Strange Little Girls Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not sure I'll ever completely grasp Tori Amos' vision for this album. Strange Little Girls is an record of cover songs, and as I understand it, Amos wanted to give a female perspective to how men see women in music. Either the gender politics are beyond me, or she didn't do it quite right (I'll wager it's the former). She definitely hits the bull's-eye a few times though. The song that best accomplishes her goal is her harrowing rendition of "'97 Bonnie & Clyde," Eminem's vicious song about a man who kills his wife and throws her in the sea to get rid of the body. Amos's naked delivery of the song, hushed, spoken vocals over a spooky strings sample, is downright frightening. I think that fact that it makes me uncomfortable to listen to it is a testament to her success.
"Raining Blood" is one of the most shocking songs here. The original, by "extreme" metal band Slayer, was full of fierce vocals and crushing guitars. Here, Amos strips it to nothing but a piano and a weird bass synthesizer, and ironically injects the song with more menace and evil than the original ever had. It's a creepy cover that plays out more like the soundtrack to a nightmare than a song.
Amos' alteration of tone with these songs often changes them radically. What was an innocent little song before becomes threatening, wrenching, or indignant. Think back to the Crucify EP, where Tori completely warped Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in a way that completely changed the impact of the song (at least for me). That's the effect she's going for, I figure. Her experimentation doesn't always work though. "Heart of Gold" is so cacophonous and the vocals so awkward that I can't really appreciate it. "Real Men" is pretty, but quite similar to the original. Even when I don't understand the message, I appreciate the lovely singing and minimalistic music. "Enjoy the Silence," "Rattlesnakes," and "Time" are all beautiful songs, even if Amos' implications of sex are beyond my meager brain.
I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, mainly because I wasn't even sure what to expect. I like this album, even if I must concede to not entirely understanding it. Artistically, she probably knows what she's doing. Even so, I'm eager for another release of original material.

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No Description Available.Genre: Popular MusicMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 18-SEP-2001

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Abnormally Attracted to Sin Review

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(More customer reviews)I personally have not been impressed with Tori's recorded output since Scarlet's Walk, which I felt was the last great album she released with beautiful songs and captivating lyrics. Since The Beekeeper, her last three albums have been filled with the same production problems, poor lyrics, or uninspired and generic music. The Beekeeper had some promising songs that were lost in over or bad production and dry vocals. American Doll Posse's production was no improvement with flat mixing and her husband's less than great electric guitar. With Abnormally Attracted to Sin we find an improvement in overall production but still nothing that sonically creative besides some tracks such as Starling, Lady in Blue, and Abnormally Attracted to Sin. The electric guitar is still there from American Doll Posse, and instead of adding ambiance, adding cheesy 80's riffs that drown everything else in the song. In addition, the length of the album is excessive and once again Tori is need of desperate editing. In terms of vocals, there are some good moments as in Give, but she has increasingly relied on this weird accent that no one can understand what she is saying, and it sounds childish and just bad. Another negative of the album is that the lyrics which are anything but great. I don't know what happened to the days when she would craft thought provoking and mysterious lyrics, but on this album we are faced with some of the most cringe worthy lines of Tori's career.
Tori Amos' increased vanity is really exposed all throughout this project whether it's the fake posing and air-brushed beyond belief glamour shots of the album artwork or of the embarrassing visualettes --embarrassing being the only word to describe the accompanying videos of the deluxe version. Instead of visually intriguing films, we are presented with Tori Amos playing more dress up in horrible thousand dollar designer outfits walking, driving around aimlessly.
I am a huge Tori Amos fan but these reoccurring bloated albums with unimpressive results have caused multiple disappointments. She desperately needs to hire a producer to help record an album that does not contain filler, but a cohesive collection of strong, unique, emotionally-captivating songs that show off her amazing abilities as a musician (that are still there evident from a lot of her live performances last tour) found in her other albums. She should stop letting her husband play electric guitar that does nothing but drown the rest of the music. She should take the time to write the amazing lyrics she was known for. And she should stop the increased phoniness in her image and reconnect with reality and her old artistic integrity.

When compared to all her other albums, it's about a 2.5/5 stars. In other words, if you were looking for the 'return to form' of Tori Amos you'll probably have to wait a little longer.


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This Deluxe version of "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" will include a bonus fan DVD that include 17 visualettes (special music videos) for songs on the album.

