Reprieve
by Ani DiFranco
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Includes unlimited streaming of Reprieve via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 3 daysPurchasable with gift card$10 USD or more
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1. |
Hypnotized
04:11
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so that's how you found me
rain falling around me
lookin down at a worm
with a long way to go
and the traffic was hissing by
and i was homesick
and i was high
i was surrounded by a language
in which i could say only hello
and thank you very much
but you spoke so i could understand
and i drew a treasure map on your hand
and you were no picnic
you were no prize
but you had just enough pathos
to keep me hypnotized
hypnotized
the map led to an island
in a sea of store-bought dreams
where soulless singers sang
over beats built by machines
and lovely girls were hovering
above my head like gulls
with their long slender necks
and their delicate skulls
and i was no picnic
i was no prize
but i had just enough sweetness
to keep you hypnotized
hypnotized
so that's how you found me
rain falling around me
lookin down at a worm
with a long way to go
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2. |
Subconscious
03:32
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on one hand i’m walking
the way that i do
lookin like i’m lost in thought
but i’m looking for you
it’s so subconscious
the way that i feel
too bad my subconscious life
is the more real
and i ain’t in the best shape
that i’ve ever been in
but i know where i’m going
and it ain’t where i’ve been
i know where i’m going
and it ain’t where i’ve been
some kind of anxiety
has gotten hold of my heart
and i just wanna run home
when i feel it start
plastic bottles of water
sealed windows, forced air
gazillions of cell phones
beaming through my hair
and i ain’t in the best shape
that i’ve ever been in
but i know where i’m going
and it ain’t where i’ve been
i know where i’m going
and it ain’t where i’ve been
i'm tossing and turning
between sleepless dreams
i'm poised on the edge of
what it all means
so i turn my back
and i spread my arms wide
and i let myself fall in
way deep inside
and i ain’t in the best shape
that i’ve ever been in
but i know where i’m going
and it ain’t where i’ve been
i know where i’m going
and it ain’t where i’ve been
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3. |
In The Margins
03:13
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such an intent stare
one eye at a time
your talons like fish hooks
you are a rare bird
the kind i wouldn't even mind
writing in the margins of my books
sometimes i see myself
through the eyes of a stray dog
from an alley across the street
and my whole mission just seems so finite
my whole saga just seems so cheap
i mean i know that now is all there is
and love will just make you cry
so i live for the sight of a rare bird
suddenly flying by
and i meet your stare
one eye at a time
writing in the margins of my mind
sometimes i see myself
through the eyes of a stray dog
from an alley across the street
and my whole mission just seems so finite
my whole saga just seems so cheap
and that's when your song calls to me
from way up in a tree
and i look up
and the whole world
is as it should be
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4. |
Nicotine
04:06
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i hate you sometimes
but i love to be your queen
you are my muse
got me smokin nicotine
i watch you sometimes
from oh so far away
but i can't forget you
or anything you say
you sang that song in my ear
and it tickled those tiny hairs
love is a puzzle
some pieces they adjoin
it's not like that with us
but i keep flipping that coin
i watch you sometimes
from oh so far away
but i can't forget you
or anything you say
you sang that song in my ear
and it tickled those tiny hairs
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5. |
Decree
03:43
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step up and forfeit your frontal lobe
to the sexed up strobe of celebrity
never mind that the nanoseconds in between
are some of the darkest darkness you've ever seen
keep your eye on my finger
and listen to the sound of my voice
get your subliminal decree and your false security
be all that you can be
be all that you can be
in hospitals and schools
airports and banks and bars
big ones on street corners
little ones driving by in cars
glowing through countless
bedroom curtains at night
that 20k tone
and that pale blue light
saying
daddy knows best
yes, this is the news
in 90-second segments
officially produced
and aired again and again and again
by the little black and white pawns
of the network yes men
while the stars are going out
and the stripes are getting bent
cancer, the great teacher
has been opening schools
downstream from every factory
still, everywhere fools
are squinting into microscopes
researching cells
trying to figure out a way
we can all live in hell
well
step back
look up
you'll see i'm dimming the sun
but you won't, will you?
