weeee here's the ones that I have: Ani Difranco (1989): There isn't much to say about this.. it's her first album, and imo should be the first one that anybody gets when they get into Ani. Not So Soft (1991): If the first album was all her pre-Revolver albums, then this one is definitely her Revolver. She evolved from "simple" love songs and got more indepth with them, while adding a couple of her best political tracks too. The guitar playing is much better on this then her debut as well. Imperfectly (1992): She kept getting better on her first three albums! Her songwriting kept evolving, her guitar playing became more amazing, and she had session musicians play brass instruments on here. Puddle Dive (1993): Not a bad album, but not as good as her previous one or two. And I still have yet to hear anybody else sing songs about menstruation and nose-picking. Out of Range (1994): This album is awesome! Probably not as good overall as Imperfectly, but it's got one of my favorite Ani songs on here (Buildings and Bridges). Up to this point, I don't think she had been more diverse when it came to songwriting and song selection on her previous 4 albums. She also plays the electric for the first time here... awesomeness. Not a Pretty Girl (1995): My favorite Ani album! I don't have much to say about this... she doesn't really go into any new ground song-wise from her previous albums, but every song is great. From various reviews I've read, this seems to be the highest-rated album she ever put out. I won't argue that. Dilate (1996): This is a really great album, but could possibly be her It's Only Rock n Roll of sorts . "Superhero" was the first song of her's I ever heard and is still one of my favorites. Living in Clip (1997): Amazing. This was her first live album, and has more energy and power and everything than any of her previous and later studio albums ever had. If I had to pick, this could easily be one of the best live albums ever released by anybody. Little Plastic Castle (1998): For the most part, this isn't a bad album, but I find it to be very, very annoying (except for "Gravel" and "Two Little Girls"). From what I've read, she somewhat reached out to mainstream audiences with Living in Clip, and although she said otherwise, I think she wanted to become even more mainstream with this. Some of these songs, in my opinion especially the title track, sound like something that Britney Spears would've sung back in the day. [u]Women in (E)motion[/u] (1998): Pretty much just a boring greatest hits collection. If you have all her previous albums, you don't need to get this at all. [size=3][i][u]Up Up Up Up Up Up[/u][/i][size=2] (1999): wtf. She completely leaves her "folk" roots on this album... to become more mainstream? A shitty sellout album.. I wish I had never downloaded it. [size=3][u][i]Fellow Workers[/i][/u][size=2] (1999): This was actually the last Ani album I DLed, after her last one came out... It's pretty good. It was recorded live, and she plays with Utah Phillips on all the tracks. This is a sequel to a collaboration they made earlier, but I have yet to download (or even find) it. [size=3][i][u]To The Teeth[/u][/i][size=2] (1999): She probably should've taken more time releasing all her previous albums.. a boring album compared to her best work, she sounds really tired and there's subtle showings of self-hatred on pretty much all the tracks, and she even included some shitty rapper. Definitely not essential. [size=3][u][i]Swing Set[/i][/u][size=2] (2000): This is much better than [i]To The Teeth[/i], and it includes alternate (and much better) versions of a couple songs from that album. There are 3 covers too, none of them nearly as great as the originals, but her cover of "Hurricane" is definitely the best song she recorded in a while. You should just download that song, and the radio edit version of "Swing"... the rest of the album isn't worth the time. [/size][/size][size=3][u][i]Evolve[/i][/u] [size=2](2003): She released a couple albums in between this and [i]Swing Set[/i]... I would imagine that they, dare I say it, suck as well (although one is a live album, I'll probably download that soon). ...what the fuck happened to the Ani of the first half of the '90s? I wish she would devolve. [img]http://www.hipforums.com/forums/images/smilies/sad.gif[/img] There's nothing of note on here, in my opinion (as always). [size=3][u][i]Educated Guess[/i][/u] [size=2](2004): Well this is definitely a step up from her previous albums that I just skimmed thru, and a few songs on here kickass (Origami is one of my favorites), but for the most part, they're boring as well. I think she is trying way too hard on these last couple of albums to be a modern day '60s-Bob Dylan, when she should just be herself. [size=3][u][i]Knuckle Down[/i][/u] [size=2](2005): Finally! A later Ani album that sounds remotely like her earliest work.. the songwriting is much better than on her previous few albums, and the instruments are too. There's quite a few great songs on here, but they don't fill out the entire album like some of her earlier works. ahahaha.... well that was fun, I haven't listened to that much Ani in forever. [/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]
