NATIVE INVADER by Tori Amos (9.8.2017)

....

I really like the album cover, I'm hoping the album sounds like Scarlet taking a detour the the muddy dark backwoods, but I still think it is more likely we will get 15 versions of Flicker.

R2 lol. I'm hoping for lots and lots of piano. "Flicker" wasn't bad at all. I quite liked it, actually.

Still, I think this might be like a darker "Unrepentant Geraldines".

I'm hoping for something that sounds like this song, sludgy and dark yet beautiful and epic.

I want an album full of the following.

....and....

....and...

Who?

....and.....

....and....

....and.....

....and....

....and....

....and....

...and finally this.

R4 Love that, too, though.

Maybe it will be an original version of Strange Little Girls. She talked about a lot of the chromesthesia of the songs, last October, so maybe we'll get blacks, dark grays, greens and blues.

R17 Hm, interesting. I can see that, though I really hope she keeps it piano-heavy. That would seem so fresh and modern nowadays.

We know Shenale is on board so we're either getting strings or synths.

I think the cover has freaked out - in a good way - the fans.

[quote]She talked about a lot of the chromesthesia of the songs, last October

When was this?

It was on a podcast I heard last year, when the album was in the very early stages. It was the first time I heard her talk about chromesthesia, but I always thought Venus was purple album so why I picked up on it.

R20 Fascinating.

R20 I have that. And I agree, Venus is purple, but I always wondered if that was influenced by the album artwork. Under the Pink is very watercolor-y in my mind's eye, particularly the piano in songs like Bells for Her and Pretty Good Year. Boys for Pele is worn metal and old weathered wood. A lot of Choirgirl is fiery oranges and reds against dark, empty spaces with some electrostatic interference that kind of pixellates everything. Etc.

Night of Hunters is all shades of blue.

I get shades of violet with Unrepentant Geraldines.

I think we're in for reds.

Don't get your hopes up about the album sounding like anything you love. She very rarely takes the same path, although Geraldines's lead single did remind me a lot of Scarlet's Walk.

Tori is older now and her voice has been thinned out. So there's not going to be a lot of full-voiced angry belting. She also seems to have let go of her rage decades ago and now seems to be more of an older, wise medicine woman type. Her music led me to learn about and to ultimately try ayahuasca, and Tori's personality is very much like Mama Ayahuasca's: gently forceful, makes you look at and recognize truth, but also takes away reality's power over you in doing so. I expect Native Invader to be another mellow, thoughtful album with insightful lyrics--although her best work (in my opinion) hasn't been political commentary (except Scarlet), so we'll see. I can't wait. She is my greatest teacher.

R23 I agree about Geraldines, but Nigjt of Hunters is not all blue to me at all. It opens on a tumultuous red sea, and for me it moves through a lot of super-saturated vistas. Fearlessness for some reason always conjures images from the Lascaux caves and I see those vibrant ochre yellows, scarlet, deep brown colors rolling by as the song goes on.

Under the Pink for me is ivory and very soft glowing lights . Scarlet is mostly muted greens and browns and faded reds and yellows. American Doll has very little color for me, some pinks and purples but not much, AAtS is colorless for me, I think that was a bluff album.

"A lot of Choirgirl is fiery oranges and reds against dark, empty spaces with some electrostatic interference that kind of pixellates everything"

Yeah I get that.

Excited though for the new album.

Abnormally Attracted to Sin is very dark to my ear, deeply melancholy, sort of super-saturated plunged a meter underwater and viewed from above. Like if Spark were being drowned and I'm watching it happen.

The song Concertina is the most evocative for me. I actually "see" in my mind an interplay of pastel powdery blues and pinks, cloudlike, morphing together. It's the sounds of the mixed keyboards and breathy vocals. There's no other song that is so visual for me.

Facebook live announcement. Coming in half hour.

I think Venus is the most visual album for me too, and I know it gets dismissed a lot but It's actually one of my favorites records.

Well the "Big Announcement" was not very big and hardly an announcement. Just US tour dates. Oh and Tash does her dreaded stage school Mariah Carey wannabe vocals again, why doesn't she just audition foe the X-Factor and be done with it And "husband" plays the cheesiest guitar this side of Ina Garten's macaroni and cheese . So we can expect another boring inoffensive Amos family band record. The album is gonna be 17 different versions of Flicker. I should have known not to get my hopes up anymore.

But as always with post 2000 Amos; sweet hope, then nothing.

R30 This is so unfair. First, we don't know how many tracks are on the album. Second, all we've seen/heard about the album's sound is that Shenale has contributed strings/synths and that Tori has been working on four keyboards plus the piano.

Her daughter's contributions seem limited to one song, which might even turn out to be a b-side.

I've been extremely pleased with her last two albums, Night of Hunters and Unrepentant Geraldines are both gorgeous and miles away from her 2005-2009 albums.

I actually listened to UG least, I listened to ADP & AATS more when they came out, but UG just did nothing for me.

R32 It's a beauty.

Also, Flicker is so underrated. It's both campy and poignant. I love the lyrics and the message.

There was a big announcement about her mother having suffered a major stroke. Tori is prone to severe depression and all-consuming introspection, and she's dealing with a rapist president and a dying mother. So suck it up, buttercups, and take her work for what it is or move on to the Ariana Grande fan club.

Tori's got the weirdest fan base: they obsess over her every word, but dwell in her work from 20 years ago and seem to hate everything she does now. If her style has evolved beyond your interests, just move on. She's never going to be 26 and raging about mean high school boys again. It is never going to happen!

Okay, no. She just killed me with this. I'd never seen it before.

Maybe a tracklist on Friday.

Why do people get excited about tracklists? What's satisfying about learning the names of songs? I'm just curious because I don't get it.

Queen. I love how Justin Timberlake gushed over her.

He'a never been on my top 10 list but I'd be happy for Justin Timberlake to gush over me. 💦

heee-EEE-eeee-eeah

Venus's songs also yield some of her best live performances

Concertina solo on the piano, one of her best live performances. If she does release Venus deluxe, I'm hoping we get acoustic versions of the songs.

Bliss

My favorite Tori live performance, Suede on Jools Holland 99, witchery enchantment.

R43 She was really in her prime during that era. Her whole persona, including her appearance, felt perfectly in balance during Venus and Scarlet. She seemed like a preternaturally wise, confident musical spirit in a gorgeous mature woman's body.

Venus isn't my favorite album as an album, but I like every song.

R45 I just binged on American Gods and was reading more about Neil Gaiman after I noticed so many Tori and Scarlet's Walk connections in the series. He said Suede is his favorite song on Venus. "It's so strange."

