|
|
 |
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 ... Full Descriptionand 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," and a passel of songs that touch on DiFranco's outspoken bisexuality (notably "Light of Some Kind"). The difference is that the pieces fit together more smoothly than before. The relative lack of jagged edges makes the powerful emotions of the songs that much more intense. NOT A PRETTY GIRL is a masterpiece of '90s folk-rock.
Recorded at The Recording Complex, Buffalo, New York and 1:2:1, Toronto, Canada.
Personnel: Ani DiFranco (vocals, acoustic, electric & steel guitar, thumb piano, bass, percussion); Andy Stochansky (vocals, drums, percussion); Kate Fenner (vocals).
Rolling Stone (8/24/95, pp.102-103) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...Judging by NOT A PRETTY GIRL, few have done battle with the vigor, determination and brooding honesty of Ani DiFranco, a talented and fiercely independent singer/songwriter..."
Sing Out! (Vol.41 #1, pp.130-132) - "...all of Ani's expression comes together on this, her latest archive of passion....She writes songs informed by urban despair and sexual politics..." Hide Description Not A Pretty Girl Music | List Price | $9.98 (You save $1.39) | | Category | Rock Albums, Alternative CDs, Rock/Pop | | Label | Righteous Babe | | Orig Year | 1995 | | All Time Sales Rank |  7239  | | CD Universe Part number | 1195163 | | Catalog number | 7 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Jul 18, 1995 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Ani DiFranco | | Engineer | Ed Stone | | Personnel | Ani Difranco - vocals, acoustic, electric & steel guitar, thumb piano, bass, percussion
Andy Stochansky - vocals, drums, percussion
Kate Fenner - vocals
|
Ani Difranco Not A Pretty Girl Songs Purchase Not A Pretty Girl CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Ani Difranco CD (1990)
Not A Pretty Girl album
 $8.59  
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 ...
| | Ani Difranco Not So Soft CD (1991)
Not A Pretty Girl CD music
$8.59
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 ...
| | Ani Difranco Imperfectly CD (1992)
Not A Pretty Girl music CDs
$8.59
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 ...
| | Ani Difranco Out Of Range CD (1994)
Not A Pretty Girl songs
$8.59 
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 ...
| | Ani Difranco Dilate CD (1996)
Not A Pretty Girl album
$13.05 
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 GO ANYWHERE and the MORE JOY, LESS SHAME remix EP, explored this new musical direction in greater detail.
Asian ...
| | Ani Difranco Little Plastic Castle CD (1998)
Not A Pretty Girl CD music
$13.05
One-woman cottage industry DiFranco remains true to her cause on her eleventh album (she's a seasoned vet at 28!). Still steadfastly independent, LITTLE PLASTIC CASTLES, like all her previous releases, is available only through her own Righteous Babe label, as DiFranco wards off the majors who offer to make her what she already is; The Next Big Thing. Fans of the female acoustic songwriter gestalt who are too smart for Alanis and too cool for Patty Larkin will find reason to rejoice in this album.
While DiFranco's lyrics still focus on personal politics and modern societal ills, there are expansive touches added to the arrangements of many songs here. "Deep Dish" and several others benefit from some well-placed horn stabs, and pump organ, concertina and talking drum all make appearances. Despite upping the instrumental ante, ...
| | Dave Edmunds Repeat When Necessary CD (1991)
Not A Pretty Girl music CDs
$7.29
REPEAT WHEN NECESSARY ...
| | Payolas Between A Rock & A Hyde Place CD (1998) (Import) Canada; Greatest Hits
Not A Pretty Girl songs
$13.69 
| | Stevie Winwood Universal Masters Collection CD (2001) (Import) Germany
Not A Pretty Girl album
$11.79
| | Various Artists Chillum Dreams Vol. 2 CDs (2002)
Not A Pretty Girl CD music
$16.65
| | Various Artists Very Best Of The Reggae Superstars: Slow Run CD (2003)
Not A Pretty Girl music CDs
$9.05
| | Martin Lass Sonnet CD (2002)
Not A Pretty Girl songs
$15.51 
| | The Journey: The Very Best of Donna Summer CD (2003) Bonus CD
Not A Pretty Girl album
$11.89
Initial pressings of THE JOURNEY included a bonus CD featuring 12" remixes.
As one of the few performers from the disco era to have a career beyond one-hit wonder status, Donna Summer has continued forward on her creative path well into the 1990s, necessitating the release of the two-disc THE JOURNEY: THE VERY BEST OF DONNA SUMMER. Summer neophytes will get their share of this diva's classic '70s fare including soft-core anthems ("Love to Love You Baby"), streetwalker tributes ("Bad Girls"), erstwhile Jimmy Webb covers ("Macarthur Park") and songs that became ubiquitously associated with proms and weddings ("Last Dance"). Disco aficionados also get a taste of deeper cuts, including "Heaven Knows," "I Feel Love," and "Bad Girls."
This set also features Summer's foray into more straightforward ...
| | Jim Reeves CD (2007) (Import)
Not A Pretty Girl CD music
$9.19
| | Sara Evans Greatest Hits CD (2007)
Not A Pretty Girl music CDs
$15.35
A stint on the TV reality hit DANCING WITH THE STARS (which unfortunately was shortened by a messy and very public divorce) brought Sara Evans to the same sort of mainstream pop attention that singers such as Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, or Carrie Underwood were familiar with. As a well-chosen précis of her career up to that point, 2007's GREATEST HITS is a fine introduction to an underrated country talent. Gathering 10 songs from Evans's first five albums plus four brand-new songs, including the defiant first single, "As ...
|
|
Not A Pretty Girl Music Review Average Rating: (4.7 out of 5 stars)  Awesome
ALLS I GOTS TO SAY IS ANI ROCKS MY WORLD, SHE IS SUCH A GREAT SONG WRITER!! I HAVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HER CDS... AND YOU SHOULD TOO!!
Submitted by clarinetist09 (Emporia, KS, OF COURSE!!)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Ani Difrancos Not a Pretty Girl Album
Ani Difranco is quiet an inspiration, she always writes exactly what she feels, no less and no more. She is an awesome musician and a talented person. She will definitely go much farther in life and make more great albums with terrific music. All of her albums have already been a success and I own all of them, from "Knuckle Down" to "Educated Guess". They are the best music I've ever heard, and if you don't like one CD, the theme of others are all different-- that's what makes them so good.
Submitted by louis_girl200967 (Emporia, KS, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  DEFINITELY WORTHY
Ani Difranco's albums have always been marred by thin production...mostly by stubbornly refusing to make "commercial" recordings. This especially a shame for "Not A Pretty Girl", her best work to date. A lot of the songs on here are "big" songs, but only partly get off the ground. First rate narrative songs like "Cradle And All", "Sorry I Am", "32 Flavors" & "Crime For Crime" don't have the music to carry the ambitions of the words. Nevertheless, this captures the excellent songwriting Difranco is delving into.
Submitted by a reviewer (Allentown, PA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
| Have you heard this album? |  |
|
|
|
|
|
Eligible For Free Shipping on orders over $75. 
buttons below to play song samples
Windows Media
Real Audio
Adobe Flash