no, that's a good little one
cuz daddy knows best
yes, this is the news
in 90-second segments
officially produced
and aired again and again and again
by the little black and white pawns
of the network yes men
while the stars are going out
and the stripes are getting bent
the stars are going out
and the stripes are getting bent
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6. |
78% H2O
03:30
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when the joy had left your body
and you were locked in to your own thoughts
you used to love to sit by the water
and watch it lapping on the rocks
and every time you put your feet in
you'd cry out and you would pray
but it’s all downhill from here baby
so naturally, i can't stay
first you’ll roll your eyes to heaven
say you never had love so divine
but it will go from
more than ever
to not enough
in no time
you will push and
you will push un-
til you push me away
i hear you cry out for your water
and i know you'll curse it someday
i guess for me
there's been a few
who've walked up smiling
and drawn a line
between so far
and from now on
yes a big glowing
line in time
and i've been disappointed
i've been heartbroken
yes i too have
loved from afar
but we are 78% water
even our pumping hearts
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7. |
Millennium Theater
03:14
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millennium theater
get out there and buy that water and gas
ramadan, orange alert
everybody put on your gas mask
first leak it out about the president
then stand up and shout impeachment
pull them coattails out from under that little v.p.
before he has a chance to get in the driver's seat
millennium spectacle
everybody put on a show
slip the little prince in the back door
21st century here we go
digital whiplash
so many formats so little time
while out in tv nation
under darkening skies
the resistance is just waiting
to be organized
halliburton, enron
chief justices for sale
yucca mountain goddesses
their tears they form a trail
trickle down pollution
patriarchies realign
while the ice caps melt
and new orleans bides her time
new orleans bides her time
ladies and gentlemen
welcome to tonight's show
the millennium theater
asks that you not smoke
please turn off your cell phones
and forget what you think you know
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8. |
Half-Assed
03:30
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you start trippin
and i start slippin away
i was taught to zip it
if i got nothin nice to say
and down in the texas of my heart
driving a really big truck
headed down a dirt road
my love is scrunchin up its features
the really big eyes
big lips, big nose
just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
make me forget every moment that went by
and left me so half-hearted
cuz i felt it so half-assed
you are an unruly translucent
a dirty windshield with a shifting view
so many cunning running landscapes
for my dented door to open into
i just wanna tune out all the billboards
weld myself a mental shield
i just wanna put down all the pressures
and feel how i really feel
just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
make me forget every moment that went by
and left me so half-hearted
cuz i felt it so half-assed
spring is super in the supermarkets
and the strawberries prance and glow
nevermind that they're all kinda tart and tasteless
as strawberries go
meanwhile wild things are not for sale
anymore than they are for show
so i’ll be outside, in love with the kind of beauty
it takes more than eyes to know
just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
and i'll forget every moment that went by
and left me so half-hearted
cuz i felt it so half-assed
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9. |
Reprieve
02:45
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manhattan is an island
like the women who are
surrounded by children in a car
surrounded by cars
or manhattan was a project
that projected the worst of mankind
first one and then the other
has made its mark on my mind
it's sixty years later
near the hypo-center of the a-bomb
i'm in the middle of hiroshima
watching a twisted old eucalyptus tree wave
one of the very few lives that survived and lives on
remembering the day it was suddenly
thousands of degrees in the shade
and what all of nature gave birth to
terror took in a blinding ray
with the kind of pain
it would take cancer so many years just to say
oh to grow up gagged and blindfolded
a man’s world in your little girl’s head
the voice of the great mother drowned out
in the constant honking
haunting the car crash up ahead
oh to grow up hypnotized
and then try to shake yourself awake
cuz you can sense what has been lost
cuz you can sense what is at stake
yeah, so
it took me a few years to catch on
that those days i catch everyone's eye
correspond with those nights of the month
when the moon gleams like an egg in the sky
and men are using a sense they don't even know they have
just to watch me walk by
and me, i'm supposed to be sensible
leave my animal outside to cry
but when all of nature conspires
to make me her glorious whore
it's cuz in my body i hold the secret recipe
of precisely what life is for
and the patriarchy that looks to shame me for it
is the same one making war
and i've said too much already
but i'll tell you something more
to split yourself in two
is just the most radical thing you can do
so girl if that shit ain't up to you
then you simply are not free
cuz from the sunlight on my hair
to which eggs i grow to term
to the expression that i wear
all i really own is me
yes to split yourself in two
is just the most radical thing you can do
goddess forbid that little atom
should grow so jealous of eve
and in the face of the great farce
of the nuclear age
feminism ain't about equality
it's about reprieve
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10. |
A Spade
04:24
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i will not lie down
on the wrongful groundwork laid
while it's still a radical sound
just to call a spade a spade
dear friends, women and men
please check my math once more
in the totality of all war's history
there's but one common denominator
the answer is in the intention
that lies behind the question
put that on your standardized multiple choice
i mean, how's this supposed to look to me?