This thread basically consists of 3 people, and that is sad.

I'm vibing that this record will be another disappointment.

But can't wait to see Tori live! And that's where even new songs off of a disappointing album really come alive.

Once I realized that Tash is on this record, I knew it was over.

And I second that Tori is one of the greatest living pianists.

I love th simpleness of this performance, but for me it was after this the decline began. I agree r48 I don't hold hope for the new album.

R48 What is sad about three people holding a discussion? I think it's nice, actually, that there's a civil exchange going on here without the (sad) name calling and juvenile antics typical of DL posters. I'd rather have a small group of intelligent and respectful people discussing someone thoughtfully!

I'm surprised people hate Tash so much. I don't like the idea of a musician pimping her child out, on principle, but I feel like Tori has integrated her daughter in interesting ways. Personally, I love Holly, Ivy and Rose and I feel like putting a child on a holiday album is an adorable notion and it worked well for my ears. When I read the concept for Night of Hunters I thought, holy Jaysus Tori cast her daughter as a shapeshifting fox-goose. She done lost huh damm mind! But Tash's voice is interesting, and I think the way Tori found classical rifts that have jazzy elements to pair with her daughter's unique voice give even deeper insight into Tori's unfathomably intelligent musicianship. Also, after I read about the Vulpecula constellation and realized the role of cosmology on the album, and after I realized that Tori handed the wise lyrics of the album to her young daughter to internalize and sing back to her, I really came to appreciate Tori's depth of love and graciousness and wisdom. I get that people think it's twee or creepy for a mother to keep putting her child on an album (Kate Bush also has featured her son.), but the way Tori has done it has impressed me immensely from the perspectives of both her musical artistry and her maternal teaching. I do understand her fans don't want to be implicated in her family life. But at the same time I feel strongly that, listen, Tori Amos's entire career of music has been intimately personal, at least half of which has been about her relationships with her mother, father and close friends. We love her for Mother and Winter and Marianne and Cornflake Girl and Spark and Gold Dust and so many other songs that are about her family. Her father publishes her music and always has. Before her husband engineered her albums, her previous boyfriend produced them. Her music has *always* been a family affair. I accept it because it's Tori's sensibility and it always has been. She doesn't stray beyond immediate family or "family" made of lifelong friends. It's all part of the formula that fuels her creativity and I just accept it as part of an all-or-nothing package, and I always, always learn from her music so I want her to keep listening to her muses.

Well put R50. I don't know why I am so Tash averse. She has a lovely voice.

I just want to be wowed. Everything is always so complacent sounding and restrained.

I just focus on the live performances and listen to those.

I have said it before and I will say it again, I simply do not like Tori's "production style" post Scarlets Walk...

I'd like her to be produced like Lana Del Rey. lol

I appreciate your thoughtfulness in the way you present your viewpoint.

R51 Thanks. I just really admire her. I've had a couple opportunities to interview her and she is one of two celebrities I've spoken with who didn't disappoint or present as someone totally different than their public personas. She's genuine and thoughtful and entirely overlooked as a poet. I also think it's notable that in our world today we tend to equate intelligence with academic credentials, and degree-less Tori is evidence of extraordinary intelligence and unparalleled intellectual curiosity, particularly when set against the great numbers of people I've met who have doctoral degrees and who cannot think beyond rigid limitations or want to do so. Tori's mind is more scientific in the sense of the curiosity and open-minded discovery that drives progress than most scientists' minds, which are trained to be grantseeking and geared toward pre-determining publishable findings than toward understanding our world.

That was a major tangent. ;)

I do get people longing for more "exciting" music from Tori, but I think that is mostly unrealistic to expect. Tori's early music was fueled by and based on traumas from her upbringing, from adolescence, from a sexual assault, and from tumultuous romantic relationships and a difficult experience with the recording career. She rebelled against all of it, and her rage manifested both musically and lyrically. Now she has been a mother for almost 20 years, in a stable (as far as we know) relationship, her studio is at her home, she's lost her brother and now is losing her mother, she finally parted ways formally with her youth on her last album. And she is older. I am 39 and I feel more mellow and grounded every year. It's a more confident, comfortable essence of being without all that youthful angst, but yeah it makes me more milquetoast. That's the process of living. I think Tori sort of faked the "excitement" in some of her songs like Code Red (which I like) and others on the albums that most people don't regard highly. Tori faking anything is not Tori, and when you love her music you know when the authenticity is not there. I feel like she was fully invested on Night of Hunters, certainly her most mellow-sounding (but lyrically enthralling) album, and it's a mature album made for mature and patient listeners. I think that's where she is now. As she has aged, her voice also has become noticeably thinner, which lowers chances of a lot of wailing and belting, and I think that the echoed lines and similar production tricks have been introduced to compensate for a loss of resonance. I don't love the production, either. I won't lie. For someone who has taken so many bold risks, I think one risks Tori is unlikely to take that could really benefit her musical product would be to hand over production to someone else. It could be great or terrible, but a welcome risk. But again, I believe Tori's music is her life and her lifestyle and a family affair, and I can't imagine her ever firing her father from his publishing role, firing her husband from his engineering role, or firing her ego from the production role. She's too loyal. She used to always say that she is a musician above all else; now she says she's a mother and then a musician. So her music exists in accordance with those priorities. She's not the Madonna type, who uses human beings as long as they serve her immediate needs, whether as producers or romantic partners; she's the Mary Amos type, who navigates complications but after making a commitment to someone keeps that commitment even if it means sacrificing less meaningful aspects of life. It makes me uncomfortable that so many of her fans presume that Tori's first priority should be satisfying fans instead of living her life as she chooses. I've read countless comments on Facebook and YouTube from fans who say they wish her marriage would end so that her music would improve. That's sick to me. Really twisted, even just to put out into the world. I would hold the same loyalties she does and I admire her for her choices.

The album will be great. Jesus. Give Tori a cance, will ya? She's consistently improved her album output for the last 6 years.

I mean, if you disliked "Night of Hunters" (especially the instrumental version, Sin Palabras) and "Unrepentant Geraldines", it might be time to move on.

I was ready to do just that back in 2009 but then she released "Midwinter Graces" and restored my faith. It's not the most perfect record and it is a goddamn Christmas album, but I loved it and still do. The instrumentation, the piano being more at the forefront, songs like "A Winter's Carol" and "Comfort and Joy" all made me realize she could still move, surprise and excite me. As far as I'm concerned, she's been on an upswing since then. Even "Gold Dust", which doesn't do much for me, contains those gorgeous, superior to the album version renditions of "Snow Cherries from France" and "Girl Disappearing".

