Word: songe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...first song on singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco's new album, Little Plastic Castle, starts off with a jolt. We've come to expect shocks from DiFranco--she's a rock maverick, a singer who owns her own label (Righteous Babe Records of Buffalo, New York), who refuses to sign to a major record company and who performs often raucous punk-folk songs about music-industry greed, abortion and her own bisexuality. DiFranco is so fiercely protective of her work that she was miffed when a recent cover of one of her songs, 32 Flavors, by newcomer Alana Davis added...
Both the music and the words on Little Plastic Castle seem unfettered and fluid. There's a jokey, poetry-slam freedom to DiFranco's lyrics here that is reminiscent of some of Bob Dylan's freewheelin', socially conscious early work. In one song, Fuel, DiFranco starts off with a pointed political observation--"They were digging a new foundation in Manhattan/ and they discovered a slave cemetery there/ may their souls rest easy now that lynching is frowned upon/ and we've moved on to the electric chair"--and then shifts easily to an image of digging deeper to uncover cultural...
...weakest tracks on the album is one of the most daring--the spooky-sounding Deep Dish. It's a song that eventually grows on you a bit, but at first listen it sounds harsh and weird, with bleating horns and obscure spoken breaks that feature lines like "this is only a possibility in a world of possibilities/ there are, obviously, there are many possibilities." It's all very courageous but also very clunky...
...Broadway's usual practice, Simon defends his approach of nailing down the music first. "People kept saying, 'You're doing it backward.' But if the sound isn't right, how can I hear the characters?" Says an ex-member of The Capeman team: "Paul's philosophy is: if the song is right, the moment is right...
...more unsettling sounds. Goldie's Timeless is a smart, soothing album, with sweet-soul soundscapes that sweep the listener away. Saturnz Return pushes further and rocks harder; it seeks not only to embrace drum 'n' bass but to explore punk and classical music as well. The first song, an hourlong track called Mother, is an excessive, intermittently impressive number, complete with a 30-piece orchestra. Another song, the jagged Temper Temper, features gritty guitar work by Noel Gallagher of Oasis and snarling vocals from Goldie. A subsequent track, Digital, is powered by a nimble guest rap by KRS-One. Still...