a little light dispels a lot of darkness
This is what art feels like.

"I learned the truth at 17" about 5 or 6 years ago when I first became a Janis Ian fan. An old friend first introduced me to this very talented creature who is actually a relative of Janis', too. At the time, I'm now embarrassed to admit that I had no idea who she was and had no idea what her music sounded like.

The first time I listened to "Between The Lines" I immediately fell in love with both the performer and the record, respectively. Janis Ian has to be one of the most underrated (and underplayed) American Folk singers of our time. Her best song is "At Seventeen." It has such a rich sound and such a great message. Janis' voice will get inside you because she has a special gift that allows her to speak to everyone. I love this CD and recommend it to anyone that appreciates American Folk or just anything that's slightly off the beaten path (we don't all have to listen to that idol top 50 nonsense, do we?) BTW, Janis Ian performed on the very first SNL in 1975, "At Seventeen."

These are the tracks with the times for each song:
1) When The Party's Over 2.57 *
2) At Seventeen 4.41 *
3) From Me To You 3.17 *
4) Bright Lights And Promises 4.16
5) In The Winter 2.29
6) Water Colors 5.02
7) Between The Lines 4.02 *
8) The Come On 3.57
9) Light A Light 2.45
10) Tea & Sympathy 4.29
11) Lover's Lullaby 5.26

* these are my favorites.

Why do I adore this CD?

"Between The Lines" is Janis' very best CD. It's a total juxtaposition of somber, sweet and sorrowful. I really love the first track "When The Party's Over." It has such a familiar sound that's almost refreshing. I'm sorry that's the best way I can describe it, I know that may sound hokey to you.

Did you also notice how the first part of the CD is rather mournful and the second half has a fast, frenzy sound? This makes such a unique and clever record. I can't remember listening to one like this in such a long time (if ever.) And even though these songs all sound very diverse there's also a centricity that ties them all together. From the moody trumpet-horns that play in the early tracks, to the fast jazz beats on songs like "Between The Lines" and "Light A Light," Janis is able to bring them all together in unison, while holding hands with each other.

This record also reminds me that there's still some light left in this world or some goodness in humanity. It reminds me that there is still decent music. And most of all I love this CD because it reminds me that no matter what, everyone is still special in their own way.

...Janis Ian is one of our greatest entertainers and perhaps the very best folk singer, ever. Maybe overshadowed by mainstream Top 50 (otherwise known as "pop") and perhaps because she was never "folk enough" Janis never really appreciated the type of acclaim that she very rightfully was otherwise entitled to. I suppose in the end that's really what happens to some of our best artists, right?

This is one of the only CD's that I can think of that so many generations equally listen to. As I've touched on, I think it's because Janis is such a universal person that speaks what most people feel; but rarely, if ever voice. Incidentally (and not coincidently,) Janis Ian is also the only singer who my mother listened to as a teenager that I also enjoy.

IMHO Janis Ian is way more of a g-a-y icon than someone like Cher or Barbra Streisand or Madonna. Because those others are way too perfect and they didn't know what it's like to suffer through heartache. Janis does. She's a modern-day Judy Garland. On the outside, looking in, hoping to be recognized, but otherwise forgotten and thrown away. ...That's why I love her...

Everybody knows
1975's finest. Perhaps one up- or mid-tempo tune short of an all-the-way (explosion, fireworks) masterpiece (that closing track is a touch maudlin), Between The Lines nevertheless blows out Ian's nearest "rivals" (Carole King, Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks and, dare I say, Paul Simon) and makes a serious claim for one of the 70's preeminent essential LP artifacts.

The success here, I believe, is that Ian (already a songwriting master by '69) keeps the chords simple enough to let her mesmerizing blasts of lyrical wisdom run their course. And there is sagacity, however embittered, on every track. The arrangements are smart, providing properly discreet shading to Ian's soul-inflected folk (and, occasionally)cabaret musings.

Ian sings a mean, low-key revelation. Even when her lyrical and sonic milieu is the tawdry dancehall ("Bright Lights and Promises"), she never showboats. Ian has the inspired ice of Peggy Lee. "The Come On," a deeply dire meditation on cheap love and low esteem, never lapses into sobbing gymnastics. Ian just delivers the bad news like an X-ray. Perfect every time.

There is a fiber-optic perfection to Ian's poetic observations. Male radio programmers and DJs were compelled by burning telephone lines, not market imperatives, to air "At Seventeen" - a startling runaway hit (prefiguring the later, bolder success of Suzanne Vega's "Luka"). It was simply heavy lasers set to kill. Ian didn't hit the mark, she expunged it.

What an artist.

A great memory!
Listening to this CD brings back memories of my "younger" years. It still is as pertinent now in its wording as it was back then...just in a different way. A great rememberance.

Between the Lines
One of the best voices God ever created. A mix of rock and easy listening to words and music you can understand. Every line connects with the very core of every human being that listens to her. Janis Ian is a true voice in the music industry.

THE LAST OF THE '70's SONGWRITERS
Some of Janis Ian's wordplay could make a bad poet blush. Take this line from her adolescent hell signature song, "At Seventeen", a tune betrayed by this bizarre description of teenage alienation, "Their small town eyes will gape at you, (gaping eyes?), in dull surprise when payment due, succeeds accounts received at seventeen". How's that, a teenage accountant? Or this from, "Tea and Sympathy", "Pass the tea and sympathy, for the good old days are long gone, we'll drink a toast to those, who most believe in what they've won." Never have I wanted to drink a toast to those, who most believe in what they've won. But just when you want to file these feminist minded, man-eating compositions under aimless testements, Ian slam bangs the finish with two monumental orchestrated numbers questioning the choice between laying down to the death of a lifetime with your lover, or the freedom artistic pursuit and single-hood can offer, making all her previous meandering diatribes sound meaningful. Here the album stands up and says hello, and the crescendoing climax calls you back for another listen. Some nice touches here and there as well, including a brooding cello solo at the end of, "Water Colors".