FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos in 1999/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith
Part Eight: Tori Amos
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THIS is an exciting…
edition of A Buyer’s Guide, as I am a big fan of Tori Amos, and I have been following her work since the 1990s. It is hard to whittle down to her essential albums, but I have been looking through her back catalogue and have selected, what I think, are her very best albums, an underrated one that is prime for new appreciation, and her latest album – in addition to highlighting a great new book from Amos herself. If you are new to Tori Amos, I hope this feature acts as a guide and can point you in the right direction regarding her work. In this week’s A Buyer’s Guide is the very best work of one of the music world’s…
BRIGHTEST stars.
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The Four Essential Albums
Little Earthquakes
Release Date: 6th January, 1992
Labels: Atlantic (U.S.)/East West (Europe)
Producers: Tori Amos/Eric Rosse/Davitt Sigerson/Ian Stanley
Standout Tracks: Crucify/Silent All These Years/China
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Tori-Amos-Little-Earthquakes/master/64690
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4xbivyNgO8FTIfxnzBtr5j
Review:
“With her haunting solo debut Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos carved the template for the female singer/songwriter movement of the '90s. Amos' delicate, prog rock piano work and confessional, poetically quirky lyrics invited close emotional connection, giving her a fanatical cult following and setting the stage for the Lilith Fair legions. But Little Earthquakes is no mere style-setter or feminine stereotype -- its intimacy is uncompromising, intense, and often far from comforting. Amos' musings on major personal issues -- religion, relationships, gender, childhood -- were just as likely to encompass rage, sarcasm, and defiant independence as pain or tenderness; sometimes, it all happened in the same song. The apex of that intimacy is the harrowing "Me and a Gun," where Amos strips away all the music, save for her own voice, and confronts the listener with the story of her own real-life rape; the free-associative lyrics come off as a heart-wrenching attempt to block out the ordeal. Little Earthquakes isn't always so stomach-churning, but it never seems less than deeply cathartic; it's the sound of a young woman (like the protagonist of "Silent All These Years") finally learning to use her own voice -- sort of the musical equivalent of Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia. That's why Amos draws strength from her relentless vulnerability, and that's why the constantly shifting emotions of the material never seem illogical -- Amos simply delights in the frankness of her own responses, whatever they might be. Though her subsequent albums were often very strong, Amos would never bare her soul quite so directly (or comprehensibly) as she did here, nor with such consistently focused results. Little Earthquakes is the most accessible work in Amos' catalog, and it's also the most influential and rewarding” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Winter
Under the Pink
Release Date: 31st January, 1994
Labels: Atlantic (U.S.)/East West (Europe)
Producers: Tori Amos/Eric Rosse
Standout Tracks: Pretty Good Year/God/The Waitress
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Tori-Amos-Under-The-Pink/master/64981
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Lqd8nVPIU0X3vFrBZZPrB
Review:
“These adjustments transformed Amos from rising singer-songwriter to major alt-rock upstart: "Cornflake Girl"—the cartwheeling UK hit that preceded the album and showcases one of her spunkiest solos—helped Pink enter the UK chart at #1, while "God"—the grousing, gnarly U.S. single—topped modern rock playlists. It’s nice that Sam Smith and Hozier subvert the religious overtones of their churchy presentations with orthodoxy-slamming videos, but both lack the clarity and courage of Amos chanting, "God sometimes you just don’t come through."