I'm really happy for her now. She looks great - this is the second album cover in a row I've loved and think she looks beautiful on; she's put the piano at the center of her music again, which I was pining for for years and she's not going on and on about a damn concept.

I'm happy with that.

^*chance

AWESOME R52. I've met her 3 times at meet and greets (2009 and before)

She looks at you right in the eyes ( She has those beautiful blue/green eyes- Makes you feel like you are the only person in the world.

And my god how I agree that she is beyond intelligent- she is a real genius with amazing insight into worlds beyond this one.

People call her eccentric. Bullshit. She is insanely intelligent so they label her that.

She really is a child prodigy.

R53- Winters Carol was one of her top 10 songs ever recorded.

WOW. It really encapsulates Winter for me.

Well the album cover is a step in the right direction, the title is interesting and she has taken her time making it. Also it is the longest time between albums so I guess that might all be a good sign, so I don't think it will be a NoH or UG. I think it maybe a more successful version of Beekeeper.

I think the word genius has become so cheap in music, but I Tori is a genius no question.

I also thought that ADP was her trying to remake YKTR trough the persona of "Tori Amos", but it didn't work and anyway YKTR has aged wonderfully. Pirates is just awesome.

R56 It really is one of her best. Moody, elemental and evocative.

R57 YKTR is really underrated, imo. I prefer it to ADP.

I really don't like YKTR much at all. I hear Tori in Etienne, but most of it is unlistenable to me. I tried to love it in the 90s because that was the correct thing for a REAL Tori fan with street cred to do. But no. It's not the worst album ever made, but it's not good. I do think Glory of the 80s hearkens to it in the best possible way.

Another Kate Bush knockoff...."Wildman" from 20 Words for Snow....tedious....

R59 Did you catch her performance of "Floating City" above? Sublime.

R60 Um, what? Kate can't play the piano like Tori. Don't.

R61 I know, she can perform almost anything incredibly well and it is nice to hear those songs sung as she probably developed them originally without the band. But it doesn't measure up to later work. However, I do appreciate the subject matter and all her legend-y imagination stuff.

I hope I get tickets to her show on Friday. I missed the approved fan deadline for the pre-sale code. While Boys for Pele will always be my favorite Tori album, Night of Hunters is close. So many people I know that are fans did not like that one. I think it is incredible. I created my own "Best Of" Tori (64 tracks) on Spotify if anyone wants to take a listen.

R63 This performance is on another level. Worth reposting.

R64 I'll definitely check it out.

Omg. I'm hyperventilating. Okay, so a few new goodies:

Someone on twitter has been listening to the new album and he's tweeted some early observations/mini reviews that have me beyond excited.

[bold]1st listen of @ToriAmos' new album: dark and mediative and thoughtful and hopeful and just what we need right now.

Piano-heavy. Very "Night of Hunters" meets "Abnormally Attracted to Sin." Sonically, "Broken Arrow" = standout. Cried during "Mary's Eyes."

About 1/3 of the album is Tori and the piano. "Reindeer King" is esp lovely.[/bold] (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! So that's either 4-6 songs of just T and the piano. Say no more. I'm in heaven already.

About the bonus tracks Upside Down 2 (!!!!!!! She's killing me.) and Russia: [bold]Yes! Both are solo piano moments.[/bold]

The one song Tori's daughter, Tash, is featured on: [bold]"Up the Creek." One of the more sonically adventurous and rhythmically-charged songs on the LP. Pulsating even. Nothing like "Promise." ;)[/bold]

Instrumentation: [bold]Ha! I *can* confirm there ARE real instruments. And it would seem actual people are playing them! I love all the guitar. #CloudRiders[/bold]

On which song he'd pick as a single: [bold]I'm really partial to "Bang" atm because it sounds like the resistance. Super brooding. Very classic Tori. Gives me shivers.[/bold]

So, this sounds very, very, very good. I liked his subtle dig with "It's nothing like 'Promise'". It's lovely but should've been a b-side. I trust his judgement, though, based on that one quip, lol.

Out of what many in the Tori fandom consider "the shitty trilogy" - The Beekeeper, American Doll Posse and Abnormally Attracted to Sin - I've always considered AAtS superior to both TBK and ADP. I'm in the minority here, I know, but when AAtS came out it felt like she was finally starting to make her way back to a simpler, more honest and reflective place with her music.

It was the first album in about a decade that didn't have a burdensome, overarching concept. Tori herself also described AAtS as "a personal album". I looooved the synths and moody atmosphere. Even the corny "Not Dying Today" was successful because it felt authentic and real and celebratory. I can still swing my hips to it.

I rank "Night of Hunters" {"Sin Palabras"} 4th on my favorite albums of hers behnd 1. Pele, 2. Pink 3. Earthquakes. To read a description combining both is just too much for me to handle right now, lol. A solo-piano heavy album with lots of mood and atmosphere. I need this now. Oh, and the official tracklisting is below:

Also, when asked to compare it to her lackluster albums, he replied [bold]more Spark/from the choirgirl hotel than sleeps with butterflies/the beekeeper[/bold].

I can't take this anymore. I need this album in my ears - in my body NOW.

......

R66, Mark-

I have heard the album, and it is pure unadulterated TRASH.

The worst.

It is so bad that I had tears in my eyes.

Such a shame.

R69 lol. I don't believe you. And who's Mark?

LOLLLLLLL R70, I had a suspicion who R66 was, with the standard over dramatic Scarlett O'Fucking Hara posts he is known for...

I was just joking. I haven't heard shit. But I just had to stop the dramatics with cruelty.

Was that your post, Little Miss?

All I will say is, if the last song is about Tori's mom, I will probably be bawling myself. The rest of it?? We shall see.

Mark-Alexis is the DL's resident Jessica Lange and Tori Amos troll. Be grateful Miss Thing is bold enough to dedicate threads on Deity Tori, when most on here sling mud at her.

Well with lines like these:

"I can't take this anymore. I need this album in my ears - in my body NOW."

Mark-Alexandra needs a good FUCKING!

Eeek!

And there's this gem:

I cracked again today; unraveled like a colorful maypole. I'm always fighting myself; raging against my own progress and evolution. Thankfully, I'm still capable of holding myself back; stopping just before plunging from the edge of the precipice. I thought of my favorite turn by an actress ever. I thought of Lange's muscular, sexually charged, feuled by a primal, universal rage performance. How fluid, mercurial, violent and triumphant it is. I settled down. I'm too drunk (I have to be to not keep going like a bright white kite in a hurricane), so I really can't play piano. I put some Tori Amos on. Something - "Datura" - that can keep up with my current electricity. Carly Marshall is just a flying white-hot myth in my mind's eye - but the thouvht of her keeps me steady.

