ANI DIFRANCO - NOT A PRETTY GIRL

 Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl

Angela Maria "Ani" DiFranco (born September 23, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, who has released more than 20 albums on her own record label, Righteous Babe Records. At 25 years-old an independent businesswoman, giving her significant creative freedom and creative control over everything including her records, independent distribution in US and Canada, her merchandise, her tours selling out venues coast to coast and making headlines.

DiFranco's music has been classified as folk rock and alternative rock, although it has additional influences from punk, funk, hip hop and jazz.  

She's a very bold unabashed singer/songwriter who writes lyrics no one else dares to produce. (An advantage of being the CEO of her own music company)

Her album, Not a Pretty Girl is the sixth studio album, released July 18, 1995.  The album extended the folk singer's early formula of acoustic guitar and drums, accompanied by percussionist/vocalist Andy Stochansky.  "On Not A Pretty Girl, I wanted to really scale down sound to its essence," Ani Says.

Some of the highlights and a few expected topics Ani takes on, on the Not A Pretty Girl album, include "Tiptoe", a spoken word piece about abortion; "Cradle And All", a beautiful, gut-wrenching ballad concerning a rough day in the life of a city girl who's got last night's underwear in her back pocket as she rides home on the subway, depicting a sure sign of the morning after. The album features some of her most memorable songs, like "Sorry I Am"; "Light Of Some Kind", repenting for being unfaithful, sung with heartfelt, bang-it-up umph; "The Million You Never Made", a hardcore kiss-off to the music industry, convincing why she isn't on a major label; "32 Flavors"; "Crime for Crime", a song about capital punishment.

DiFranco's gifts as a songwriter, singer, and musician, showcase imagery that is urban and gritty. The album's title track "Not A Pretty Girl", is a classic feminist song with lyrics like “I am not a pretty girl/ That is not what I do”, and the classic rebuttal to all those macho men who want to save the wounded bird being more than a beautiful woman and refusing to play the socially acceptable role of a damsel in need of rescue, with a line like "Don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down whether or not you ever show up." She addresses the classic misconception of a strong woman being perceived as an "angry woman" with the lyrics, 

"I am not an angry girl but it seems like I've got everyone fooled
every time i say something they find hard to hear
they chalk it up to my anger
and never to their own fear"

.....because people often fear what they don't understand and men are often threatened by a strong woman! 

Ani DiFranco – Not A Pretty Girl
Label:  Righteous Babe Records – RBR007-D
Format:  CD, Album
Country:  US
Released:  1995
Genre:  Rock
Style:  Folk Rock

Tracklist

1.  Worthy  4:31
2.  Tiptoe  0:36
3.  Cradle And All  4:18
4.  Shy  4:43
5.  Sorry I Am  4:45
6.  Light Of Some Kind  4:07
7.  Not A Pretty Girl  3:55
8.  The Million You Never Made  4:18
9.  Hour Follows Hour  6:01
10.  32 Flavors  6:07
11.  Asking Too Much  2:55
12.  This Bouquet  2:28
13.  Crime For Crime  5:42
14.  Coming Up  2:29

15.  Tiptoe (Bloopers)