Ani DiFranco
Little Plastic Castle
(Righteous Babe)
★★★★

THIS 25th anniversary remastered reissue of Ani DiFranco’s album Little Plastic Castle confirms the Buffalo-born left-wing feminist should take her rightful place as one of the greatest living US singer-songwriters.

Her highest charting record, it’s a dazzling fusion of political and personal folk-rock. The talk sung Fuel is an incisive, often humorous late-90s state of the nation address, while live favourite Gravel takes aim at a two-timing lover. There is a real joyousness to the music too – like when the brass kicks in and swings on the title track, and in the emotional comfort and release given by the sweet-sounding As If.

With an incomparable clarity of voice and purpose, and some brilliant acoustic guitar playing, you can see why DiFranco has been such an important and inspiring artist for many women – and men – of her generation. 

The Clientele
I Am Not There Anymore
(Merge)
★★★★★

ON their first record since 2017, The Clientele have shifted their sound – what lead singer/songwriter Alasdair MacLean calls “a leap forwards and to the side.”

Long known for their soothing vocals and reflective, reverb-heavy chamber-pop, the Hampshire-born three-piece have thrown electronica, sampling, jazz and classical music into the mix to create a mid-career masterpiece. 

Many of the lyrics are inspired by the summer of 1997, when MacLean’s mother died. Starting with melancholic strings played over busy electronic beats, eight-minute opener Fables Of The Silverlink acts as a wonderful statement of intent, the song unspooling over several musically distinct segments. But I shouldn’t exaggerate the artistic change – their dreamy indie of old is alive and well on tracks like Stems of Anise.

With 19 tracks, it’s an immersive, yearning set that you’ll want to return to again and again.

Emma Rawicz
Chroma
(ACT Music)
★★★

A rising star in the British jazz scene, 21-year-old London-based saxophonist Emma Rawicz was a finalist on the BBC Young Jazz Musician in 2022 and won Newcomer Of The Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards (organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group, apparently).

Her second album of largely instrumental music is inspired by her Chromesthesia – a condition that means one involuntarily sees colours when hearing sounds. Accordingly all the tracks, bar one, are named after colours. 

Rawicz and her band play some nifty, high energy jazz, often with a John Coltrane-like knotty density (Rawicz is a big fan). Rangwali, with its flute and spacey vocals, sounds like a tribute to Return To Forever’s jazz fusion debut.

To my (uneducated) ears, though, there is little here to distinguish Chroma from lots of other jazz groups I’ve heard.