The rest wasn’t as pointed as that, but Pink’s extroverted arrangements worked as hard as Earthquakes’ lyrics and melodies. Amidst other overseas hits like "Pretty Good Year", Amos dug deeper, particularly on "Bells for Her", which suggests a ghost pirouetting across John Cage’s prepared piano. The pitch on certain keys is way off, like an old upright in your grandparents’ basement, but the effect is finessed the way Jimi Hendrix bent notes from music to cacophony and back again. "Can’t stop what’s coming," she moans repeatedly while refusing to name her subject. Adulthood? The rupture of a childhood friendship? Orgasm? Amos’ mysteriousness sometimes subsequently got the best of her, but here she masters it” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Cornflake Girl
Boys for Pele
Release Date: 22nd January, 1996
Label: Atlantic (U.S.)/East West (Europe)
Producer: Tori Amos
Standout Tracks: Caught in a Life Sneeze/Hey Jupiter/Putting the Damage On
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Tori-Amos-Boys-For-Pele/master/64995
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7vuSTl6tuWg0CQdmfphkFQ
Review:
“There is a classical grandeur to Boys for Pele, a timelessness that stretches far beyond 1996. Tori Amos is simply not operating on the same plane as the rest of us. The imagery she employs, the power and conviction of her singing and playing, the defiantly unorthodox song structures, moments of astonishing beauty and harsh ugliness… it reflects the real dynamic of a relationship, perhaps many relationships, but it does so through the lens of fearless imagination riven from personal turmoil. Boys for Pele is audacious, often difficult and impenetrable, not an easy listen that immediately captures its audience with sharp melodic hooks. It’s completely uncompromising, and if it seems to wallow in self-pity at times, well, that’s what we humans often do when we’ve been hurt down to our core. It’s an album like no other, and it only could have come from Tori Amos. It’s winding curves and unexpected trajectories are endlessly fascinating. Twenty years have passed since Boys for Pele was released and viscerally captured the feelings of countless fans who have also lived the heartbreak, confusion and turbulence the album expresses so poetically. People relate to it because it’s undeniably real and compelling, and often speaks to their own experiences. Its power is undiminished. Boys for Pele continues raging unabated, eternal fires blazing” – Pop Matters
Choice Cut: Professional Widow
Unrepentant Geraldines
Release Date: 9th May, 2014
Label: Mercury Classics
Producer: Tori Amos
Standout Tracks: Wild Way/Selkie/Invisible Boy
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Tori-Amos-Unrepentant-Geraldines/master/686093
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0kkamqFFUDYRuQWwQ7SJkA
Review:
“In the last 15 years, Tori Amos’ pop albums have gravitated toward two distinct categories: those where she utilizes elaborate characters and extended metaphors to illustrate her points, and those where she uses more straightforward, subjective inspirations for her lyrics. For fans, this has been somewhat frustrating, as Amos has always been a confessional commentator—especially at the intersection of the personal and political—and deriving emotional attachment from her intricate fictions has often been challenging.
The engaging Unrepentant Geraldines, however, splits the difference between these categories perfectly—mainly because this time, Amos’ muse led her into a variety of deeply personal, vulnerable places. An affinity for visual art is clear in an affecting treatise about the unique struggles women face while they age (the Cézanne-inspired “16 Shades Of Blue”) and a powerful song about not being spiritually oppressed by government or religion (the title track, inspired by an etching from Irish artist Daniel Maclise). A talented trio of bakers Amos knows in real life is the backdrop for a scathing attack on the NSA and unfair taxation in “Giant’s Rolling Pin,” while her daughter Tash inspired “Rose Dover”—which stresses that growing up doesn’t mean having to lose whimsy—and “Promise,” a simple proclamation of love and support” – The A.V. Club
Choice Cut: Trouble’s Lament
The Underrated Gem
To Venus and Back
Release Date: 20th September, 1999
Labels: Atlantic (U.S.)/East West (Europe)
Producer: Tori Amos
Standout Tracks: Concertina/Glory of the 80’s/1000 Oceans
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Tori-Amos-To-Venus-And-Back/master/65199
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7kB4e3bz7DZBzwXw3vzY3t
Review:
