So many big decisions and changes in one's life come with plenty of heartache, even if you know it's for the best. Surrounding the release of this album, two major things happened in Ani DiFranco's life - she separated from her husband/soundman and ended her relationship with the full band that has been backing her for quite a few years now. Evolve marks the end of those two distinct things and the transition into new territory. The result is an Ani who seems more relaxed and grounded and less, well, tormented. She still wears her heart on her sleeve and the music is still fierce, but I get the sense she has reached that point in her life where she's comfortable with herself and realizes she'll get through anything life throws her way. It can be a lonely, but liberating place to be.
Evolve finds the band in the most comfortable place they've ever been. Ani is still experimenting with different styles of music and the soulful, jazzy sound she's been cultivating for a few years is here in abundance, but the in-your-face horns have been toned down quite a bit. In fact, all of the songs here are much mellower than most of her last few releases. This album most closely resembles the "Reckoning" half of the double-CD Revelling/Reckoning, but the lyrics on this release don't have the same level of sadness and anguish to them. Ani and her band have just found the perfect groove on Evolve - the music is tight with slick arrangements and you can tell that this group of people just gels well together.
The relaxed atmosphere on Evolve is comprised of twelve songs that slide almost effortlessly from one to the next. I've read elsewhere that some find the songs too similar, but I personally don't think mellow necessarily means excessively alike. For me it simply means this in album that you can listen to all the way through and everything meshes together like a well-crafted story.
There are still plenty of stand-out tracks on Evolve.In the Way is a funky number which superbly uses horns and keyboards to give it just the right amount of flair. The song is about breaking up with someone (her husband, perhaps) and asks, …what is in the way of my love for you?In the Way also features some of my favorite Ani DiFranco lyrics to come around in a long time: Every day we yell down each others holes, two slippery strippers swinging round two poles.O My My has a decidedly smoky jazz joint appeal and Ani uses every ounce of her well matured voice to her advantage. The title track has all the folky appeal of her first few albums and moves expertly between topics of introspection and politics. The song ends with the lines, I got more and more to do, I got less and less to prove. It took me took long to realize I don't take good pictures, cause I have the kind of beauty that moves, which I think wonderfully display where Ms. DiFranco is coming from at the moment. Shrug and Welcome To: are both astonishingly cathartic pieces that reaffirm just how real Ani DiFranco's music is. Finally, the ten and a half minute opus Serpentine seems to pick up where her September 11th poem Self Evident left off, with its sharp jabs at the government and big business.
Evolve is one of Ani DiFranco's best releases to date, but I imagine I might say that about each new album she releases. I dig the comfortable vibe of the album and am ever fascinated by the new depths Ani constantly takes her music to. Musically, I think Evolve is probably her most accessible album, mainly because it doesn't stray into too much territory that might put people off. I'm already awaiting her next release, just to see how the aftermath of separating from her husband and her stage band will affect her music. I imagine it will involve some sort of return to her roots and Evolve will surely tide me over until then.
Track Listing:
Promised Land
In the Way
Icarus
Slide
O My My
Evolve
Shrug
Phase
Here For Now
Second Intermission
Serpentine
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