Nessa, girl!!! You need help, baby!

R73 / R74 lol. I know, I can be an overzealous cunt. I'm the same way with my piano improve vids though I don't talk usually during those.

What can I say? Lange and Tori really pump my nads.

Also, [bold]I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE GETTING A NEW PIANO-HEAVY TORI ALBUM IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!![/bold]

The songs from "Boys for Pele" (and some from "Little Earthquakes") were my teenage jam. So gothic, ethereal, and poetic. Masterpieces.

klassikakzente.de, a partner site of Universal Music Germany, lists releases for Cloud Riders (7/28/2017), Up the Creek (8/11/2017) and Reindeer King (8/25/2017).

Another tweet from Chris on the album:

[bold]I have a feeling Tori purists will find a lot to appreciate about this album, as well. "Bang" and esp. "Benjamin" give me old school TA vibes. :)[/bold]

This was posted on FB by Noah Michelson who used to work at HuffPo but now does his own thing. I heard the new Tori album today.

It's too early to give a review but a few thoughts:

1. Some of these songs are better than anything she's done in the last decade.

2. I get major Scarlet's Walk vibes -- instrumentally / production-wise / lyrics / thematically -- from a good handful of the songs (and that's a great thing, in my opinion).

3. The duet with Tash is unlike anything I've ever heard Tori do before (and it's pretty great too).

4. There's kind of something for everyone -- just piano or just piano and strings tracks, tracks with a full band, tracks with synth and drum programming -- and it all works together to make a cohesive album.

All in all, I think people are going to be really, really happy with Native Invader.

This is shit is said before EVERY ALBUM of hers. If I had time, I would go back and find identical quotes.

However, I am believing that there is something for everyone.

R80 Her last two albums of original music (NoH and UG) were exceptional.

The reviews we've gotten so far indicate she's still on an upswing.

I keep hearing IF but with all the programmed band parts replaced with ftch/AAtS - synths, drums and overall production - with a good a good mix of solo piano and piano and strings a la NoH/IF.

If this is the overall soundscape, I'd be very pleased.

So far this album has been compared to Night of Hunters, Scarlet's Walk, Abnormally Attracted to Sin and American Doll Posse. What an interesting mix.

Another GLORIOUS response:

"This album is like The Beekeeper meets the DEMON PAZUZU from The Exorcist while making doody in the turlet!"

I NEED this ALBUM INSIDE OF ME NOW. DEEPLY! NOW!!!!!

R83 lmao. You made that up, bitch.

I NEED THIS ALBUM INSIDE OF ME NOW!!!!!!!

This just in!

"Native Invader is like a dead corpse that comes back to life AND then dies again!! THEN rots on the roadside through the month of August. UNTIL the magpies have come. And you feel like you went through this in 1919!"

I think I need this album INSIDE OF MY BODY. I then need it OUTSIDE of my body! So I can stare at it. I then want to shove it down my THROAT! So it is INSIDE OF ME!!!!

R85 lol. Girl.

Just a week away from the first single!

What is first single R87?

Ireland Redux?

Or Not Dying Today, Part 2????

Lol, R88 Well, the album opens with a 7 minute piano solo, so there's that.

R89- LOVING that so far!!

R90 Yes. A first for her and sets the mood and tone for the whole album.

This will rank with her best.

Anymore news?

R92 Tori's announcing/releasing something on Thursday.

Also, it's been reported that the first single ("Cloud Riders") hits Friday.

R93 I got the email from her site announcing...a forthcoming announcement. Haha. The last one wasn't much of an announcement, so I won't wait in breathless anticipation. But I am looking forward to hearing the new music. I looooove Star Whisperer, so a hint of a new Cloud Rider is exciting. I really think that if she reworked Night of Hunters with a different approach, using all her own vocals (since people so resent her daughter) and adding percussion, people would wake up to its brilliance.

Can't fucking Tasha or whatever the fuck her name is just stay at her swanky theatre boarding school where Tori sent her and just stay off Mummy's albums and leave us all in peace?

However, I do LOVE Promise, it was my favorite song on Unrepentant Geraldines!!

Said no one ever.

Get off of Mummy's albums, little Tasha! Have mummy pay for your own album!

NAtashYA

The rumblings are that this is even better than UG and NoH, and her best since the 90's.

I like (respect) Unrepentant Geraldines, but I won't lie and pretend I listen to any of the tracks, well, ever. But Forest of Glass, a UG b-side, is IMO one of her greatest songs. I listen to Night of Hunters regularly. It's one of my favorite novels.

This was on another board-

Nastashianna plays guitar and sings on 5 of the songs. FIVE!!!!!!!!!

R99 lies, lol. She sings on one

Night of Hunters (Sun Palabras) and Unrepentant Geraldines are Tori's best albums since the 90's. Unequivocally so.

With both, she managed to use bits and pieces of all of that she had accumulated, sonically speaking, since the end of the pc's and the dawn of the new millennium. She did, however, do one major thing differently with those two albums: she put her piano playing and composing genius at the forefront of both.

Night of Hunters, and more clearly Sin Palabras, is such a love letter to her relationship with the piano. I love how it's the one album since Boys For Pele, that directly connects her prodigious piano prowess with her ability to emerge redeemed and renewed from "the dying embers of a relationship. The fact that it has so many high points in her compositional mastery makes it a truly undervalued masterpiece. I rank it behind, Pele, Pink and Earthquakes.

Unrepentant Geraldines felt like the album I wanted from her after To Venus and Back. It's warm, stripped back, evocative, personal, poignant and ardent. I rank it behind choirgirl and just above - maybe equal to - Venus.

I was ready to move in in 2009.if she came back with another band album. Midwinter Graces, though faulty in some areas, gave me confidence that she could still create sophisticated, whimsical music.

I have I hopes for this one. Everything about this era has been perfect so far. The cover is her best since the 90's. The album and song titles are simple yet intriguing and dare I say evocative.

John Philip Shenale is back with his masterful string work after six years. The piano seems to be front and center once again

I'm bubbling all over the place for this album.

*Sin Palabras

*since the end of the 90's.

Never got her. Close to but she's lacking. Liquid Diamonds, all sounds the same. Gut wrench fine voice but lacking something. Can't do.

Whiny. Breathy.

