Janis Ian
Between the Lines

I don't think there are many of us who own a copy of this record, which literally states on the cover "Number One in USA," a claim that CBS Italia intended to encourage purchasing. I believe few have noticed it, and this extraordinary record went unnoticed. I jealously guard two copies, the vinyl and the CD. Sometimes I do that, for fear of losing something, because with this record, that fear comes over you. You don't need powerful voices and a large number of instruments to tell small stories. It's the small stories narrated with the right intimacy, the childhood experiences, the memories, the nostalgias that Janis' sensitivity highlights with great evocative ability. The music is not actually sparse but instead colors, with appropriate presence, every tale, every description. In this sense, Ron Frangipane's arrangements blend with the words without ever overshadowing them, always pleasant and capable of enhancing every movement of her soul. "At Seventeen" represents the hit of the record, but all the other tracks still listen with great ease. The introspective search darkens pieces like "From Me To You" and "In The Winter," on which nonetheless the musical threads gently lighten with the right delicacy. Janis Ian finds herself somewhat at the crossroads between Joan Baez and Tracy Chapman, even chronologically, and this record wonderfully represents that.