For a woman on a mission with the reputation for angry, Ani DiFranco has finally sat herself down and taken a deep breath.
On her first album in two years, DiFranco reflects on becoming a mother to a baby girl and seems more relaxed than her activist alter ego. Even the record's title, "Red Letter Year," sends a message of content.
The songs sound like vintage DiFranco, peppered with her piercing electric guitar and poetic lyrics. The topics are the same too. Feminism, strength, individuality and introspection all come through as in previous albums, but this time around there's no screaming. This isn't the Ani DiFranco of the anguished 1997 live album "Living in Clip" or her acclaimed 1995 CD "Not a Pretty Girl."
It's not all baby booties and good karma either. Known to have strong political opinions, DiFranco lashes out, just not as often. On "Alla This," she writes: "I can't support the troops cuz every last one of them is being duped."
But it seems some of the room in her writing that was reserved for political and societal anger has been taken up by the happiness she's found in motherhood.
The track "Present/Infant" is almost a rock 'n' roll lullaby for her daughter, an uplifting song that has the once-bitter DiFranco singing, "I've got myself a new mantra. It says: Don't forget to have a good time!"
Maybe, just maybe, Ani DiFranco has become like the song on her 1996 album "Dilate" — a "Joyful Girl."
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: DiFranco seems to be channeling Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" on "Smiling Underneath," a wistful melody that goes back and forth between the horrible and the happy. "I don't mind the traffic cops or the TSA," DiFranco sings. "Long as I'm with you, I'm having a good day."
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