I knew it was a good sign when I had problems getting into this CD on first listen. All of my most favorite music ("desert island" CDs) were difficult at first.

The first thing I thought upon listening to the first track off of "Revelling" was "ooh, her old fans are going to HATE this!" Very few tracks on the whole double album sound anything like "Out of Range" or "Imperfectly" or any of her more purely folk albums. And although I love all her music, this new direction is, IMHO, a good thing. Revelling has some wonderful music moments with insightful and flowing lyrics, but Reckoning is the deeper and more ultimately satisfying of the two discs.

Like Ani, I have been married for about 2 years and can appreciate a lot of the angst, confusion, joy, and bewilderment at being joined with another human being in such a "legal" way. Probably my favorite song is "School Night" (although the critic from Spin cited this as one of the songs she should have left off). For me the song explores the idea that "your one true love" is a farce. There is not just one person in the world that you can love enough to marry, but in the song, she grapples with the fact that she intends to honor her committment even though she also loves this other person. It struck home with me, especially the lines "and you'll never know, dear/just how much I loved you/you probably think this was/just my big excuse/but I stand committed/to a love that came before you/and the fact that I adore you/is just one of my truths/so I/I'm going home/to please the one I so love pleasing/and I don't expect/he'll have much sympathy for my grieving/but I guess that this is the price/that we pay for the privilege/of living for even a day/in a world with so many things/worth believing in".

For those of her previous fans that are put off by her new direction, well too bad. She is a human who is changing like we all are. She still does things her own way "on her own" and without bowing to any corporate interest/label. I suppose I can even more fully relate to her because she is grown up now (and so am I...we are about the same age). She is quite simply the most honest and genuine artist I know about.

"Coming of age during the plague of Reagan and Bush / Watching capitalism gun down democracy / It had this funny effect on me" exclaims Ani DiFranco on her new record.

"Reckoning/Revelling" is DiFranco's 15th album to date. This time around, DiFranco pleases her fans with an extra dosage by releasing a double album of completely new material.

DiFranco pioneered her way through the music world without the assistance of any big time music label. She did not follow the predictable route to success. Instead, DiFranco started her own indie label "Righteous Babe," and started releasing her own material on it.

Cut: 12 years later, DiFranco is signing up-and-coming bands on her label and selling out stadiums. She's earning a loyal growing fanbase and the critics' utmost respect.

When the bigwigs of the record industry came knocking, she gave them nothing but the middle finger. Not bad for a little folksinger who started out touring in coffee shops in her hometown of Buffalo, New York.

The righteous babe's debut album was a simple collection of queer feminist folk songs. Nothing more, nothing less: just DiFranco, her pick, her acoustic guitar and a mouthful of words to sing.

As she released more albums, she evolved into different genres of music, ranging from big band, to punk, to rap and now to funk. Adding more flavors to her palette did not disturb her politically aware lyrics.

When she was the giddy folkster, she sang about cultural no-no's and their superficiality in "Pick Yer Nose" singing: "How come I can pick my ears but not my nose?" Undoubtedly, DiFranco is not one to compromise her honesty for any reason whatsoever.

Being a DIY girl hasn't been easy, though. Radio stations overlooked her records and MTV denied her any air time. Being the underdog that she was, and in many ways still is, she felt every bump in the road to success.

But with her determination and love for music, DiFranco worked her way up with the college crowds and the gay community. DiFranco was praised by publications such as The Village Voice and Ms. long before Rolling Stone and Spin decided to follow the hype. Still, radio and TV stations would rather promote the Mickey Mouse Club than DiFranco.

At the same time DiFranco was rising in popularity, Lilith Fair was at its peak. Although DiFranco was not a Lilith performer, many were misguided into believing that she was "just another one of those angry girl-with-a-guitar types."

This comes as a surprise, because, contrary to the media's perception of DiFranco, she is not a post-Alanis phenomenon. In 1991, when Alanis Morrisette was singing her bubblegum pop Canadian hit "Too Hot" and Natalie Imbruglia was a star on an Australian soap opera called "Neighbors," DiFranco was hard at work singing anthems on womyn's rights and talking about queer politics.

Today, DiFranco is still alive and kicking with truckloads of songs, not surprising since she started her first album with a 100-something catalogue of songs. This time DiFranco makes up for her absence with a double.

The first CD, "Revelling," is a very experimental collection of tracks. Heavily funk-influenced, the album opens with "Ain't That The Way," a Macy Gray-like gospel-tinted song. The album seems to follow the funk mood with "OK," "Fierce Flawless" and "Heartbreak Even."

On a darker note are tracks like the heartbreaking poem "Tamburitza Lingua" and the wordplay-catchy "Marrow." Moreover, the spotlight shines on "Kazoointoit," which starts with a mysterious message on an answering machine.

The first CD also contains some ani-trademark ballads. "Garden Of Simple" is both a love song and a political tune while "Rock Paper Scissors" sounds like a sappy romantic song but has a late-show big band sound.

