For more than three decades,
Ani DiFranco has made the personal political and vice versa. Whether playing solo, working the road with her trio, or in a studio with a raucous band, she has consistently shown unflinching honesty in critiquing the myriad ways in which power informs relationships across racial, social, gender, economic, environmental, and romantic lines in an astonishing variety of musical contexts.
DiFranco has also called New Orleans home for some time; many of its musical traditions have burrowed their way into her artistic DNA. While on the road in 2019, seeing America tear itself apart under
Trump,
DiFranco wrote songs and read Sikh activist and civil right lawyer Valarie Kaur's See No Stranger, a memoir/manifesto for accountable, compassionate living in catastrophic times.
DiFranco returned home as COVID-19 became a global pandemic. She felt she needed to "get people inspired to vote...believing in democracy, believing in each other and in themselves." In February, just before lockdown, she traveled to co-producer
Brad Cook's North Carolina studio and cut this 11-song set in two days with her trio and local luminaries including
Hiss Golden Messenger,
Mountain Goats,
Mipso, etc. With them she illustrated these songs at the blurred edges where soul, folk, and jazz-pop intersect.
As a whole,
Revolutionary Love is economical and smooth. The title track is drenched in gentle yet gritty soul. As a slide guitar, brushed snare, and Wurlitzer pave the way, one can hear traces of
Percy Mayfield in the melody. The lyrics are pure
DiFranco: "I will tend my anger/I will tend my grief/I will achieve safety/I will find relief/I'll show myself some mercy/I'll show myself respect....And even if you hurt me/I will not shut down/No you can't make me hate you/and carry that hate around." "Chloroform" offers syncopated chamber strings, electronics, and spiky breakbeats in a futurist tango and a vintage-sounding, rave-up soul refrain. "Do or Die" makes ingenious use of
Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up" -- complete with sweeping
Bobbi Humphrey-esque flute vamps, rolling congas, organic and synthetic drums, and sultry backing chorus vocals -- in a celebratory exhortation to regroup and re-engage. "Shrinking Violet" is a 21st century gospel blues that looks head on at an abusive relationship with stinging slide guitar underscoring her protagonist's steely, redemptive resolve. The instrumental "Confluence" makes innovative use of
Traffic's "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" riff, with rumbling pianos, drifting flute and saxophone, triangle, bass, and tom-toms. It sets up the stripped-down closer, "Crocus," a searing love song for survivors framed by strings, guitars, electronics, and keyboards.
DiFranco's singing and phrasing voice recalls
Rickie Lee Jones.
Revolutionary Love reflects its title as both a call to compassion and a call to arms. It challenges notions of personal and collective responsibility and elucidates the hope for inner and outer change, in illustrating exactly what it means to live and love in a ravaged, suffering world. ~ Thom Jurek
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