This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
For the last two decades, you might have needed at least one of the above entities to help track down Janis Ian.
Now, from straight outta nowhere, the singer-songwriter last heard from in the ’70s is back with a new album. Even more surprising? It’s a winner. Unlike so many of her nostalgia-circuit contemporaries, Ian has embraced current technologies — samplers, synths and sequencers. But God & the FBI is not only fuelled by contemporary production; it’s also loaded with smart, exquisitely crafted song-stories — none of which sound like her dour folk classic At Seventeen. The title track is a jazzy slice of modern-day paranoia a la Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. Memphis is a moody, sparsely touching duet with Willie Nelson. Play Like A Girl is a chunky serving of Stonesy California rock. Other tracks flirt with rootsy sass and even (no fooling) trip-hop. Oh sure, there are a couple of the weepy-girl ballads you’d expect of Ian. But ultimately, God & The FBI is best summed up in one of Ian’s own lines: “I’m ready for the last comeback.”