but half of divinity
out there trying to make harmony
with only one voice
you know, i've got experience
looking right past the obvious
and i know what is so big and so close
is always the hardest stuff
for us to reckon with
the hardest stuff to know
dear friends, especially the women
tell me are you up to the task
of turning the wheel of human history
at long last
the answer is in the intention
that lies behind the question
put that on your standardized multiple choice
i mean, how's this supposed to look to me?
but half of divinity
out there trying to make harmony
with only one voice
i will not lie down
on the wrongful groundwork laid
while it's still a radical sound
just to call a spade a spade
dear friends, women and men
what better time to face
that we've been looking for
the answer to war
in the wrong place
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11. |
Unrequited
04:06
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he had all kind of reasons
why she was unable to love him
she was just too young
she was too high strung
she was afraid of commitment
but all of the theories
that he recited
played like the song
of the unrequited
baby, how long's it been now
since you held me to your chest
and told me that you love me
more than all the rest
it's such a shame that you won't talk to me
cuz i won't repeat after you
i believe that there is more to life
we coulda loved each other through
but i was afraid of commitment
when it came to you
i'll tell you, if there is one instinct
i just can't get with at all
it's the urge to kill something beautiful
just to hang it on your wall
are you just too young
are you too high strung
to actually follow through
on all the love you said you had
baby i never lied to you
is all or nothing
the best we can do?
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12. |
Shroud
04:48
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i had to leave the house of fashion
go forth naked from its doors
cuz women should be allies
not competitors
and i had to leave the house of god
cuz the cross replaced the wheel
and the goddesses were out in the garden
with the plants that nourish and heal
i had to leave the house of privilege
spend christmas homeless and feeling bad
to learn that privilege is a headache
that you don't know that you don't have
and i had to leave the house of television
to start noticing the clouds
it's amazing the stuff you see
when you finally shed that shroud
i had to leave the house of conformity
in order to make art
i had to be more or less true
to learn to tell the two apart
and i had to leave the house of fear
just about as soon as i could crawl
ignore my face on the wanted posters
stuck to the post office wall
i had to leave the house of self-importance
to doodle my first tattoo
realize a tattoo is no more permanent
than i am, and who
ever said that life is suffering
i think they had their finger on the pulse of joy
ain’t the power of transcendence
the greatest one we can employ
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13. |
Reprise
01:34
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about
Every new album from singer/songwriter/guitarist Ani DiFranco gives listeners a reason to get excited about music all over again, and Reprieve, is certainly no exception. Across 12 tracks, DiFranco ignites more of her signature blend of poetry, politics and musicianship.
Ani and touring bassist Todd Sickafoose are the only two players on the new album - something you'd never guess from its rich and detailed sound. In addition to the usual array of acoustic and electric guitars for which she is justly noted, Ani can be heard on keyboards, drums, and other instruments, while Todd contributes not only bass but wurlitzer, pump organ, piano and "fakey-bakey" trumpet and strings (then there's the bicycle pump and other found sounds and sound effects orchestrated by Ani).
The album was tracked in her New Orleans studio in early 2005 during a break in her usually heavy touring schedule. Forced to leave the master recordings behind when she evacuated before Hurricane Katrina, she drove back into the city to retrieve them just three days after the levees broke. From there she headed back to overdub in her hometown of Buffalo with whatever instruments happened to be on hand. Chief among them a vintage omnichord and a modern "cheesy synthesizer" (which entailed "trying to use uncool sounds in cool ways," as she puts it).
The final mixing took place back in New Orleans "where, after the power came on, I had access to all kinds of distortion, basically," she says with a laugh, "and the ears of [recording engineer] Mike [Napolitano], who's a great mixer and gave me great advice."
