For a girl who has done just about everything she can musically, I give credit to Ani for experimenting and taking her sound to another dimension on Revelling/Reckoning. The packaging, clever and creative, contains some of the most beautiful pictures. However, I found that this expansive two-cd set took some getting into.
Frankly, Ani’s Revelling/Reckoning should have simply been called, Happy/Sad, as Revelling contains the more upbeat songs and Reckoning contains the lonely, depressing ones.
With Reckoning (Sad) you definitely have to be in the right mood. “So What” held some interest. With a melodic sound of trumpet and clarinet, I found it enlightening as Ani sings “who are you now, and who were you then, that you thought somehow, you could just pretend.” “Grey”, although a bit sadder of a song, had me listening repeatedly. “I smoke and I drink and every time I blink I have a tiny dream.” I figure this disc can be a good companion for those lonely cold nights alone.
Revelling (Happy), the better of the two contains some songs that after a few listens grow on you and actually become quite pleasant. Containing vocals from Difranco’s right hand man, Scot Fisher, “Beautiful Night” is tranquil with soft sounds of trumpet and bass that sweep you through the track only to leave you wanting a bit more. “What How When Where (Why How)” starts off as a funky piece with assistance from Maceo Parker, then wanders off into this silly annoying little ditty about “what, what, what, what, what,” and “how, how, how, how, how.” Many of the tracks on Reveling seem to run this way, start of with interest and then become rather disappointing.
As I said before, this twenty-nine track two-hour album will take some getting use to.
+r.b.
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