Powerful, prodigious.

R104 Plenty of people get her and love her. Everyone doesn't have to. I'm glad she cultivated a following that is willing to co-evolve with her instead of expecting her to follow pop trends and the rules of the music business. She's eccentric to be sure and anything off center is bound to polarize people. That's fine.

Ardent!

Pontiferous!!!

Vituperous!!!!

Malificient!!!

Maloopydaloopykaloopicient!!!!

Tori fans are really fucking too much for this bitch.

ARDENT!!!! Oh Mark-Alexandra- You need to come back to earth, beautiful.

Nastash-ianna will be singing lead vocals on 7 songs.

Mac Aladdin has two songs just to himself- gee-tar solos.

I'm sure that Chocolate song is the Mary's Pies and Mary Jane of this album.

The most talented live performer ever. That's all I can say!

And bitches, (I think there are 5 of us here, tops) I will come back here and grovel at your feet with apologies if this album is good.

I promise.

PROMISE! LOLLLLLLL

Damn If I don't love that song!!!

R109 You're perhaps truly a fan of the music Tori Amos made decades ago. If you hate her more recent music, then you're really not a fan anymore. It's kind of a black-and-white reality.

R110. I am a true fan of her artistic ability and her unparalleled live performances to this day.

The album production is my issue. The songs are still as strong as ever. Her songwriting is awesome.

There is something about the translation of them that never gels for me.

I respected Unrepentant Geraldines and to a lesser extent Night of Hunters, but other than Forest of Glass, I don't play them anymore.

The song Unrepentant Geraldines is a prime example of a song that should have been a fucking amazing opus- Straight up insanity++ But it ended up sounding like a cartoon. If you could listen to a cartoon.... MY god, what could have been done with that amazing song.

There's a reason she's never had a hit song, she sucks. Sam Phillips is better.

R108 Bitch, why is you following my ass, lol.

R112 Tell that to her 8 Grammy nominations. Not bad for a peripheral kook.

R111 You are no longer a true fan, you clevel little gash. You are simply stuck in the past.

If you can't see the beauty and transcendence of UG and NoH, it's time to move on, hun.

R108 Actually, I did find this post adorably annoying.

Cunt!

Hi this is Tash my mum worked hard on this album and put her heart and soul in it so please listen with your hearts and try to understand her meaning. Thank you!

Cloud Riders is verrrrry mellow. Even on a first listen, though, it's imbued with more heft than a lot of her recent music. I look forward to the album's reported variety.

Eeek. Cloud Riders sounds like a Beekeeper reject.

And Mac Aladdin is very pronounced.

Its a cross between Sleeps With Butterflies and Fathers Son from ADP.

I was sadly disappointed.

I do like the keyboards underneath it all though.

I think it's OK, I actually really like it, It reminds me of the Strange Radio edit. And nothing like Flicker which is good. No it's good, I Like it. It's not Spark, but It's better than I thought it might be.

It is very Scarlet, "From The Other Side" was a line in I Can't See New York. It's superior to Trouble's Lament.

Okay, I listened again. The song just lays there like an old dishrag. The first single normally has a "hook"- Its supposed to be a song that gets in your head and stays there. A Sorta Fairytale was a prime example. Sadly, Sleeps With Butterflies had more of a "hook" than this. Its not awful. Its just THERE. And once again, that cheesy as fuck guitar. BUT. I can see myself loving this live with her solo... And by the way, I ended up really liking Father's Son. Love he undercurrent of keyboard but the guitar is just so easy listening and takes away the "edge"..

I like the twang of the intro guitar loved the organ, and loved the line Saw a Shooting Star at 4.22 am. Striped back it could have been brilliant, but I like it.

It sounds like Mark Alexis writes Tori's promotional material.

However, this description gives me some hope for this new album:

This is from Tori

Native Invader is an intense feast of melody, protest, tenderness and pain. In the summer of 2016, Tori took a road trip through North Carolina's Smoky Mountains. The intention was to reconnect with the stories and songlines of her mother's family, who were from the North Carolina and Tennessee Smoky Mountain area. That winter, two seismic events knocked the plan off its axis. The fall out from the US Election. And in January her mother, Maryellen Amos, suffered a severe stroke leaving her unable to speak.

The complex influence of America's alt-right Super PACs, lobbyists and think tanks informs much of the tension in Native Invader. "It wasn't going to be a record of pain, blood and bone when I began," Tori says. "It wasn't going to be a record of division. But the Muses 9 insisted that I listened and watched the conflicts that were traumatizing the nation and write about those raw emotions. Hopefully people will find strength and resilience within the songs to give them the energy to survive the storms that we are currently in". The sense of semantic distortion permeates Native Invader. Tori talks of the need to form a "militia of the mind" in the face of national lies.

She confounds the paradigm of institutional higher education. She is self-taught about so many diverse topics, fetishizes herself as a sensual librarian, and she has profound insights about politics, identity, the arts, business, the natural world, global cultures and so much more, but all of her knowledge is tempered with compassion and delivered with humility. Where did she come from? I am obviously a huge fan. It's because the content and delivery of her music and her thoughts is truly extraordinary.

You know something, this song is growing on me.

It really does sound like it came off of American Doll Posse though.

BUT, its a grower like most of the men I've loved.

I'm in love. I've been promoting it on twitter and posting my reactions in other forums, so I haven't gotten a chance to post here until now.

My instant reaction was:

[quote]I'm in love. It's a mix between Beck, "Sea Change" era... "The Golden Age", perhaps, and like finding a little patch of heaven in a dusty, neon-lit bar at 3 a.m.

After a few spins:

[quote]If someone had described this song to me - it's overall instrumentation - I would've been horrified...

[quote]I think I'm sort of shocked at how effortlessly she's pulled this off. Again, I immediately thought Beck's "The Golden Era" which, imo, is a very good thing. It's a totally new sound for her but it doesn't sound forced or strained. I can easily hear her playing this on the piano but unlike most songs I can do that with that are riddled with guitar, I actually don't find myself yearning to hear this solo. I mean, of course at some point I want that, but the song is so successful as is that I find myself completely wrapped in it and loving it.

[quote]I have to applaud Mark's guitar work. I've given him a lot of shit over the years, but he really did a great job here. You can clearly hear her organ work, which is sublime and everything that TBK needed and just... Okay. I'll stop now. I'm in love.

[quote]Also, this is her best single, imo, since "A Sorta Fairytale". If the rest of the more produced tracks are like this coupled with some dynamic piano tracks, I will be very, very happy.