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Tori Amos - Welcome to Sunny Florida (DVD with Bonus CD in Amray Case) (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)The worst that can be said about Tori Amos's live concert DVD, Welcome To Sunny Florida, is that the packaging is somewhat lackluster for a Tori Amos production. Otherwise and more importantly, Welcome To Sunny Florida, which also includes an extensive and remarkably balanced interview with Amos, a briefer backstage interview with her mother, and Scarlet's Hidden Treasures, a bonus CD of six unreleased Scarlet's Walk - era songs, fulfills itself impressively in every way. With Amos's best - of package, Tales Of A Librarian, released as recently as the autumn of 2003, the current collection only strengthens Amos's reputation as an unstoppable artistic juggernaut and workhorse. Amos is among the most prolific recording artists of her generation, and has reached the kind of elevated position today that musicians like Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith enjoyed in the seventies.
The concert footage, culled from the last show in the 2002-2003 Scarlet's Walk tour, represents Amos at her straightforward and ungrandiose best. Unlike some of the earlier such footage the artist has made available, Amos's vocals here are well recorded, high notes are reached with apparent effortlessness, the songs closely resemble the studio originals, and, above all, Amos appears happy, comfortable, and fully in command of the wide range of her talents.
The real importance of the collection, however, is found not on the DVD but on Scarlet's Hidden Treasures; three of the songs-'Seaside,' 'Tombigbee,' and 'Indian Summer'-were made available on the internet after the release of Scarlet's Walk (2002), but 'Ruby Through The Looking - Glass,' 'Bug A Martini,' and 'Apollo's Frock' are entirely new. With the exception of the likable, jazz - based "Bug A Martini," these songs represent Amos at the very height of her creative power. The meditative, somnolent 'Indian Summer' approaches the beauty of 'Cooling,' while the deceptively simplistic 'Seaside,' a fantasia on war that may or may not reference the attack on Pearl Harbor, has the restrained emotional fatalism of 'Playboy Mommy.' Wars both personal and collective underpin these songs thematically.
In the Seventies, songwriters Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon mapped out the battleground in the war between the sexes from positions of fairness, self - assurance, and personal power. In many ways, however, Amos's spiritual and lyrical antecedent is really the perpetually combative, confrontational, and caustic Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, as a study of Amos' hostility-laden song catalogue attests. Like Hynde, Amos's themes largely reflect emotional and spiritual crisis, chronic dissatisfaction with the state of the world, the victimization of the weak by the powerful, personal disillusionment, and the general failure of communication; like Hynde, Amos often responds with straightforward, finger - pointing accusations of blame, open sarcasm, and abrasive mockery.
But Amos is a more openly feminist and women - centered artist than Hynde, something readily apparent throughout the songs on Scarlet's Hidden Treasures. 'Ruby Through The Looking - Glass' describes the emotional and perhaps physical battles between a man and a pregnant woman; the vulnerable unborn child is, not surprisingly, referred to as "she." The children killed while playing innocently by the ocean in 'Seaside' are "girls dancing." 'Apollo's Frock,' which lyrically resembles the early Imagist poetry of Hilda Doolittle, may be Amos's most overt feminist statement yet; lofty Apollo, and men generally, are reminded that "Apollo, your frock...was always as beautiful as your sister's that your light shined on." The rousing, combustible 'Tombigbee' finds Amos hoping to be cleansed by the river after a volatile romantic encounter, and 'Indian Summer,' which begins with an image of "girls in the attic," finds Amos advocating for "another way" of life in the West and addressing President Bush with unusual subtly.
Amos's women - centered perspective begs the same question that matriarchal - based sects of Wicca do; are imbalances corrected or resolved by replacing a patriarchal worldview with a matriarchal viewpoint? At times, Amos seems at least metaphorically Wiccan in her emotional, spiritual, and political perspective. Her own combative feelings and attitudes seem to provide her with little insight into the identical hostilities she so opposes in others.
Longtime listeners who have missed the piano - dominated songwriting of Under The Pink (1994) and portions of Boys For Pele (1996) will be thrilled with Welcome To Sunny Florida and specifically with Scarlet's Hidden Treasures; 'Ruby Through The Looking Glass,' 'Seaside,' 'Apollo's Frock,' and 'Indian Summer' reveal the "girl at her piano" at her very best, and collectively are leagues beyond the material on From The Choirgirl Hotel (1998) and most of To Venus And Back's studio disc (1999).

