Ani DiFranco – feminist icon, folksinger, and DIY pioneer – just announced her upcoming album, Unprecedented Sh!t, on May 17th via Righteous Babe Records. With a new single out now called “You Forgot To Speak,” DiFranco continues to branch out into a more psychedelic sound that stays true to her long-running themes of fighting oppression.
DiFranco can’t be stopped. Since founding Righteous Babe Records in 1990, the Grammy winner has released over 20 albums that run the gamut of folk, funk, hip hop, jazz, electronica and more. She’s written a memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream, as well as a children’s book, The Knowing, and is currently starring in the hit musical Hadestown as Persephone. Oh, and there’s a documentary about her arriving at the Tribeca Film Festival this summer.
“Tell me, how the hell could anybody listen when you forget to speak?” DiFranco croons as the chorus includes haunting distortions with a steady drumbeat. The song deals with the complex ways that the patriarchy interacts with the female psyche and the ways that the oppressed can be reduced to complicity.
Listen to “You Forgot To Speak” below and pre-order the album at Bandcamp.