Due May 17, the upcoming LP includes tracks “The Thing at Hand” and “New Bible”
Ani DiFranco is set to release her 23rd album, Unprecedented Sh!t, on May 17 via her label, Righteous Babe Records.
According to a press release, the title signifies a departure in sound by the singer-songwriter and serves as a “poignant political and social commentary on the contemporary global landscape.” The upcoming project is produced by BJ Burton (Bon Iver) and will encompass 11 tracks, including singles “The Thing at Hand” and “New Bible,” which is billed as a “different way of living outside of consumerism.”
Other songs on the LP include its lead single, “Baby Roe,” which serves as a “a civil rights rallying cry” calling on the need for “reproductive freedom and autonomy,” and “Virus,” which sees DiFranco battling with complex emotions on the pandemic. The closing song, “The Knowing,” the title of the artist’s 2023 children’s book, aims to highlight the notion that “we can harness the power of identity without being limited by it and without becoming lost in the subjective narratives of the ego.”
In 2022, DiFranco collaborated with Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard on song “Disorders” to raise awareness for reproductive rights and proceeds for the National Network of Abortion Funds. The track also featured work from saxophonist Skerik, Josh Evans, and Stanton Moore. Gossard previously explained that the song had lingering as a demo for six years, before Skerik “had the epiphany” to ask DiFranco to join the track.
“With the imminent overturning of Roe v. Wade, women in every Republican stronghold in this country are left treading in a sea of unnecessary suffering, just trying to keep their heads above water,” DiFranco said, days before Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022. “Poor women will be drowned by the score. That is why this track is a fundraiser for abortion access — to help women who don’t have resources but who desperately need abortions.”
Unprecedented Sh!t Track List
1. “Spinning Room”
2. “Virus”
3. “More or Less Free”
4. “Baby Roe”
5. “Unprecedented Sh!t”
6. “New Bible”
7. “Boots of a Soldier”
8. “You Forgot to Speak”
9. “The Thing at Hand”
10. “Interlude”
11. “The Knowing”