REPRIEVE - ANI DIFRANCO
No paparazzi lens could snap a more revealing picture than the one DiFranco willingly offers with each annual studio album (16 in as many years). With the unforced intimacy that has won her legions of fans, “Reprieve” tackles the usual DiFranco topics: the ugliness of love, the improprieties of the ruling class, the separateness of womanhood and an ever-shifting view of self. It might sound heady, but she’s got the gift of lyrical precision — nothing cuts to the core quite like the resolution of a DiFranco rhyme. Musically, the album is more languid than earlier efforts without sacrificing the urgency of her patented guitar pluck-strum. And “Half-Assed,” a mature woman’s plea for a moment of truth, is one of her most fully realized songs to date. Billboard
