DiFranco Raps Personal, Political on Charged LP

Ani DiFranco
So Much Shouting So Much Laughter

George W. Bush certainly doesn't have a friend in Ani DiFranco.

On DiFranco's second live double album, So Much Shouting So Much Laughter, she scatters political and personal statements over jazzy tunes that span the extremes of her ascending music career.

The rock folk singer puts her politics on display in "Self Evident," a nine-minute post-Sept. 11 protest song. And it's strikingly sandwiched between the 12 other tunes of disc two, named "Girls Singing Night," which presents female-focused songs juxtaposed with soundbites poking fun at female-singer stereotypes.

Though not the most musical of these 13 tracks, "Self Evident" shows how DiFranco can mesmerize a crowd and turn a concert into a political rally. DiFranco uses poetry to express love for trains and not planes, to compare the CIA to the KGB, to toast the "folks" in Afghanistan and El Salvador, to wax pro-choice and to tear Bush to shreds.

"It don't take a weatherman to look around and see the weather Jeb said he'd deliver Florida folks, and, boy, did he ever And we hold these truths to be self-evident/Number one: George W. Bush is not president."

In comparison to these sentiments and a couple of lines of the previously released "To the Teeth," the remainder of So Much Shouting is relatively tame. DiFranco favors folksy tunes over spoken political ballads. But the audience's reaction, a key part of the album, is nonetheless charged.

All the songs are performed with DiFranco's band of the past two years, including phenomenal keyboardist and vocalist Julie Wolf and a brass section to rival any orchestra. The tunes themselves come from as far back as 1991 to as recent as three new and unreleased tracks. Most of the songs are far mutated from their originals, lending older, formerly acoustic versions a new life.

And 99 percent of the time, this formula works. The ever-popular "32 Flavors" loses a bit to the complex instrumentals, but the oldest tracks, including "Gratitude" and "Dilate," have aged like fine wine under DiFranco's care. The jazzy music blends well with DiFranco's vocals, complementing but not obscuring her words.

And the words are, indeed, the highlight of this album. With the angry lyrics of "Dilate," the graphic poetry about biology and society in "My IQ" and the blatant political assaults of "Self Evident" and "To the Teeth," So Much Shouting is not for the faint of heart.

It just goes to show that after 12 years, a myriad of albums and several bands, DiFranco definitely hasn't gone soft from success.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.