In reaction to someone "not feeling it at all":

[quote]Exactly. The vibe is very cool and relaxed.

[quote]I know I'm going to sound nuts (like I don't always do, right? lol), but I've had this thing on repeat like ljus78 for about an hour, maybe a little more, and I haven't tired of it. I can't say that I felt that way with any of the singles released since "A Sorta Fairytale". With "Sleeps with Butterflies", "Big Wheel", "Welcome to England", "Carry", "A Silent Night with You" and "Trouble's Lament" (the singles following ASF), I didn't feel effortlessly pulled into their sonic worlds. The one I love the most of those singles - "Carry" - was too emotional for me to get into on repeat, especially since it was the last track before listening to the rest of the album. The others either bored or kept me interested for 15-20 minutes tops.

[quote]I think it's because it evokes a mood more than a song. I can see myself listening to this in my car or at the beach or even working out, lol. This entire song is a strange and lulling earworm. It's both familiar and quirky. Again, it successfully creates a mood - one that I'm happy to lull in for awhile - more than it strives to be a catchy or formulaic tune.

[quote]Very happy with this one, me thinks, and considering that the most extensive reviewer called the album "piano-heavy", I'm even more intrigued to hear the rest of the album. If she successfully juxtaposes the produced songs with the piano and strings and solo piano tracks, I'll be over the moon.

[quote]We've had two reviewers (not scared of criticizing or poking a little fun at Tori, btw) give this album the thumbs up, so I really think it's only going to get better from here.

And finally, I wrote this up last night before going out. Had the song on repeat while getting ready:

[quote]So, we've had the song for nearly two days. At the risk of sounding dramatic and overzealous - which I always do when it comes to all things Tori and Jessica Lange - I have to say that I really needed something like this from Tori. I feel so comforted and stilled by this song. It's kind of strange, because no other single since "A Sorta Fairytale" has made me feel this way.

[quote]It's almost as if I keep inadvertently slipping into the "sonic world - it's shape, it's architecture - of the song", to paraphrase Tori, while running about doing chores. I have some time off right now and have been working diligently on laying down some piano pieces I've been composing for the last 5 years. Also - and quite suddenly - I got a rush of new pieces - about five of them - that just came to me in a whirl on the eve before the single dropped. After it dropped, I played it on repeat for about two hours (!) the first day before forcing myself to turn it off until late this afternoon. I was gobsmacked by the fact that I had a song on repeat for that long (it's been a while). I was washing dishes earlier and that swaying rhythm crept into my consciousness followed by Mark's guitar (who the fuck knew?!) and Tori's organ and vocals. I tried holding off on putting the song on again because I don't want to overplay it before the album drops, but I couldn't resist.

[quote]The song just filled my apartment and I laid back, smoked half a joint and was totally transported. I even cried. One of the things I love most about Tori's performance here is that her enunciation really echoes her earlier work, where it was often quite difficult to understand what she was singing without referencing the lyrics. During the era of the baby voice, she over enunciated words. Here she's soft and pleading and even a little syrupy, but it's raw and real and lived in. This to me is almost an extension of "Wild Way", but as a few have shared on Unforumzed, it also acts as a pretty startling political song (e.g. the night of the election).

[quote]Nonetheless, whatever it means to Tori, I have definitely connected with it in my own personal way. My reaction has been so strong, in fact, that it's helped me reflect on my own behavior and thinking, which isn't always the healthiest. And to think, I don't even know all of the lyrics yet. I haven't wanted to study them. I've just been allowing myself to enjoy the ambiguity of her singing and the beauty of the music.

[quote]I'm literally aching for the rest of this album to drop.

R118 I agree and that might be why it's my favorite single in over a decade. Also, it has a very nice road trip feel to it, which I quite like..

R119 You vicious little gash. It does not.

R120 I agree about it echoing the "Strange" radio edit.

R121 I hear some "Scarlet's Walk" but overall I think it stands on it's own.

R122 I need to try harder. I need you to have it on repeat until your empty skull can no longer deny it's quiet power and poignancy.

R124 Haha! Are my posts/is my writing that obvious? ;) I agree, though. When I read that description, I got goosebumps. Also, Tori, her mom and the rest of her family are all in my prayers. This must be a very tough time for them :(

R125 God, I love this post. If you're a man, I'd do just about anything to have your cock in my mouth and your balls on my chin.

R126 It really is a grower. I looove growers ;)

"Cloud Riders" is on youtube and is about to get it's own thread.

R125 I'm a man. I feel like I get Tori. I really wish I had more opportunity to speak with her. Oh well.

R131 A lot of us feel we get Tori, Mr. ;P It's the fact that she encompasses both the Victim and Shaman archetypes.

"Up the Creek" is next.

Well I am not listening to Up The Creek in 12 days.

I am scared that it will also appear underwhelming.

I would much rather listen to the entire cd, based on Cloud Riders...

R134 I wish I had your discipline. When it comes to Tori, I'm a nut. (That applies to Ms. Lange too, lol.)

I've been so desperate that I've had journalist friends record new Tori songs using their phone recorders pre-album release just to be able to listen. I remember before "Night of Hunters" dropped, I had the shittiest quality recording of a recording (it sounded like somebody recorded it in a bathroom stall at a club) and I obsessed over it like a prized possession, lol.

I get what you mean, though. I kinda want to hold off too. It would be nice to an experience a new album as a new album, lol.

"...riding out this storm..."

This is perfection on another level.

THAT is why I love Tori, Ms, Mark Alexandra-Jasmine DeLacroix Burkhardt!!!

Referring to that live clip at R137, Ms, Mark Alexandra-Jasmine DeLacroix Burkhardt!!!

R138 / R139 Who are you, bitch? You have me so fucking curious. Do I know you from the other forums? Or have I met you in person? Maybe we fucked?

And yes, that version is everything.

As always with Tori, the more I listen, and the more closely, the more I really respect this song. It sounds all rambly, soft rock-y. It's a power-pagan song. My dad yesterday said about her, matter of factly, "well, she's a witch." After being taken aback a bit, I said, "well, yeah. She is." In the spiritual sense, not in a derogatory sense.

R141 Isn't it kind of maddening though? I find that the more I get into the song, the more impatient I grow to here the album as a whole.

R142 No. I don't mind waiting. It all finds its way in time.

R141, I have to agree. I am vibing with it more and more.

And I had nothing but nasty things to say initially..

And your description of it is great.

Aww.

[quote]@toriamos I love Cloud Riders T. - @garbage

Oh, my. Album artwork is starting to leak.

Spectacular. The Dark Phoenix.

