Out of Range

by

Ani DiFranco

Edit

This is definitely a MUST for any Ani fan, or for those who want to indoctrinate themselves...It's visceral, immediate, pure Ani, and it's amazing from beginning to end...It's songs stand on their own, but together in an album they are pure magic. In my opinion the first standout is 'Buildings and Bridges' - you can't not stop and take notice of this song in which she draws parallels on the necessity of one's ability to shift, grow, change, and ultimately accept life, by comparing it to the necessity of the built environment (a human creation) to bear the shifting tides of the earth. The thoughtful observation, pure emotion and truth of what she is saying creates a song with magnitude and breadth. 'Falling is Like This' is gorgeous. 'You Had Time' is so quintessential Ani - haunting, sad, layered, a foreshadow of the great artist she has, and continues to become. Don't miss it.

This is the only early Ani album where I feel like the review I am writing now will be quite different than it would have been had I written it years ago during my initial exposures to it. This is the early Ani album that has held up the least over the years, in my opinion. As is the case with many of Ani's albums, this one has some of her best tunes ever. Performance-wise though, there is something about this album that doesn't hold me as much as her other early ones still do.

That's not to say that it is a bad album at all. Buildings & Bridges, Hell Yeah, and You Had Time are great performances of some of my favorite of her tunes. It's just that in the years since... take Overlap for instance. In terms of commercially available versions, the Overlap on the Living in Clip live 2-disc set renders this Overlap utterly null and void. Not owning Living In Clip would seem (to me) to be the only possible explanation as to why someone would still listen to the version on Out of Range.

Having said that, obviously anyone who is more than just a casual Ani fan should buy this album. Like I said, the 3 songs/performances I listed earlier are great and are not to be missed. Also with more electricity than her previous (at the time) releases, this one is a bit of a glimpse into her future electric bands and evolving aesthetic.

Letter To a John, Overlap, Out of Range, etc...song-wise, the goods are here, it's just that by now there are performances of these great tunes that seem to make these versions sound like nothing more than the jotting down of some ideas that would go on to bloom into perfection at later dates.