Recorded at The Recording Complex, Buffalo, New York and 1:2:1, Toronto, Canada.

On her relatively spare sixth album (which features only one other musician, percussionist/vocalist Andy Stochansky, and, on one song, singer Kate Fenner), Ani DiFranco takes on a few expected topics, such as abortion ("Tiptoe"), capital punishment ("Crime for Crime"), and why she isn't on a major label ("The Million You Never Made"). But much of the disc is given over to introspective ruminations on personal life and love. As usual, the singer is not shy (despite a song of that title) about offering criticism of the person or persons she's addressing, but she is also self-critical and even, on "Sorry I Am," apologetic. The songs do not add up to the complete story of a relationship, but there are some deeply felt portraits here, especially "Light of Some Kind," in which the singer seems to be confessing to a man that she has been unfaithful to him with a woman. As usual, the imagery is urban and gritty; DiFranco is the kind of writer who likes to tell you that she's got last night's underwear in her back pocket as she rides home on the subway on the afternoon following an assignation. But the sometimes messy details are in the service of her view of reality, an unflinching one in which everything can be faced, even the songwriter's emotional torment. ~ William Ruhlmann

1995's NOT A PRETTY GIRL synthesizes elements of Ani DiFranco's six prior albums and is widely considered one of this wildly prolific Buffalo, New York-based singer/songwriter's finest efforts. Here, the folky acoustic starkness of ANI DIFRANCO and NOT SO SOFT meshes with songs that recall the detailed full-band arrangements of LIKE I SAID and OUT OF RANGE. DiFranco even remakes an earlier song, IMPERFECTLY's "Coming Up."

Lyrically, the album also refines topics previously covered. There's the abortion drama "Tiptoe," the sneering record-business diatribe "The Million You Never Made," and a passel of songs that touch on DiFranco's outspoken bisexuality (notably "Light of Some Kind"). The difference is that the pieces fit together more smoothly than before. The relative lack of jagged edges makes the powerful emotions of the songs that much more intense. NOT A PRETTY GIRL is a masterpiece of '90s folk-rock.