Classic Albums – Tori Amos.

When I think about Tori Amos, two particular albums always come to mind. One of them is, ‘Little Earthquakes’ and the other is ‘From the Choirgirl Hotel’. I see both of these as being classics, but they are incredibly different in their styles.
‘Little Earthquakes’ is, of course, the one that started it all. With this album, Tori Amos suddenly became a household name. Not since Kate Bush, had the ‘girl with a piano’ thing been so popular and here was a pretty, young, flame-haired reincarnation of her. Right from the start, critics likened her to Mrs. Bush and it was something which would haunt her right through her career.
However, in Tori’s defence, ‘Little Earthquakes’ did break some new ground as well. Yeah, you half expected ‘Babooshka’ to kick in on side two, but she sang about her subjects on a far more personal level than Kate Bush ever had. The best example of this is, ‘Me and a Gun’ which tells of Tori’s own horrendous experience of rape. It is an amazing album and was an incredibly powerful start for a new female singer/songwriter.
The quality of her music stayed consistently high, but for me, the next pinnacle came along in the form of ‘From the Choirgirl Hotel’ in 1998. This album couldn’t have sounded any more different to her other work if she had tried. It moves us a thousand miles from the ‘bedsit poet’ sound of ‘Little Earthquakes’ and deposits us in a place of Electronica, sassiness, Jazz and Dance. It is a phenomenal piece of work and is rich with complexity and musical ingenuity.
Try listening to this album and not being suitably impressed… With this release, a large number of her critics were finally silenced. She had proven beyond doubt she had far more about her and that the ‘clone of Kate Bush’ image was an insufficient and ill-fitting one.
Tori is still making some great music today and has recorded an impressive total of eleven studio albums; she also produced nine of these herself.
One last thing, I have spent the remaining part of my weekend going through HIPS with my sister. Last week her place in the South was broken into and it was kind of the last straw for her, so she decided it was finally time to find a new place. I am really looking forward to her finding a new flat, I mean I love Hannah, but sometimes I find it a little tiresome listening to her ranting about this
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