Ani DiFranco's Best Songs

DiFranco has written a number of songs that dissect her own life story and how she came to be so passionate about activism and self-expression, but this is possibly her best composition on that theme, from 2005's Knuckle Down. The lyrics talk about the power of community involvement and the lessons we learn from each other, the way each person comes to understand their own ability to change the world.

I was just a girl in a room full of women licking stamps and laughing / I remember the feeling of community brewing, of democracy happening

This song from Up Up Up Up Up Up showcases some of the finest synergy from the Ani DiFranco band. The bass line (played here by Jason Mercer) plays in the opposite direction of DiFranco's ascending guitar line to create optimum tension. The keyboard lends itself more to the rhythm section than otherwise, and the lyrics and melody work together to build the song to its ultimate release at the end.

In the jukebox of her memory, a list of names slips by and stops / she closes her eyes and smiles as the record drops

There haven't been a ton of songs written about the socio-political implications of bisexuality. DiFranco penned this classic fairly early in her career, on 1992's Imperfectly CD, and it quickly became a fan favorite.

Guess there's something wrong with me / guess I don't fit in / no one wants to touch it / no one knows where to begin

Leave it to Ani DiFranco to capture some of the joys of a long labor in a song that speaks to feminism and all the trappings of one's coming of age. "Landing Gear," from 2008's Red Letter Year, is a lullaby of sorts, encouraging baby to go ahead and get born already, promising her all the love a mother can offer.

You're gonna love this world if it's the last thing I do.../ for someone who ain't even here yet, look how much the world loves you

"Coming Up" is a poem, not a song. However, it's definitely one of the best bits of creative expression Ani DiFranco has recorded through the years. While it was a confusing and distracting moment on her disc Imperfectly, she resurrected the poem for the tail end of her Not a Pretty Girl album in 1995.

Our father who art in a penthouse sits in his thirty-seventh floor suite and swivels to gaze down on the city he made me in / He allows me to stand and solicit graffiti until he needs the land I stand on

As far as unrequited love songs are concerned, "Providence" is a pretty stellar hidden number. It's not one of her most discussed and lauded tunes, but it's a gem tucked away toward the end of To the Teeth, which is undeniably one of DiFranco's finest in-full albums. Besides, it features Prince on backing vocals, which is a hard feature to pass up.

It's a narrow margin, just room enough for regret / the inch-and-a-half between "Hey how you been?" and "Can I kiss you yet?"

As Ani DiFranco's autobiographical story-songs go, "Emancipated Minor" is one of the most objective, endearing and thorough of the bunch. From 2008's Red Letter Year this tune is a rhythmically interesting (if not melodically so) and creatively worded tribute to her younger self, like a letter she'd send herself if she could have gone back through time. As such, it serves as an assessment of how far she's come.

She wondered if the only noble thing ain't to get a big garden and plant it in the spring / kiss the city goodbye in one graceful gesture / focus on the moon's groove and groove with the moon

Along with "Emancipated Minor," "Going Once" is one of DiFranco's best songs about her coming of age on the road as a folksinger. She portrays a lifestyle in which she finds herself up against a world of expectations and possibilities, trying all the while to keep an eye on and ideology that places artistic integrity above profit and fame. (From 1999's To the Teeth.)

She had a map and a straight face, hell bent on reinvention / She was ready for the lonely / she was in it for it only

Sad songs don't get a whole lot sadder than "Grey" (on 2001's Reveling/Reckoning) except perhaps "Welcome To:" Not only are the lyrics so sad they're almost completely resigned to the sadness, but the instrumentation sounds much like the grey, dreary beach scene which opens the song:

The sky is grey, the sand is grey, the ocean is grey / I feel right at home in this stunning monochrome, alone in my way / I smoke and I drink and everytime I blink I have a tiny dream / as bad as I am, I'm proud of the fact that I'm worse than I seem

Ani DiFranco has written her fair share of breakup and heartache songs, and "Welcome To:" is one of her best. Included on her 2003 release Evolve, this is one of the few songs that capture the ultimate sadness of being alone and heartbroken, slogging through the first days, weeks, holidays, etc., without someone with whom you thought for so long you'd spend the rest of your life.

Welcome to the darkness into which praying people pray / It's quiet here except for this song / Now that everybody's gone / At least you don't have to play along today