Anyone who’s ever financed the recording of their own album will know that there are certain things that really ought to matter, and The Shopkeeper is a stark reminder of those things. People matter. Can you think of an app that can replicate the relationships between songwriter, musician, producer and engineer? Thought not. Places matter. Can you imagine The Beatles without Abbey Road? Nope, neither can I. Things matter. If you’re making an album, why wouldn’t you want to make it into a something you can hold in your hands? Musicians today find themselves in a world where people, places and things appear to all matter a little less than they once did and The Shopkeeper pushes us, ever so gently, to consider the consequences.

Free of major-label interference for her entire twenty-seven-year career, Ani Difranco is one of the most revered independent artists on the planet. After all, she pretty much invented the idea of subverting the music industry’s normal route to success, inspiring countless other coffee house singer-songwriters to follow her DIY example and to never, ever, ever sell out. Her fierce independence is part of her appeal, along with her sharp lyrical wit and flair for balancing the political with the personal in her prolific output of spikey guitar-driven songs. She may not be the ball of unstoppable feisty energy that she used to be but Binary sees her unafraid as ever to tell it like it is and stick it to the man.

Rain Perry - The Shopkeeper (Film Review)

Ani DiFranco - Binary (Album Review)