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Ani DiFranco
Allergic to Water
(Righteous Babe Records)
4 Stars
BEST known for her political work, US singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco’s 20th studio album — recorded in New Orleans over two sessions when she was six months pregnant and then nursing her six-month old baby — is a more inward looking affair.
Mixed and produced by DiFranco herself as her family slept, the instrumentation is superb throughout.
Opener Dithering, a commentary on how modern living can create paralysis, employs her trademark acoustic guitar sound while the delicate folk-funk of See See See See revolves around beautifully finger-picked guitar and a pattering of congas.
Elsewhere there is a tuba solo on Harder Than It Needs To Be and lines about Buddha, Christ, Abraham Lincoln and “Miles Davis’s wives” on the gorgeous Happy All The Time.
Warm, soulful and wise, Allergic to Water is an album to get lost in. Another huge accomplishment for DiFranco.
Ian Sinclair