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Studio: Sony MusicRelease Date: 05/25/2004Rating: Nr

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Abnormally Attracted to Sin Review

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(More customer reviews)By now there must be a division of Tori Amos fans--the ones, like myself, who like her earlier work, and the ones who like what she has done over the past decade. I'm sure there are die-hard fans like myself who subject themselves to everything Amos, and who might be lulled into a comfortable coma that feels (on the surface) blissful, but then the inability to come to sets in.
"Abnormally Attracted To Sin" carries on the Amos tradition set forth by "Strange Little Girls" back in 2001. Slick production, that also sounds flat and bland--like it was made behind a wall. Amos's clever and wry lyrics about the same old subjects--religion, sin, womanhood, etc. Plus her inimitable vocals which don't reach the dizzying heights of her earlier work anymore. She sounds like she's been taking Valium for the past decade, lazily churning her own butter, far from the taste buds of her adoring fans.
There's nothing here to get excited about. The songs come and go with no particular track standing out. This is just like her last three albums, and what's strange is she jumped record labels only to make the same album for a fourth time in a row. All of her albums this decade have been overstuffed (can Amos actually make a 40 minute album? She seems musically challenged to do so).
"Welcome To England" is a mediocre first choice as a single. What's she singing about? I don't know, I fell asleep already. To her credit, I liked "Give", "Maybe California", "500 Miles", and well, all the songs are just fine, really. That's the problem--there's nothing compelling or gripping here. Amos is supposed to represent intensity, originality, experimentation. All gone. It all died after "To Venus And Back" in 1999. Amos has gone through a longer blue period than Elton John.
Wake up and smell the coffee, Amos. Oh wait, that's all you've been doing for the past decade, because it's the only place your music has been heard--at Starbucks across the U.S. I expect more from you. I want my money's worth. Surprise me next time.
Here's how "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" compares to her other work:
1992 Little Earthquakes: Five Stars
1994 Under The Pink: Five Stars
1996 Boys For Pele: Five Stars
1998 From The Choirgirl Hotel: Five Stars
1999 To Venus And Back: Four Stars
2001 Strange Little Girls: Two Stars
2002 Scarlet's Walk: Three Stars
2005 The Beekeeper: Three and a Half Stars
2007 American Doll Posse: Three and a Half Stars
2009 Abnormally Attracted To Sin: Three Stars

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ABNORMALLY ATTRACTED TO SIN, Tori's tenth studio album, is another innovative chapter in the artist's trailblazing story. Every track on the album will be accompanied by a corresponding `visualette,' featuring footage that has been captured over the past year. Shot in HD and Super 8, the visualettes will incorporate a documentary style. Tori's most recent album, AMERICAN DOLL POSSE, which has been hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as `her best album in years,' was released in 2007 to a chorus of rave reviews. The captivating album, like many of her previous efforts, adhered to a strong conceptual theme, with Tori inhabiting multiple archetypal female personae, a testament to her willingness to continue to push the boundaries of the female singer/songwriter. Regarded as one of the most emotionally fearless live artists in music today, her most recent world tour, launched in the summer of 2007, saw her soar with her first full-fledged rock band in nearly a decade. Media platforms such as the BBC lauded both her live show and album as `returning Tori Amos back to the forefront of a genre she defined...still pushing her own boundaries.' With more than 12 million albums sold, and commanding a significant and uniquely loyal audience from the rock, pop, alternative, and under-the-radar regions of the music world, Ms. Amos has influenced a new generation of artists in a myriad of platforms. Most recently, she was the catalyst for a one-of-a-kind anthology chronicling her career, the 500 page Graphic Novel, Comic Book Tattoo, featuring stunning visual interpretations of her songs by more than 80 artists, (including an introduction by friend and creative influence artist Neil Gaiman, creator of the Sandman series). Her genre-shattering breakthrough in the early 1990s, including 1991's `Me And A Gun' EP, and 1992's masterwork, Little Earthquakes, single-handedly revived the piano-andsinger motif in rock music. Little Earthquakes went on to sell more than 3 million albums worldwide, with subsequent Grammy® nominated albums such as Under The Pink (1994), 1996's Boys For Pele, 2001's Strange Little Girls and 2002's Scarlet's Walk continuing to explore broader themes. Nominated for multiple awards, including ten Grammys®, Ms. Amos has been working on a musical for London's British National Theatre called The Light Princess tentatively scheduled to debut in 2010.

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Tori Amos: Live from the Artists Den Review

