Knuckle Down

For one so prolific, there has been a surprising lack of progression from Ani Difranco. While I’ll admit that this is the first studio album of hers that I’ve listened to since 1995’s splendid Dilate, not much seems to have changed.

You sense that others know it too – the press release makes much of new working practices, including bringing in a co-producer, but admits that a new Ani Difranco album is not exactly news. Knuckle Down then is essentially more of the same and all that entails. Her acoustic guitar playing is tremendous, powerful in a way not heard since maybe Martin Carthy.

The passion and energy that has enabled her to keep up such an amazing work rate over the past few years still manages to manifest itself in her music. Some of the songs are pretty cool too, especially the string enhanced ‘Studying Stones’ and ‘Paradigm’ – a look at her upbringing by her radical mother that explains a lot of where Difranco’s own drive comes from. Yet for all this, it’s kind of hard to get excited by it all, to escape the feeling that this is just another Ani Difranco record and that the next one will be along in six months and will sound remarkably similar.

Familiarity may not exactly breed contempt in this case but is has caused the interest to wane and, while that may be more our problem than hers, Ani Difranco probably deserves better.