R144 You've seen the light, my little Martian cherub.

omfg.

[quote]. Looks like you could use the help of a Chariot pulled by Cats to get to Boston. Hugs t

R139 She's not your Tori, cuntbag. She's mine. All mine. (By the way, can you even play piano?)

Anyway, I love you, papi. You're an acerbic cunt, but you know how to keep a bitch on her toes.

Where would you recommend I start if I wanted to get into her music? I'll obviously need lyrics in front of me for all of her songs at first as I'm not a native speaker and I can hardly understand her. I don't have that problem with any other US singer, mind you.

Some are saying this is suburban white people music, so for reference: I'm white, lower middle class, but extremely ungrounded and living in fantasy worlds all the time. Would I be able to connect with her music? Should I even bother? Posters on this thread seem to be really enthusiastic about her and it's infectious. Do straight men listen to her as much or is her music more of a gay thing?

Ta!

Awwwww! We have our very first baby faerie-winger in our midst.

Oh, doll. Fatten up on "Little Earthquakes" (her first solo album). It's classic, timeless, accessible, immediate. You'll get it right away. She deals with being raped on that album. Also, with her romantic relationships and her relationships with her father and mother. NPR ranked it at #27.

I'll get you started.

The album.

If we're talking favorite albums, this is my favorite of all time. Also, many fans consider this album Tori's masterpiece.

It's rough around the edges (it was an improvisation) but it's going to be featured on my first album and it's also dedicated to Tori.

If it wasn't for Tori, I would've never discovered my one true voice (the piano).

R150 All her albums are different stylistically, and so it's a little hard to say. In order of her career, I'd recommend these, with caveats:

Little Earthquakes is her first solo album, relatively straightforward lyrics set to piano-driven pop-rock. It's her most accessible album in my opinion.

Under the Pink is softer stylistically, impressionistic in both music and lyrics.

Boys for Pele was my first Tori album. It's also her least accessible album, but most intoxicating and raw by far. It's a bizarre mix of Southern-rock piano and Baroque harpsichord at times with heavy programmed percussion.

If you like rock and electronica, her fourth album, from the choirgirl hotel, might be your best entrypoint.

Scarlet's Walk risks sounding adult contemporary and, dare I say, "boring," but the more you listen and understand the lyrics and how they tie together and what they represent, it's a masterpiece.

And I love Night of Hunters, her interpretation of classical pieces turned into a psychedelic journey through time and space and multiple lives, but it's really not for everyone.

Every one of the albums is brilliant in its own ways. I think Little Earthquakes is probably the best beginning because it is easy to understand. BUT you also need to know (which I didn't at first) that every new Tori album is so different that it's sort of offensive to fans who fall in love with certain styles, and then she moves on and then we catch up with her. She's a challenging artist, which is why she is so brilliant.

R150 Also, just in case you're religious or offended easily, you should go in understanding that Tori is a truly altruistic, compassionate person who addresses Christian figures in the same ways she addresses other mythic figures, which is to say in a spiritually reverent but materially irreverent way. When she makes fun of the church, she is making fun of the hypocrisy and destructiveness of it; she actually respects and admires faiths and spiritual investigations of all kinds. It's a major, major component of her music.

R155 Marry me, daddy (or is it "mommy"?).

R150 Lots of very interesting straight men listen to her.

Academy Award Winner Trent Reznor, for one. They had an affair. He broke her heart and trashed her, along with Courtney Love (killer of Kurt Cobain). It led her to write "Boys for Pele".

He later wrote a song around a song from "Boys for Pele".

A lot of straight male musicians love her. Do your research.

R150, I would start with Under The Pink (so close to my heart) THEN go to Little Earthquakes.

THEN Boys For Pele-

And oh my god, To Venus and Back is her most underrated.

Choirgirl is in many ways is my favorite....

Under The Pink has a softness and elegance with really intense flourishes. Its deceptively beautiful, but is quite dark and subtextual..

R158 "Datura" is in her top 10 ever, no?

Sublime.

Thanks for all these starting points! I guess I'll just jump right in; there's no other way, really.

R156 No, I'm an atheist but that aspect won't be a problem at all. I'm actually looking forward to that in particular.

R161 Oh, you won't have any problem with Tori, then, lol. She can get very aesthetic.

R150 Sample this playlist on YouTube. Tori's albums and whole-album experiences but (in most cases) you can get a sense of each album's overall sound from the popular tracks/singles.

R163 One can never get a sense of each Tori album's "overall sound".

You just have to plunge in, doll.

The video for Spark is absolutely mesmerizing. This song is about the devastation of a miscarriage.

R150 Btw, I sense a bait. But Tori deserves everything, so we'll entertain you.

Tori-lover,you're a doll. I'd bring over whatever food you wanted to order, and just ask you to either entertain me with your music, or show me the stuff you love, and help me love it, too. You're very persuasive. You're a boundless fount of creative goodness, you know? Always give the most love you've got to yourself, since you deserve it, then, share your love of art with the world, But you're the person who always deserves that first dose of love. Never forget that you are a good, loving man, and love will solve our problems.

R165 See, that's the first video I watched and I just loved it! It's as if something pierced me deeply when I was listening to it. Good sign and I'm beyond excited to gradually discover more of her.

R166 A bait? To what end? You can clearly see from my posting history that I'm a regular (if somewhat catty) DLer with a wide variety of interests. I just happened to notice one of her threads twice in a row now, got intrigued, and started reading the posts. It's probably my weird use of English that's setting your alarm bells off; I get that sometimes. Also, the copious (ab)use of semicolons; I do love me some semicolons.

Anyway, I'll report back in a couple of months on my progress. I don't intend to burn through her material, but will rather slowly take it all in like the finest yak kefir.

Hmm, perhaps my posts [italic]are[/italic] a bait and I'm actually shilling semicolons and kefir to Tori Amos fans. Yeah, that totally sounds like something people do.

R167 Why do you do this, my insane DL Romeo? I'm listening to Tori, having a glass of red wine and suddenly, you make me feel like I have a Knight In WHITE shining armor out there. Just for me.

I love it and have been listening to it on repeat since it came out. To be truthful I haven't even liked anything she has done since Scarlet's Walk a little, but this is certainly the best song since Sorta Fairytale. Also it's her best lyric since SW too, actually probably better lyrics than SW and I'm really liking the late 70s Americana AM radio vibe.

For me this was it, if this sucked I was out, her first 5 or 6 albums was amazing and enough for a lifetime to listen to, I didn't need the bad 00s shit, but thankfully I love it so I'm really excited for the new album.

