The packages that enclose Ani's CDs just keep getting prettier and
prettier. I think this is my favoritest yet. There is a little bit of
revelling on this album, but overall I take away from it a feeling of
quiet contemplation that eases into genuine melancholy at times as Ani
attempts to reckon with what is going on in our world and in her own
life. This is also the last album with the backing band she's been
touring with for the last couple years, which adds some poignancy to the
beautiful bluesy textures of horns, piano, and guitar slipping and
sliding around each other on the opening track "Promised Land," though
Ani plays a mean jazz piano herself on "Oh My My." "Serpentine" is
perhaps the centerpiece of the album (even though it's the next-to-last
track), cataloguing the atrocities of life in America today against a
sparse guitar. It's harsh, but it's also sheer poetry.
you're taking up lots of space
your shit is everywhere
your breath is all up in my face
your hands are swarming in the air
you're the first one out the car and then
you're the loudest one in the bar
tell me, is there something wrong, girlfriend?
what's with this new version of who you are?
—"Promised Land"
your body
foreshortened
below
your shoulders
your face
so close
it's out
of focus
way down
the hallway
comes the sound
of your shoes
that is what i
what i think about
when i think about
you
—"O My My"
pavlov hits me with more bad news
every time i answer the phone
so i play and i sing and i just let it ring
all day when i'm at home
a defacto choice of macro
or microcosmic melancholy
but, baby, any way you slice it
i'm thinkin i could just as soon use
the time alone
—"Serpentine"
| 
Heidi J. De Vries
