Ani DiFranco
Knuckle Down
On Righteous Babe Music/BMI
A-What wouldn't you give to be Ani DiFranco's guitar strings? Your inner masochist must yearn to be beaten in the way that those strings are constantly abused. And yet the pain that pours from DiFranco's hits us as beauty in sadness.

DiFranco lives up to her reputation with her latest album, Knuckle Down. The album is filled with poetry put to music that highlights her astounding lyrical skills.

It is impossible to listen to an entire DiFranco album and not find a song that touches you. Her poems (you may call them songs, but that is a vast understatement) about relationships seem universal.

She separates herself from similar artists by avoiding literal expression of emotion. Her stories, allusions and analogies speak so much louder than anything created by her peers. Check out "Seeing Eye Dog" and "Manhole" for good examples of her poetic strength.

And don't worry: She doesn't only talk about guys on the album. DiFranco skillfully wields her lyrical prowess to create songs about her life experiences, especially in songs like "Parameters" and "Paradigm."

Give this album the time it deserves. You'll find at least some fulfillment in her peerless poetry and musical cadence. Pain, happiness, and all the rest: DiFranco has understood it all. Now we know why she beats those strings so hard.
-Laura Wolf



...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Worlds Apart
On Interscope Records
B

What a long and strange trip it's been for ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead. From their beginnings in the Austin, Texas indie scene to the critical acclaim of 2002's Source Tags & Codes, this celebrated band has come a long way. The resulting experience appears to be crammed and compacted into their latest release, Worlds Apart. Much as the title suggests, Trail of Dead present something that is truly unique to this world of music.

"Classic Art Showcase" is a key track, emanating with the uniqueness of the new record: a song complete with ambient, robotic background noises, operatic structures and choir-like vocals splashed on top of a canvas of hard, powerful, melodic rock. "Caterwaul" is the album's most radio-friendly song, with choruses reminiscent of Modest Mouse's recent work, complete with a piano arrangement that appears throughout the track. In the brief "All White," Trail of Dead convey the feel of a modern Queen song in miniature.

The best song on the album is also the longest: "Will You Smile Again?" is a landscape of pure rock, guided by thrashing guitar riffs and brought to a hypnotic, three-minute climax by a simple drum and bass arrangement and some haunting vocals.

Whatever musical paths Trail of Dead has followed in the past, Worlds Apart from anything else you will hear this year.
-Leor Galil



Kelly Buchanan
Bastard Daughter
On Buchanan/Velvet Ear Records
C+

If you were to cross-breed Melissa Etheridge with Alanis Morissette and then throw in a dose of vengeful man-hatred, you would get Kelly Buchanan-and a headache, the ultimate outcome of listening to her latest release.

On Bastard Daughter, the third album from the Boston-based singer-songwriter, Buchanan spews forth a ridiculously angry string of feminist diatribes, all helplessly mired in nostalgia for the 1990s. The album sounds like the product of a circa mid-90s high-school sophomore who was dumped just prior to recording.

The lyrics on Bastard Daughter are inane and often distasteful. Buchanan doesn't seem to realize that rage can sometimes be better transmitted through restraint and thoughtfulness rather than by dropping 900 f-bombs in the span of 30 minutes. In the song "Body Bag," Buchanan sings ever-so-insightfully, "You'll miss Thanksgiving, he'll still fuck you when you're dead."

The lyrics only get worse. Many of them are bad enough to actually be groan-inducing. Also in "Body Bag," Buchanan sings lyrics like, "a woman's life is worth less than the hole between her legs" and "sex God, love slob, you are my heart-throb."

The album switches back and forth between mediocre angst-rock and folk-rock-neither of which is particularly enjoyable. The folk sections of the album are almost worth listening to, but Buchanan invariably ruins every tender moment by immediately following with an angry one.

In fact, it isn't until the eighth track on the 12-track album that we hear anything other than rage toward a man.

Bastard Daughter is an enraged wreck of an album strictly for those still trying to recover from being dumped by their boyfriend in 1993. If you've moved on since that time in our life, you'll probably want to move on with your music choices as well when it comes to Buchanan.
-Zach Reff