New album: Allergic To Water
Artist: Ani Defranco
Label: Righteous Babe
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Recorded in little over a week and partially at her New Orleans home, Ani Defranco’s new Allergic To Water is her best work since 1997’s Living In Clip.
Running her own record label hasn’t diminished Defranco’s restless musical appetite. If anything, the freedom she’s earned through her tireless D.I.Y. ethic has allowed her to make increasingly personal albums. Allergic To Water was recorded while Defranco nearly seven months pregnant, so one can only imagine the effect the impending birth had on her point of view.
Peppered with longtime sidemen and New Orleans locals alike, the sound and texture of Ani Defranco is warm and immediate in the vein Daniel Lanois. It’s as if you are in the room when Defrancco lays down her trademark sumptuous acoustic guitar work on “See See See See.” For “Woe Be Gone,” what could have turned into a Garrison Keilor pun-off instead reveals itself to be a murky yet mysterious psychedelic diamond. “Careless Words” — again driving by Defranco’s masterful guitar playing — is the type of late night acoustic song one would imagine David Gilmour and Richard Wright kicking around in 1971.
While the quality never lags throughout Allergic To Water, the zenith of the proceedings is “Harder Than It Needs To Be.” A track presumably dealing with the unnecessary complications of everyday life, it features one of Defranco’s most soulful vocals — and a sousaphone. Don’t think about it too much, just find a way to hear it as soon as you can.
Defranco proved herself to be one of the greatest artists of her generation a long time ago, and Allergic To Water is another feather in an already crowded cap.
Classic album: Glory b Da Funk’s On Me! The Bootsy Collins Anthology
Artist: Bootsy Collins
Label: Rhino Records
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Funk music’s answer to John Entwistle, Bootsy Collins first garnered national attention as a member of James Brown’s band. Once the guys in the band started asking for more money, James cut everybody loose. George Clinton picked up several of Brown’s laid off musicians, thus giving birth to 1970s funk music.
With Clinton’s bands Parliament and Funkadelic, Collins took James Brown’s lessons in being tight and combined it with the looseness that he exuded. As a result, Collins created some of the loosest yet in-the-pocket grooves ever recorded. It’s been reported that the first people who heard Collin’s watery groove on “Stretch Out” actually slid right off of the dance floor.
As many know, Rhino Records is the absolute best in compiling anthologies, and this Collins set is no exception. Culling tracks from 1976 through 2000, the album features performances from James Brown veterans Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker. Hits such as “Psychoticbumpschool” and “Shine-O-Myte” are all here.
Collins has influenced several generations of rockers and rappers. His influence should not be underestimated, and this compilation is the best overview of his illustrious career. Although many people know him only as the crazy looking guy who played bass on Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is In The Heart,” he laid the foundation for most of the R&B/funk grooves that rippled in his path.
Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon Dawson at www.jondawson.com.