09/05 – 09/09:

Ani Difrano, Knuckle Down

Ani seemed to be casting about in the mid-2000s. She disbanded her long time band after feeling it was getting too comfortable and released a really uneven album of acoustic solo material and spoken word called Educated Guess. This was the follow up, and it set the ship right. Ani let some of her fellow musicians back into the room, and shared production credits with the always-reliable Joe Henry, and the result is one of her strongest albums. It’s a pretty melancholy experience for the most part, but well-crafted and confident, without a weak song in the pack. “Parameters” is the record’s eerie centerpiece, slowly uncoiling a sense of dread while keeping the details of its breaking and entering story vague enough that you’re not entirely sure what you were just told, whether it was metaphor or anecdote... but you’d like to hear it again. The last track, “Recoil,” almost comes off like an offer of support after you and Ani have gone through the experience of the record together. It may not be the most happy-go-lucky record you’ve ever heard, but it’s a powerful and rewarding listen.

Ani Difranco, “Parameters” (Ignore the weird video)


Electric Six, Switzerland

Electric Six’s 3rd album, if you forced me to choose, could be my favorite. In spite of opening with a headscratching, uncharacteristically sad song, it gets off to a rollicking start with “I Buy the Drugs” and maintains it. The songs come in the familiar E6 dance rock style (“Infected Girls,” “Pulling The Plug On The Party”), but also branch out into new ideas and genres (“Pink Flamingos,” “I Wish This Song Was Louder”), and everything works. Even the aforementioned bizarre opener, “The Band In Hell,” has its charms once you get used to it. It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s their last album without a single weak point.

Electric Six, “Infected Girls”

G. Love & Special Sauce, G. Love & Special Sauce

The first G. Love & Special Sauce album is guaranteed to put me in a better mood. Their free-wheeling, laid back mix of blues and hip hop has never been better than it is here. I love the big energy songs liked “Cold Beverages” as much as the slow rolling numbers like “Blues Music.” It’s a great time.

G. Love & Special Sauce, “Baby’s Got Sauce”


Janelle Monae, The Archandroid

Janelle Monae is as close as pop music is gonna get to an actual artist for the forseeable future. I say it that way because I’m not sure she truly qualifies as pop, but she’s getting more airplay than basically worth listening to, so she’s something of a pop star. Monae is definitely an artist, though. Her ambitious vision of a series of concept EPs about a robot on the run in a dystopian future inspired in part by the movie Metrolopolis is way more complicated than... well, anything else on the radio. That she is able to make infectious, danceable music in a variety of styles without compromising her vision is admirable, that she uses her far-fetched concept to comment on today’s society like the best sci fi is engaging, and there’s no denying she’s got a great voice and a unique style. The music that comprises The Archandroid was actually intended to be parts 2 & 3 of her opus, following the independently released beginning Metropolis: The Chase Suite, but when she signed to Bad Boy (What on Earth is that about??), they convinced her to combine them into a full album. On the one hand, the album is still the default format, but in this age of single-song downloads and short attention spans, I wonder if she might not have been on to something with the EP concept. Ah, well. The music is what matters, and it’s completely worth listening to.

Janelle Monae, “Cold War”


Yup.
--D