Between the forced evacuation and the time off on the road, Ani found herself concentrating on the process of recording to a degree she had never done before, and the resulting album is the clearest demonstration yet of her talents as a producer. Unconstrained by the pressures of touring, she was able to take her time with the record, and the end result is an overall sound that is as clear and succinct as her lyrics have always been.
While not intended to be taken as a concept album in any way, the songs on Reprieve do provide a cohesive picture of what's been on Ani's mind lately during turbulent times on the personal, cultural, and global front. From the opening encounter of "Hypnotized" to the call to action against patriarchy in the spoken-word title track to the conflict between "the house of conformity" and the ability to make art in the final song, "Shroud," this is classic Ani territory. It's a place where individual songs can't be easily separated into "personal" and "political" categories, because those concerns inevitably overlap in complex and nuanced ways.
Ani describes Reprieve as rooted in the Crescent City, and it so happens that there's a single direct reference to that town in the album's centerpiece, "Millennium Theater." The line "New Orleans bides her time" in the middle of this scathing critique of the current Republican regime might sound like a response to Hurricane Katrina, but in fact the song was written well before the disaster that has devastated the city, about a crisis that took no one but the presidential administration by surprise. Like just about everything else on Reprieve, "Millennium Theater" finds Ani speaking her mind, singing from her heart, and playing music like her life—like all of our lives—depended on it.
Released: August 2006
Ani and touring bassist Todd Sickafoose are the only two players on the new album - something you'd never guess from its rich and detailed sound. In addition to the usual array of acoustic and electric guitars for which she is justly noted, Ani can be heard on keyboards, drums, and other instruments, while Todd contributes not only bass but wurlitzer, pump organ, piano and "fakey-bakey" trumpet and strings (then there's the bicycle pump and other found sounds and sound effects orchestrated by Ani).
The album was tracked in her New Orleans studio in early 2005 during a break in her usually heavy touring schedule. Forced to leave the master recordings behind when she evacuated before Hurricane Katrina, she drove back into the city to retrieve them just three days after the levees broke. From there she headed back to overdub in her hometown of Buffalo with whatever instruments happened to be on hand. Chief among them a vintage omnichord and a modern "cheesy synthesizer" (which entailed "trying to use uncool sounds in cool ways," as she puts it).
The final mixing took place back in New Orleans "where, after the power came on, I had access to all kinds of distortion, basically," she says with a laugh, "and the ears of [recording engineer] Mike [Napolitano], who's a great mixer and gave me great advice."
Between the forced evacuation and the time off on the road, Ani found herself concentrating on the process of recording to a degree she had never done before, and the resulting album is the clearest demonstration yet of her talents as a producer. Unconstrained by the pressures of touring, she was able to take her time with the record, and the end result is an overall sound that is as clear and succinct as her lyrics have always been.
While not intended to be taken as a concept album in any way, the songs on Reprieve do provide a cohesive picture of what's been on Ani's mind lately during turbulent times on the personal, cultural, and global front. From the opening encounter of "Hypnotized" to the call to action against patriarchy in the spoken-word title track to the conflict between "the house of conformity" and the ability to make art in the final song, "Shroud," this is classic Ani territory. It's a place where individual songs can't be easily separated into "personal" and "political" categories, because those concerns inevitably overlap in complex and nuanced ways.
Ani describes Reprieve as rooted in the Crescent City, and it so happens that there's a single direct reference to that town in the album's centerpiece, "Millennium Theater." The line "New Orleans bides her time" in the middle of this scathing critique of the current Republican regime might sound like a response to Hurricane Katrina, but in fact the song was written well before the disaster that has devastated the city, about a crisis that took no one but the presidential administration by surprise. Like just about everything else on Reprieve, "Millennium Theater" finds Ani speaking her mind, singing from her heart, and playing music like her life—like all of our lives—depended on it.
Released: August 2006
credits
released August 8, 2006
2006, 2006 Righteous Babe Records distributed by United For Opportunity
2006, 2006 Righteous Babe Records distributed by United For Opportunity
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Ani DiFranco New Orleans, Louisiana
Grammy winner and feminist icon Ani DiFranco began her career as a proponent of the artist-run label, creating her own Righteous Babe Records in 1990. Since then she has released over twenty studio albums and supported a broad range of social causes including racial justice, reproductive rights, gender equality, environmental issues and prison reform. ... more
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