"Revelling" ends with an instrumental track, a first for DiFranco. In fact, seven tracks from the 29 on the album are instrumental, ranging from the tabla-charged "Beautiful Night" to the sordid "Prison Prism." Although they are not as enthralling as the tracks with DiFranco's remarkable lyrics, they serve as satisfying fillers.

Disc two, "Reckoning," is mellow. The opener, "Your Next Bold Move," sounds like a dreary "To The Teeth," but without the pizazz, and "Grey" makes you wonder if DiFranco is on a permanent writer's block.

Ironically, both tracks "Reckoning" and the "Revelling" are on the "Reckoning" CD. "Reckoning" is the standard ballad while "Revelling" is a bluesy lullaby.

Many of the songs on this disc were heavily played during her tours, including the theme of sorrow "So What" and DiFranco's dissection of racial separation, "Subdivision."

Furthermore, "Imagine That" is folk song that stands out like a sore thumb because it has, by far, the best melodic arrangement.

Another song that might sound familiar if you've seen DiFranco perform live is the swaying "Sick Of Me."

The collection is unlike any other DiFranco record. This album definitely depicts DiFranco in the middle of a musical transformation.

Although it does not have the political prowess of "Imperfectly" or the frank rigor of "Not A Pretty Girl," it still is a masterpiece of melodic craftswomanship and sonical change.

Ani DiFranco's poetry is always beautiful and insightful. What is lacking in this CD is her charismatic energy and variation of music within a collection. The songs are uncharacteristically similar and many of the soft beats are uninspiring. Each of Ani's albums are different and wonderful in their own right, but this fan expected something else and something more - not 2 CDs worth of music to fall asleep by.

There are 2 schools of thought that find themselves distinctly stubborn as followers of the wonderful musician we know as Ani. I've met many wonderful people who claim themselves die hard Ani fans, own every cd, t-shirt and concert stub since the days she toured with Dylan. Ani grew up playing the beatles in smoky bars, then moving on to the Joni Mitchell / Dylan(although she would dispute this) influenced folk militia to angry-hurting-"semi-tortured-melodramatic" vein'd Dilate, to what this album represents. Some people have loved her music ever since. Others have been waiting for Dilate part 2 out of her. This is by far one of the most diverse (2 original cd's) she has released, but we've said that for years. Tracks that take you from suicide "School Night" to folk inspired politica on "Your Next Bold Move". I'm not sure what more the 2 schools of Ani-ism (were there such a thing) would want in compromise. This album has it all, from the fine tuned studio work, to impeccible guitar work to her most sharpened sense of poetry. To those who have remained unsatisfied since Dilate, if it is the anger you've been hunting, I'd suggest this album, but look deeper into it. Ani is the most poetically articulate artist of our times, it would be close to heresay, but truth in saying she has reached a point as close as one in our times could to the fork the greatest of musicians (i.e Bob Dylan, 1966). And it is up to her to continue what we value her most for, in doing exactly as she pleases. Everyone is a [ ] Napoleon.

This is my first review, but this album is so good I needed to gush about it. Believe me, it deserves all the praise I am going to heap on it.

This album breaks new ground for Ani DiFranco. Mixing the horns of "Little Plastic Castle" with a bit of electronic editing and sampling (and melodic sounds) of "Up Up Up Up Up Up", she has very successfully solidified the sound she was developing in those two albums into a sum that is greater than its parts. The melodies and lyrics touch on styles from her entire career, from the political and personal girl-with-guitar tunes that dominate "Reckoning" to the upbeat and playful mixed-up tunes of "Revelling."

Most of all, this album is incredibly mature. In "Tamburitza Lingua," the line "she's 19 going on 30 or maybe she's really 30 now, it's hard to say" sums up this album, and perhaps her career, perfectly. From the start of her career, she had both the youthful anger and aged wisdom of an "old soul". Now, at 30, those two primary aspects of Ani DiFranco have blended perfectly on this album.

Upon my first listen, I preferred "Revelling" over "Reckoning." It has the good mix of fast, fun songs that made me fall in love with Ani's music in the first place. Combined with the powerful lyrics and emotions of her slower songs, the album has a nice balance of both sides of Ani: the playful and the powerful. The bouncy and pointed "Fierce Flawless" wouldn't get out of my head after one listen and "Garden of Simple" makes me weep like a child every time.

As a fine counterpoint, "Reckoning" is almost completely made up of instrumentals and ballads, which at first made all the tracks sound too similar. But once I stopped treating it like background music and really paid attention to the lyrics, I realized how brilliant they were. For my money, they're better than almost anything she's released before. Tracks like "Your Next Bold Move" and "Grey" prove that Ani has not lost that younger, more introspective and political perspective. It has simply been honed by age.

If I could give this album 4.5 stars, I would (nothing is ever perfect). But this is damn close. The songs will stick in your head and you won't want them to leave. You'll just want to listen to the albums again so you can memorize them and sing along.