Ani DiFranco: To the Teeth

Politics in personality

At the last concert I went to, Ani DiFranco was visibly angered by an audience that shouted familiar lyrics and talked through new and reworked songs. Her once small cadre of fans has grown in size, but many of the newcomers have no interest in DiFranco's nuance—their desire to emulate her fierce individuality has become blindly adamant. Her newest album, To the Teeth, is exceptional and has material that will please both groups of fans, for better or for worse.

Take the title track, which targets America's inescapable gun violence problem. The song starts off beautifully, as DiFranco laments that "schoolkids keep trying to teach us what guns are all about/Confuse liberty/With weaponry/And watch your kids act it out." But the song quickly slips into the haranguing that purposelessly anti-establishment types love: DiFranco suggests we "open fire on MTV/NBC/CBS/ABC/the NRA/on each weapons manufacturer/while he's giving head to some Republican senator." Though the sentiments she expresses are well taken, her extreme terms can't help but alienate all but the deafest of listeners.

"Hello Birmingham" makes for more effective politics. DiFranco compares the civil rights movement with the struggle for abortion rights in her hometown of Buffalo, where a doctor who performed abortions was killed in 1996. The metaphor is striking, and the poetry of the lyrics is among the best DiFranco has written. She also weaves in her own abortion experience to anachronistically console an ailing, segregated Birmingham: "I was once escorted through the doors of a clinic by a man in a bulletproof vest/and no bombs went off that day/So I am still here to say/Birmingham, I'm wishing you all of my best."

Haranguing aside, To the Teeth is by far DiFranco's best marriage of personal and political, and boasts some of her most creative music. "Swing," which features saxophone great Maceo Parker and his rapping son Corey, is a great blend of funk, folk, and rap. "Providence" melds the best elements of DiFranco's talent: contrasting sentiments of tenderness and anger, high energy, and brilliant lyrics.

To the Teeth is not perfect, but it represents what DiFranco's fans crave most: smart lyrics about her personal and political concerns, set to the most swinging rhythms, and delivered in a tender, passionate voice. (Righteous Babe)

—Alan Schoenfeld

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