have other things to do that is how much I want this to happen.

  5. well, this inspired me to go back to the old Ani DiFranco Appreciation Club Meeting posts and compile an -ultimate ani- playlist, so there’s that

  6. Oh hey I was at that gig at the Filmore. My strongest memory is of the woman in front of us complaining loudly to her companion that the cheese board he’d bought her was “shite”. She continued even while Ani was on stage…

    Also baffled as to why the Filmore was serving cheese boards at a concert…

  7. TRACK BY TRACK
    TRACK BY TRACK

    (That was me chanting. For your first Ani Appreciation post I listened to all the songs; my first experience of any Ani DiFranco. Now I put her on all the mixtapes I make my friends.)

    TRACK BY TRACK

  8. I she still producing via Righteous Babe Reocrds? I kind of lost track of Ani. Of course she’s easy enough to find if one lives in Pioneer Valley, I mena she’s made her living off of the Smithies and transmen at the Mount for years…
    I am ranting. Never comment on blogs before getting that chocolate fix.

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