“Originally intended as a rarities collection to tide fans over until she completed the follow-up to From the Choirgirl Hotel, the double-disc To Venus and Back mutated into something entirely different as Tori Amos worked on it. She experienced a sudden creative burst, writing 11 new songs. In light of these new tunes, she decided to devote the first disc of the collection to the fresh material, with the second dedicated to live material recorded during 1998. As such, it provides an interesting contrast. With Choirgirl, she decided to add muscle to her music by working with a full band, which naturally transformed her fragile, intimate songwriting into something weightier, or at least heavier. That much is evident from the live album, Still Orbiting, which puts many old favorites in a new light. The first disc, titled Venus Orbiting, proves that Amos is better in a more intimate setting. Ironically, the album was recorded with her touring band, but the arrangements aren't as showy as the live reworkings, and her songwriting is a bit more straightforward. That's not to say that she has changed direction or ironed out all her quirks -- her lyrics remain almost impenetrably cryptic, her songs follow elastic, unpredictable structures -- but she has returned to her strengths: namely, concentrating on ethereal, dream-like song-poems. She's still expanding her music, but she's letting it breathe naturally, resulting in her best, most cohesive record since Under the Pink. It's a bit of a shame that it's married to the live album, since that gives the impression that both discs are for hardcore fans. That's not the case at all -- Venus Orbiting will likely win back fans that have strayed from the fold in the past few years” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Bliss
The Latest/Final Album
Native Invader
Release Date: 8th September, 2017
Label: Decca
Producer: Tori Amos
Standout Tracks: Reindeer King/Up the Creek/Climb
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Tori-Amos-Native-Invader/master/1233888
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/79ZYYTpqesBlTe4hrWiO8b
Review:
“This album is buttressed by the terror of our current political climate, but it is more significantly a quest to counter it; to use “the militia of the mind.” That is to say: this is an album of resilience and not melancholy. Amos may have found the power to resist in the Tennessee Smoky Mountain area, where for her, the natural, cosmic, natural and political coexist. She undertook this trip around the time her mother suffered a stroke which left her permanently unable to speak, and Donald Trump’s presidency began. In ‘Wildwood’, Amos invokes Wiccan mythology to draw significance from her hikes around North Carolina’s woodland. She imagines walking off the pilgrim’s path’ with a talisman to guide her to ‘winter’s past’. She weaves through a wilderness of ‘Alders and the Oaks’ which bare a history of history of violence and renewal. She remarks on the parade of trees, who had been savaged by floods and fires, and learns that: “you can’t escape anguish/but how to live with it”.
This is the lesson that Amos puts forward in Native Invader’ She encourages us to invoke nature’s power of regeneration and renewal, as she ends her quest with the knowledge that human beings possess the resilience of nature. She draws on Greek mythology to refer to us as “Knowledge sown in Gaia’s bones” on the ritualistic ‘Up The creek’. On ‘Benjamin’ she even encourages us to reappropriate invasion. Singing over computer signals which sound like a 1960's conception of 'the future', she refers to the case of Juliana vs the U.S. – and encourages us to invade undesirable information in the digital age. The invasion of references and allusions – which may appear to be doggerel on first listen – are the key to infiltrating this bizarre masterpiece. They not only point to the idiosyncrasy of narrative itself, but give us the strength to combat our dominant and despicable white-people-against-the-world one. So, if the music sounds outdated then it should do. That's exactly what the winds of Donald Trump and fascists and Nazis carrying tikki torches are” – Drowned in Sound
Choice Cut: Cloud Riders
The Tori Amos Book
Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change and Courage
Author: Tori Amos
Publication Date: 5th May, 2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Synopsis:
“Since the release of her first, career-defining solo album Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos has been one of the music industry's most enduring and ingenious artists. From her unnerving depiction of sexual assault in 'Me and a Gun' to her post-9/11 album Scarlet's Walk, to her latest album Native Invader, her work has never shied away from combining the personal with the political.
Amos was a teenager when she began playing piano for the politically powerful at hotel bars in Washington, D.C., and her story continues from her time as a hungry artist in Los Angeles to the subsequent three decades of her formidable music career. Amos explains how she managed to create meaningful, politically resonant work against patriarchal power structures - and how her proud declarations of feminism and her fight for the marginalised always proved to be her guiding light. She teaches readers to engage with intention in this tumultuous global climate and speaks directly to supporters of #MeToo and Time's Up, as well as to young people fighting for their rights and visibility in the world.
Filled with compassionate guidance and actionable advice - and using some of the most powerful, political songs in Amos's canon - Resistance is for readers determined to steer the world back in the right direction” – Waterstones
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/resistance/tori-amos/9781529325607