Well, this was... eh. Really not very good at all.

I was warned about Heart of Gold, and indeed it's the worst track on the album, completely abysmal. I wasn't, however, expecting I'm Not in Love and Happiness Is a Warm Gun to be almost as bad. Happiness is basically turned into a weird post-modern mashup that doesn't suit the song at all, and the 10cc cover seems to completely miss the humor in the original, and simply plays it straight across boring skittery beats.

It wasn't totally terrible. Enjoy the Silence and I Don't Like Mondays were actually quite good. But overall, for an album of covers by an artist known for them, this was not very good at all.

Scarlet's Walk next, which will hopefully be better.

Sorry for the delay. I was wary of this album, being a 2-disc set, but it turns out the 2nd disc is a live concert, which makes it more palatable.

Disc One was very good, though perhaps not as good as Choirgirl. As always, my favorites tended to be the more dance-oriented songs such as Juarez. I also Datura a great deal.

Disc Two was fun. As always, I either really prefer an artist's studio recordings or really prefer their live stuff. I suspect Tori may be the latter, though I will give a listen to the rest of the catalog. It's always fun watching the singer try to decide whether to sing the high notes from the studio or not, and Cornflake Girl is the best place to hear this. There were also some excellent songs I didn't know (b-sides, I presume, judging by her intro), called Cooling and Sugar. Good stuff.

Now I've burned part 2, which has Strange Little Girls (seems to be a covers album), Scarlet's Walk, The Beekeeper (no one seems to like this one), and American Doll Posse. After that, I'll start in on her B-sides from Earthquakes (at least I'm presuming this boot called 'Forgotten Earthquakes' is B-sides and rarities from that period).

Bye-bee!

I enjoyed Boys for Pele, but it's an album I'd divide into three distinct parts:

1) Interludes that are awesome but far too short (Mr. Zebra, Way Down, etc.)

2) Tori-style piano driven songs. These range from excellent to dull, and are the most variable part of the album. Blood Roses and Putting the Damage on were my favorites. Not the Red Baron was snooze-inducing, despite referencing Peanuts.

3) Larger compositions for full band. Actually, I enjoyed Professional Widow when I heard it (it's clearly about Courtney, and I didn't need wikipedia to see that), but it's the weakest of the four full-band songs, which get stronger as they go on. Caught a Lite Sneeze is very good, and Talula and In the Springtime of His Voodoo are fantastic, my favorites of the entire album. You can tell that Tori's writing is becoming very influenced by current dance/techno music. Her lyrics are also getting far more sexual. :)

Good, but variable album. Now for the next one, which I knew was the favorite of a lot of people, including, apparently, Tori.

It's really, really good. I don't have as many songs that reach out and grab me as a favorite, but the overall quality is much higher. She's gone for a louder, more full-band sound for the entire album, and it's a very good thing - it suits the way her songs have been developing, and prevents her from getting stale.

Spark, Raspberry Swirl, and Hotel were ones I really noticed, but for the first time there isn't really a duff track. This is likely one I'd want to relisten to a lot.

Next up I will try To Venus And Back. Oh boy, a 2-hour double album! That's NEVER a huge mistake! ^^;;

Full Boys for Pele review later on, still need to hear the last two songs, but I was amused that my thought on hearing that there were two versions, one with a song replaced by something else, was "I wonder if the missing song will end up being my favorite?"

Yes, yes, it is. In the Springtime of His Voodoo is (barring a last minute push by the final two songs) my favorite of the album.

Funny how these things always end up being the case. :)

More Tori... and that difficult second album. I do recall when this came out a lot of folks saying she'd 'sold out' to mainstream pop... which is surprising as the music is only slightly more poppy than LE.

It's not as good as the first album, but still has lots of moments I quite liked. The Wrong Band was a lot of fun, and I also really enjoyed Space Dog. God and Cornflake Girl were the singles, and it shows - Cornflake Girl is really great and catchy, and was what likely led to the 'sellout' talk - how dare you write something so hummable!

There's far less biography on here, and far more stories - something I approve of, as Tori is a good storyteller. Sometimes the piano-driven softness does drag it down a bit, though. I think she found a good balance in the final long track, Yes, Anastasia.

Next up I will talk about Boys for Pele. Listened to the first quarter or so and was quite surprised, as I was expecting something really jarring and atonal, from the reactions. But no, it's piano-pop, albeit sometimes harpsichord pop. I will admit Professional Widow is different from the usual, but it's still very good.

Oh, and Mr. Zebra is an aural orgasm. Needs to be longer. :)

Finished Album 1 on the way to work.

(First of all, yes, my previous entry was incorrect, Tori sings Ring My Bell in a lower register. I had gotten the original and cover confused, something I do all the time with Ruby Trax songs, because it's one of my most played albums. I still tend to think the Legend of Xanadu is by The Fall, and that Suicide Is Painless is by Manic Street Preachers, despite obvious evidence to the contrary.)

It's a good album, very much how I imagined it would sound. My favorites tended to be the ones which were a bit more musically varied - "Happy Phantom" was a darkly comic song about a dead lover (from the perspective of said lover), and "Leather" was almost a cabaret song. The final track, Little Earthquakes, was also very good.

Of the 'Tori and piano with occasional others' songs, the prevailing tone seemed oddly to be jaded anger. There was a fury in the lyrics about these beaten down women, but the fury also sounded tired - much, I imagine, as the women were supposed to be. (The album, needless to say, sounds very autobiographical.) Silent All These Years is still my favorite of these, a beautiful song.

Then there's Me And A Gun. It's a very raw portrayal of rape, and the line about Barbados is so realistic that it makes it all the more disquieting. I will admit that I did think, as the song came to a close, "This was a single?" I'm not surprised that DJ's flipped it to play SATY as the choice radio cut.

Next up, Under the Pink. When I was a radio DJ at college, they sent this along as a promo, so I've heard God and Cornflake Girl (the tracks the label was pushing us to play) quite a few times.

So, I've tended lately towards listening to burned CDs of huge discographies. Neil Young, Pearl jam, TMBG, etc. - just load all their albums on one or more mp3 CDs and go to it.

Next on my list is Tori Amos, who I know some of my flist are inordinately fond of (Hi, Ysa!). I dunno why I've never really listened to much of her - certainly her first two albums were hugely popular when I was at college - but for me it's pretty much been 'Silent All These Years' and her Nirvana and Anita Ward covers (she's one of the rare cover artists who needs to bump the original UP several steps to fit her range, on 'Ring My Bell').

So, I burned about 5 albums and will be listening to those - Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, From the Choirgirl Hotel, and To Venus and Back. Boys for Pele apparently has two versions, the one I'm listening to has no remixes on it.

I debated starting with Y Kant Tori Read, out of pure bullheaded chronologicalness, but came to my senses.

I'll likely update the LJ with what I think. I suspect I'll be pleased, as Tori's not too far away from Kate Bush, who I've always liked. Amusingly, apparently her newest single has been banned from some stations for the word "MILF" featuring prominently. Actually, looking at the wikipedia pages, it appears her singles tend to be banned a lot. ^^;;