Reprieve - Ani DiFranco
Metascore
74 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 12
  2. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. It's beautifully committed music--the kind that's as essential now as it has ever been. [11 Aug 2006, p.67]
  2. Intimate and organic. [Sep 2006, p.74]
  3. Another reassuringly exceptional album.
  4. 70
    Reprieve is probably the easiest album to listen to that she's ever made. [Oct 2006, p.104]
  5. The downside of Reprieve is that it isn't as musically arresting as earlier albums like Out of Range, and DiFranco, on a song like "Millennium Theater," can be rather obvious.
  6. Much of Reprieve sounds, appropriately enough, like DiFranco is taking a much-needed breather.
  7. Musically, the album is more languid than earlier efforts without sacrificing the urgency of her patented guitar pluck-strum.
  8. Reprieve may not court new members to the Church of Ani, but it may well be one of those albums that fans hold up as an underappreciated favorite in the years to come.
  9. An arresting mix of the singer's political and personal strife set to a jazzy backbeat.
  10. 60
    Milky keyboard washes and found-sound accents... give the music a darker, dreamier depth. [Sep 2006, p.100]
  11. Generally solid with more hits than misses, but my usual advice to DiFranco still applies: don't record everything you write – wait a few months and give us the best ones.
  12. Subtle sounds -- acoustic instruments, electronic tones, environmental noises, distorted echoes -- well up around her, and they open up pockets of shadow around her usual pinpoint clarity. Now the atmosphere is as important as the words.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 10
  2. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. A weak album from one of our most innovative modern musicians and poets. Her lyrics - as always - are smarter than anyone else's, but as a huge fan I can say that this is one album I would NOT recommend. Full Review »
  2. NaceB
    10
    Sweet and Sad!!
  3. BrandonS
    7
    This is a message for Nathaniel S and others like him: There's no need to call someone who expresses their opinion in this forum a "fool." Heaven forbid someone think differently from the great Nathaniel S. I read metacritic to get a variety of opinions and the reasoning behind them. Leave the classless insults out of it. Full Review »