| | Ani Difranco Not So Soft CD Ani Difranco Discography of CDs
Having announced herself with a quietly intense folk-style debut (ANI DIFRANCO) in 1990, this Buffalo, New York-based singer/songwriter-still barely into her 20s-almost entirely reinvented herself with the aptly titled follow-up NOT SO SOFT. Whereas much of her debut album recalled both Joni Mitchell and Suzanne Vega, DiFranco here jettisons stark acoustic beauty and instead fields a much more unique and personal vocal style.
On NOT SO SOFT, DiFranco uses a rougher, talk-singing style, her lower-register delivery owing much to both Patti Smith and Lou Reed yet more nakedly emotional. DiFranco also adds brasher acoustic guitar, a heavily rhythmic playing style that gives the album a fuller, more rock & roll-oriented sound than the often- delicate debut. Her songwriting is equally improved. She examines personal and political issues while sidestepping preachiness and stridency, even on the spoken-word title track. NOT SO SOFT is an exciting, passionate folk album with punk intensity.
Recorded at Audio Magic, Buffalo, New York in September 1991.
Solo performer: Ani DiFranco (vocals, acoustic guitar, congas).
Personnel: Ani DiFranco (vocals, acoustic guitar, congas, sound effects).
Editors: Don Wilkinson; Tony Romano.
Photographers: Scot Fisher; Karen Richardson.
Unknown Contributor Role: Ani DiFranco.
Arranger: Ani DiFranco. Not So Soft Review
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Purchase Not So Soft CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Ani Difranco CD (1990)
Not So Soft
 $7.99  
The self-titled 1990 debut by Ani DiFranco created a buzz in folk music circles unlike anything seen since Suzanne Vega's debut of five years earlier. That the album was self-produced and self-released on DiFranco's own Righteous Babe label, and that DiFranco was not yet 20 at the time, only added to the clamor.
With her shaved head and tattoos, DiFranco looked tough and self-assured. But the beauty and emotional depth of this album come from the way assertive, almost angry songs like "Out of Habit" are counterbalanced ...
| | Ani Difranco Imperfectly CD (1992)
Not So Soft
$9.09
On her first two albums, ANI DIFRANCO and NOT SO SOFT, young Buffalo, New York native Ani DiFranco was a woman alone with her acoustic guitar. She cut through the "sensitive folkie" cliche with punk-inspired intensity and a rhythmic ferocity that had at least as much in common with early Elvis Costello as it owed to early Joni Mitchell.
On 1992's IMPERFECTLY, her exceptional third album, DiFranco wisely expands her musical palette. She adds drummer Andy Stochansky (her only constant collaborator from this album onward), an electric bassist, and subtle washes of electric guitar, mandolin, and trumpet to her smartly rendered folk-punk songs. The most inspired musical contribution is the viola solo by Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs, John ...
| | Ani Difranco Puddle Dive CD (1993)
Not So Soft
$8.75 
As she was not yet 20 when her self-titled debut was released, Ani DiFranco largely grew up in public. From the stark beauty of ANI DIFRANCO and the impassioned politics of NOT SO SOFT to the tentative steps into full-band folk-rock of IMPERFECTLY, each album was a marked improvement on the one before. Her fourth record, 1993's PUDDLE DIVE, is the Buffalo, New York-based singer-songwriter's first genuinely great album.
PUDDLE DIVE contains DiFranco's strongest songwriting up to that point. The sardonic "Egos Like Hairdos" and the ominously quiet "I Could Do That Any Day" remain career highlights. The album also finds DiFranco growing more and more comfortable with autobiographical songwriting, most tellingly on the outstanding "Used to You," a compelling collection of mixed emotions directed at a former lover and still one ...
| | Ani Difranco Out Of Range CD (1994)
Not So Soft
$7.99 
1994's OUT OF RANGE, quite possibly the finest of Ani DiFranco's many albums, finds the outspoken Buffalo, New York-based singer-songwriter moving away from the explicit political statements of her earlier records. Here she further explores the more autobiographical terrain of this album's immediate predecessor, PUDDLE DIVE, while also expanding on that album's tentative steps into a full-band sound.
Although OUT OF RANGE still contains several voice-and-guitar pieces, Andy Stochansky's drumming and percussion are better integrated. Keyboards and horns also make guest appearances. Overall, the intimate, not-quite-lo-fi album sounds not unlike Liz Phair's EXILE IN GUYVILLE, a fact that probably helped trend-sniffing music journalists finally notice DiFranco-four years and six albums into her career. The astonishingly good songwriting, particularly on the stirring "Face Up and Sing" and ...
| | Ani Difranco Not A Pretty Girl CD (1995)
Not So Soft
$8.59
1995's NOT A PRETTY GIRL synthesizes elements of Ani DiFranco's six prior albums and is widely considered one of this wildly prolific Buffalo, New York-based singer/songwriter's finest efforts. Here, the folky acoustic starkness of ANI DIFRANCO and NOT SO SOFT meshes with songs that recall the detailed full-band arrangements of LIKE I SAID and OUT OF RANGE. DiFranco even remakes an earlier song, IMPERFECTLY's "Coming Up."
Lyrically, the album also refines topics previously covered. There's the abortion drama "Tiptoe," the sneering record-business diatribe "The Million You Never Made," ...
| | Ani Difranco Dilate CD (1996)
Not So Soft
$13.09
Expanding musically beyond the folk-rock-ish guitar pop of its two immediate predecessors, NOT A PRETTY GIRL and OUT OF RANGE, Ani DiFranco's seventh album in six years adds Hammond organ, synthesizer, bass, and even trumpet to what was once a stark musical vision. Though DiFranco supplies much of the instrumentation, longtime drummer Andy Stochansky and a few other collaborators assist.
DiFranco successfully expands her musical frontiers without compromising her fierce self-determination. As always, this is a major lyrical theme on DILATE, particularly on the title track and "Napoleon," a scathing and self-aware treatise on DiFranco's tenuous position as a best-selling "voice for women." Critics were puzzled by the keyboard-led, beat-heavy rearrangement of the spiritual "Amazing Grace," but DiFranco's next releases, the Utah Phillips collaboration THE PAST DIDN'T ...
| | Vanity Fare Sun, The Wind And Other Things CD (1968)
Not So Soft
$11.59
| | Soda Stereo Rex Mix CD (1991)
Not So Soft
$10.15 
| | Free Fire & Water CD (1970) (Import) Remastered; Germany
Not So Soft
$13.15
Free emerged from the British blues boom with a tight, muscular style that framed Paul Rodgers' throaty voice. Guitarist Paul Kossoff provides the perfect foil with incisive, measured solos exemplified by his contribution to "All Right Now." This successful single transformed the group from club to festival status. Free's unhurried, careful intensity is captured perfectly on the album's title track and "Oh I Wept," two songs charged with emotion. Where many contemporaries ...
| | Blank & Jones Monument CD (2004)
Not So Soft
$16.09
Unlike most DJs, the German duo of Piet Blank and Jaspa Jones actually write some of their own music. Hence this impressive album, the duo's fourth, which consists almost entirely of original compositions. Would that it also consisted almost entirely of original beats, but alas, most everything thumps along in predictable ...
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Not So Soft
$15.19
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