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(More customer reviews)For almost two decades, I would occasionally hear a song by Tori Amos on the radio, or on TV, and say to myself, "Wow! That's an interesting song. I ought to check her out." Then, of course, I never got around to it. When PBS finally handed her to me on a silver platter, by televising this concert (most of it) on their Live from the Artists Den series, I made a point of recording and watching the show. Then watching it again. And again. Then going on line to get the lyrics, which are crucial but occasionally hard to understand, because Tori sometimes alters the sound of words for musical effect. Then finally taking the plunge, buying all 11 studio albums and about a dozen CD singles, followed by four DVD sets and four books. Rarely if ever has a singer/songwriter had such a profound impact on me.
If you are not familiar with Tori Amos, this solo concert offers an excellent entry into her world. There are twelve songs from seven of her albums, covering her entire career, including two which were not part of the PBS telecast, as well as an extended interview and a souvenir booklet. It is regrettable that the DVD is neither subtitled nor captioned, so I recommend getting the lyrics on line; neither of Tori's two websites has a complete list, but there are many other helpful sites, for instance AZLyrics. The song selection does favor the gentler, more introspective side of her output, and there is a more angry, raw, confrontational side to her which is not conveyed in this concert; on the other hand, that does make this DVD less likely to put people off. Don't worry if you don't "get" all the songs; she tends to describe, not the specific events in her life which created a song, but the images those events evoke for her, the things those events remind her of. It's like listening to the Oracle at Delphi: you won't understand every word, but you will know, with certainty, that every word is true.
For Tori aficionados, this concert is essential for a different reason. In her studio albums and on many of her live recordings, she performs with backup instruments; this makes the rhythms and dynamics relatively inflexible, in order for everyone to stay together. In this solo concert, however - just her, accompanying herself on Bosendorfer piano and on synthesizer, sometimes both at once - she has much greater control over phrasing and mood, and the songs become more sensuous, more haunting. I actually like these "black and white" versions of the songs much better than the album versions, for the same reason that I like Ansel Adams' B&W photographs - BECAUSE of the lack of instrumental color, not in spite of it; I think this presentation brings out things in the music and the lyrics which are obscured in the (more commercial) album versions. It would actually be very interesting to hear how this kind of performance affected some of her edgier songs; there may be facets to them which we have never heard.
Tori Amos is one of the most personal, creative poet/songwriters around. I always wondered what I would find if I explored her music. Now, thanks to this concert, I know.


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On a cold December 2009 night in New York City, Tori Amos played a private solo concert for one hundred fans at the historic Park Avenue Armory in New York City. "Tori Amos: Live from the Artists Den" captures this once-in-a-lifetime performance featuring both hits and fan favorites spanning the Amos catalog, from her breakthrough 1991 debut "Little Earthquakes" to her acclaimed 2009 album "Abnormally Attracted to Sin" -- including two songs not shown in the television broadcast.
Features: The full Tori Amos concert recorded at Park Avenue Armory in New York City on December 9, 2009 - including two songs not shown in TV broadcast; 20-minute Amos interview with music journalist Alan Light; tour of Veterans Room with Amos and the head of the Armory; 34-page hardbound book package.

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Under the Pink Review

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(More customer reviews)'Under The Pink' is the definate mid point in vision between the structured, catchy honest confession of 'Little Earthquakes' and the experimental, often formless cryptic 'Boys For Pele.' I feel that with her debut Tori didn't really show off her lyrical acrobats or experimental fancies as well as she was capable of (great album that 'LE' was.) 'BFP' almost had the opposite problems, Tori was at her creative peak, but at a peak that nobody could understand.
'Under The Pink' however, compromises between pop accessibility and creative progression. The lyrics here are definately more cryptic than Little Earthquakes and although are difficult to understand one can usually catch the general gist of most songs (Space Dog, however still baffles me.)In addition, where Tori's debut is very personal 'UTP' attempts the externalise her scope towards inter relationships in peer groups as well as having a good cheeky jab toward christianity.
Musically the album is at its most schitzophrenic, tempos change drastically, not only from track to track, but also within single tracks themselves. Hence 'Pretty Good Year' 'God' 'Cornflake Girl' and 'Space Dog' switch between fesity rock and soft balladry within a moment's notice. Tori experiements with industrial sounds in 'The Waitress' while in 'Bells For Her' she plays on a deconstructed 'prepared' piano that sounds more like clanging bells than a piano. Of course, it wouldn't be a Tori album without the piano and strings, 'Baker Baker' 'Icicle' and 'Cloud On My Tongue' are brilliant, and to a lesser extent 'Yes Anastasia' (which is technically great but fails to sustain my interest.)
Elsewhere, 'The Wrong Band' sounds like a cut off the Beatle's 'Abbey Road' album (hence its very bouncy and quirky) and Space Dog's upbeart parts sound like Blondie's Rapture. 'Past The Mission' with its impossibly catchy hook line, is perhaps my favorite extract from the album melodic wise. It used to be 'Cornflake Girl', but since I've heard that classic song (that everyone should know by now) so many thousands of times, Im starting to *gasp* tire of it (a year ago I would've considered that last comment impossible.)
Admittedly, I listen to 'Little Earthquakes' more than this one, since its a lot catchier and straight forward its more of an enjoyable listen. However, in terms of artistic vision and creative achievement, Under The Pink is a far superior album. If nothing else, the lyrics to 'God' and 'Icicle' will make you smile (just make sure you're not a god fearing christian.)

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Australian limited edition release combines two albums,Boys for Pele (1996) & Under the Pink (1994), individuallypackaged in standard jewel cases & housed together in aslipcase. 2001 release.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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