Ani DiFranco
Little Plastic Castle
Righteous Babe
It’s doubtful that you have not heard of Ani DiFranco. The woman who shunned the corporate record industry has appeared on nearly every music and entertainment magazine cover in the past year. Little Plastic Castle is the follow up to Dilate, which, you’ll recall, helped take her out of the coffee houses and onto the cover of Spin. Although she has released a spoken word collaboration with Utah Phillips and a double live CD, this new record has been eagerly awaited for some time. Disappointment is far too strong a word, but it does rank below DiFranco’s best albums, Dilate and Not a Pretty Girl. But it does have its moments. It is an ambitious album, breaking free of the bare bones folk approach and bringing in more sophisticated instrumentation, including horns and keyboards, to compliment her astounding acoustic guitar work. The album is by far her most accessible to a mainstream audience, which may bother some of her die hard fans, who don’t want to share her with the rest of the world, but it may be too late to keep that from happening. The world is discovering Ani DiFranco, and hopefully they will realize the rare gem she is. Righteous Babe Records, P.O. Box 95, Ellicott Station, Buffalo, NY 14205
