This is the album that got me hooked on Ani Difranco so long ago. Every single song is an old friend to me now. After sitting in the mud in the pouring rain at Calgary Folk Festival in the early nineties and gaping at Ani's stunning performance, I scrambled to buy this CD from the table nearby. These songs ring with poetry, melody, harmony, and rhythm. This is an Ani Difranco classic. Any who don't appreciate it must, in my opinion, be crazy. At the time I thought..."Why haven't I heard of this woman?" Friends looked at me with pity when I asserted that she would one day be a household name...without selling out. To them I say HA...FOOLS....DOUBTERS...she's done it!

Favourites of mine include "Make Me Stay" for it's crackling self-esteem, "On Every Corner" for tackling AIDS at a time when others weren't, "Small World" for the long note near the end, "Not So Soft" because I can quote it verbatim (same inflection), "Roll With It" for its protest weight, "The Whole Night" for its bold sexuality, "The Next Big Thing" for the line 'my thing is already just the right size', and "Looking For the Holes" for its lyrics. Did I miss any? ah yes..."Anticipate" because Ani tore up her guitar one day, playing this song in Calgary, Canada in the pouring rain....and I found my favourite musician. Buy it.....it's vintage Ani.

One of Ani's classic albums, this isn't one to skip. I sometimes wonder what Ani now thinks of her earlier albums such as this one. Always an intellectual with soul and compassion, she can't help but to have grown as a person since the release of her earlier albums. I wonder if she herself still relates to all her earlier songs the way she once did. I know I do. Most people at age 40 can't even write songs with the depth and emotional power of these songs, so it makes it even all the more impressive to think how young Ani was when she wrote these.

I assume over the years she has outgrown (or at least doesn't really enjoy performing) some of her older songs, but in the case of some of these great songs, I just think maybe she is so prolific that she just doesn't remember her own songs anymore. Roll With It is one example I'm thinking of here. I should look up some recent setlists to see if she has played this one at all in the past couple years. Over 10-years-old now, Roll With It has never (since it was written) been more appropriate to the USA's current mess than it is right now. This song deserves to be performed again if it has been years since she last brought it out.

Anticipate, Roll With It, Gratitude, The Whole Night, Next Big Thing, etc... this album has everything a classic Ani album has... lyrics that will pull you together, lyrics that will break you down, great guitar playing, and expressive singing. Not So Soft itself, always one of her best spoken-word pieces was great when first unveiled here, but now that there have been so many fantastic, yet drastically different live variations of it, this studio one doesn't have the impact it once had. The words are still perfect, but in the years since, it has been delivered better elsewhere.

The first Ani album I ever got was Upx6, and I loved it, and wondered why many of her older fan's didn't, so I bought Not So Soft and listened to it. Now I know why, they've been spoiled.

I had no idea what was on this CD when I bought it, I just knew that I liked Ani and wanted some new music to listen to. I am SO happy I chose this one, because it's now one of my favorite CDs I own. I highly, highly recommend this to anyone who likes Ani DiFranco, particularly her more acoustic music. Listen to "Small World", it's my favorite :)

This is the best Ani yet. The first time I listened to it, it became my favorite. Unlike most of her new stuff, this is totally folk and deals with issues that woman can use in life. This doesn't deal with Ani's love life wich set her on stage with most artists and made some people feel as if she "sold out" but instead is the old Ani that everyone loves.ANI ROCKS!!!!!!!