Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco tabs Ani DiFranco discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Ani DiFranco guitar tabs

CD reviews

Puddle Dive

Ani DiFranco - Puddle Dive Audio CD

A fair review of the Ani DiFranco "Puddle Dive" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Ani DiFranco reviews here, or go back to the Ani DiFranco tabs.

Band: Ani DiFranco
Title: Puddle Dive
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-07-26
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Names and Dates and Times 2: Anyday 3: 4th of July 4: Willing to Fight 5: Egos Like Hairdos 6: Back Around 7: Blood in the Boardroom 8: Born a Lion 9: My I.Q. 10: Used to You 11: Pick Yer Nose 12: God's Country

I LOVE this Album
The lyrics and melodies are catchy and the album is short (only about 30 minutes) so it's perfect for driving in the car or while tooling around the house. This is one of my absolute favorite Ani albums. Her lyrics and poetry are as personally and politically relevant as always but there's also a really playful side (Blood in the Boardroom, Pick Yer Nose) that Ani doesn't showcase too often in her later albums. A more "human" Ani is appparent in this album than in any she's produced since. Definitely buy Puddle Dive.

Fun and empowerment:

Simply put, there is so much fun and energy in this album, but at the same time some lyrics are very poetic, powerful and empowering, and arguments such as woman condition (a classic for Ani), religion, poverty and social inequality are treated, together with others very funny but not shallow (meaningful and casual encounters, friendship, differences in personalities and body features, etc. I added this one to my Ani's collection relatively late (after Living in Clip and many others), and right now this is the Ani's album i listen to more frequently. ). The music is just as funny and energetic, there is not only Ani and her guitar here, but a bunch of other instruments: violins, drums, accordion, bass, harmonica, piano and some others appear in several songs, and make the album look like it was recorded in a summer music festival with a funny and happy atmosphere.

The tracks i love more?

Names and Dates and Times: Ani declares she's not good at remembering a person's name or when she met him/her, but she's definetely better at remembering faces. The song is simple fun, but makes you think about how similar everyone is to each other, with no difference of sex, race or social condition, and that "we are of one kind", we're all humans.

Anyday: very sweet love song.

4th of July: Ani tells the story of how she met her only friend in Iowa, a 7 years old boy, Jason, and how their friendship overcomes all the biases.

Willing to Fight: this is the definitive statement of her activity as a songwriter, very deep and emotional.

Egos Like Herdos: another funny song, mainly about the different personalities everyone has ("depending on how we slept the night before")

My IQ: this is a spoken word that, i bet, will live you breathless (at least that's what usually happens when I make my friends to listen to it for the first time). Infact, being a spoken word (but with a kinda solemn background music) makes you focus on the words, which are very important neverthless. The beginning is very funny, Ani just laughs and asks "are we taping?".

God's Country: beautiful closure to the album, again fun and deep lyrics put together to express her vision about america's "mr. holinesses".

I guess however that everyone can find his/her own favourite tracks in this gorgeous collection: fully recommended!.

Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!
There is a lot of diversity on this particular record. I LOVE this album! Ani is really brilliant and her writing inspires me so much. Some soft beautiful songs like "Anyday" or "Back Around" and then there are some sprawling crazy acoustic numbers like "Born A Lion" and "Egos Like Hairdos". . . all great! I love Ani's whole Righteous Babe Record label. Such great music! Check it out today!.

5-stars says it all
It's original, it's fresh, it's very smart and it has all the charm Ani can bring to it, with - besides her strong, convincing vocals - great guitar playing and a lot of guts. This is one of the best albums I have ever heard. There's no monotony, there are no fillers. Give it a shot.
.

"I won't wait for you to wonder..."
When I read one or two previous reviews that called this Ani's most annoying album, or that the songs here are great because they are about nothing but she makes great songs out of those nothing moments anyway. As with anything, opinions differ. . . wow for a minute I was thinking I must have clicked on the wrong album.

I think Puddle Dive is one of her best albums. Certainly it has several of my favorite Ani tunes thus far. Willing To Fight isn't even remotely about nothing. It's about the difference between paying lip-service to certain things when it's convenient to do so (or ignoring the problems completely because you don't feel they affect you), and actually doing something about a problem. Of course that description sounds rather dry and preachy, but the song isn't at all. It's one of her best melodies. Or if you're just one of those soundbyte-types of people, there are more than a couple lyrics from just this song alone that could be lifted out to stand by themselves just as incredibly powerful sentences. Willing To Fight is, for me, one of the definitive Ani songs. It's everything that she is. It's everything I wish more people were.

As for other songs here, had Ani ever been a stage-guest of the Grateful Dead's during her middle-early years, which coincided with their last years, Anyday would have been my number one choice for Ani and them to perform. Such a softly powerful, emotional song. Garcia didn't have too much (instrumentally) to say on the big jam tunes anymore by that time, but he could still occasionally work magic on the ballads like So Many Roads, To Lay Me Down, Wharf Rat, etc. . .

To hear Ani leading the Dead through Anyday, with Lesh behind her, and Garcia's delicate late-years ballad playing in there could have been magical had he been having a good night.

Blood in the Boardroom, as has been said before, will certainly be a little too direct for some people, but I love it. Even if the lyrics bother you, still listen to her guitar playing. At this point in her career, this was one of her most rocking tunes so far. She is such a great, vibrant ryhthm-lead player.

Used To You. . . another favorite that I wish she would dust off and perform in concert again. This will certainly sum up some of the relationships you have had (or known of), although I don't know which side of the relationship you were.

For lyrical depth and emotional power, as well as the continued growth of her aggressive, percussive guitar style, this is another of the essential Ani albums.

.

You can see a complete list of all Ani DiFranco discography, or go back to the Ani DiFranco tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.