Rumor is Annie Clark (ST Vincent) features on the album!!!

R171 All we know is that her name appears in the liner notes.

Also, I am loving the artwork this era. Her best since the 90's.

R172 The photos for me recall Scarlet's Walk and American Doll Posse, except that instead of the Americana facade, it kind of feels like her official coming out as a medicine woman/mystic/shaman/witch.

R173 Are you ready for this album?

R174 Um...yes? What would I need to do to prepare for it?

R175 lol. Clear your mind, obviously.

Okay, so more song tidbits from Noah:

Hey guys

I posted this in another forum and saw that some of the other stuff I've posted has made its way over here so thought I'd just post here too.

--

I've listened to the album a lot over the last few weeks and I've really grown to love it.

I do think some people will have some reservations about some things (I can hear people not being into some of the synth tracks or the more heavy Mac Aladdin-y tracks) and that's fair, as there's def stuff I don't love, but overall there's some really, really beautiful stuff going on here and it's my favorite thing she's done in ages. I really feel like she's plugged into this one.

I'll share some thoughts over the next few weeks about the songs when I have time.

For "Reindeer King," which is one of my favorites:

Sound: It's just piano, strings and some strange kind of feedback/wind in a tunnel sounds at some points. It reminds me A LOT of "Garlands," as well a bit of "Gold Dust" and "I Can't See New York," and "The Beekeeper." There's a bit that reminds me of "Beauty Of Speed," too. It's long and epic but doesn't really "come to a head" the way, say, "Yes, Anastasia" does with its dramatic high note. I could easily see her opening each show with this.

Sample lyrics (some of this is def wrong but I can't make it all out exactly from listening to it):

"Crystal cold Your mind has been divided from your soul Now you say you are that stranger on your [shore?] Grief it brings me the naked [thrills? frills?] caught in the frost Numb, unbearable thoughts, your enemy / [If I am?] not lost / No way / Not lost -- I’ve just come from the Reindeer King / He says your purity [of soul crystalline?] Gotta get you back to you / Get you back to you / You gotta get you back to you / Get you back to you..."

Here's a bit about "Up The Creek":

The title comes from the phrase “Good Lord willing and the Creek don’t rise” which means, “barring unforeseen circumstances,” or “if all goes well,” but many believe it also refers to the Creek tribe (while many others refute this reading of it):

“US Agent to the Southeastern Indians, Benjamin Hawkins, received a letter from President Thomas Jefferson, requesting that he immediately come to Washington, DC to discuss the situation with the Indians in the Southern States. Violence had broken out in the region near the Oconee River in Georgia between white squatters (aka Crackers) and the Creeks, who lived in that region. The Federal Government was pressuring the Creek Confederacy to cede all its land between the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers in order to end the problem of squatters stealing Creek land there. Hawkins wrote back: 'God willing and the Creek don’t rise.'"

He essentially meant "I'll be back in Washington if the Creek tribe doesn’t rise" (and knowing Tori, this reading of the line is almost certainly intended).

(Taken from peopleofonefire)

Sound:

As I mentioned before, the song is unlike I’ve heard Tori do before. It starts with Tash singing “Good Lord willing and the Creek don’t rise” with a heavy echo on her voice and then programming, drums and strings (but heavily digitized) come in. Tash sings the verses and Tori sings pre-chorus and chorus. The chorus, which occurs once in the song, is belted out (and I wish it were in the song at least two more times -- it almost feels more like a bridge than a chorus). The song feels very electronic — with skittering beats — but also has a heavy, wild electric guitar running through it. There’s no piano until the middle of the song where there’s an intense piano breakdown (with the electric guitar wailing alongside it). I’m doing a terrible job of describing it but I love it.

Here are a bit of the lyrics:

Tash: We may just survive / if the militia of the mind / arm against those climate-blind

Tori: Desert sister / I’ll be breaking [me?] / to break you in

Chorus (Tori): Gone / When help is almost gone / You know that’s the time you must stand / Strong / Every girl and every [?] / Every cosmic cowboy in the land / To the earth will you show mercy?

More new pics.

Love this one. It looks like she's carrying a cross, but it's a stick and feathers.

Get ready.

I'm more than ready.

Additional lyrics on Reindeer King:

My clitoris just tingled

The reindeer's bells jingled

Momma's just come from the Reindeer King

R182 LMAO! You cunt. I love your snark in this thread :*

Up The Creek ends with sweet Natasha-sheeya's exclamation:

God willing, if the creek don't rise.

I'm using mummy to take the prize

God willing, if the creek don't rise

I'm going to inherit mum's millions

and that's a prize.

Singing career's a given, dummies

So don't fuck with Tashy

I'll be in singing on every song soon

So get fucked!

It has some great electronic beats and Natasha-Sheeya plays the triangle!

R184 You vicious little slit. Don't make fun of Nattie!

I actually would have liked the picture @ r172 as the album cover.

If Annie makes and appearance that would up her cred as Annie is the most significant artist (female artist) of the last few years anyway.

Interesting the way she is becoming relevant again, there seems to be a lot of good will toward her from the music press that have pretty much ignored her for the last 10 years or so in a way PJ Harvey and Bjork didn't. If she comes out with a really good album this time I think it will def up her profile and so far everything is headed in the right direction.

Didn't someone say one of the tracks is guitar heavy and like nothing she's done before, maybe that is the track Annie plays guitar on, considering Annie is one of the best guitar player in music right now.

More from Noah (I'm in love with that man. He's so fucking hot.):

Here's a bit about Chocolate Song, which is apparently about a (her?) relationship with a partner

Sound: The song starts with electronic bleeps and bloops and Tori on the whirly (at least I think it’s the whirly? It’s some keyboard that isn’t the piano or the organ).

There’s also a sound effect that kind of sounds like a screechy guitar at some points. Eventually the song gives way to a more traditional band-sounding song with acoustic guitar and bongos and drums.

The chorus is almost like a call and response with “satiny luscious chocolate” being repeated against other lyrics.

Some lyrics:

Second verse: I don’t have to like swinging from extremes / the lows so low, the highs so high / from throwing knives to dessert stirring [I think?] / a tightrope act just balancing

Pre-chorus: We used to be happy / We used to make happy on the stairs / on our rug

Chorus: Satiny [I'm 88% sure that's the first word] luscious chocolate I don’t hate you I don’t hate you

We used to make happy on the stairs sound terrible, but I guess how does a 50 something woman talk about sex, I sure don't want her to shout out starfucker just like my daddy.

I guess she is still challenging us to hear something real but something that makes us uncomfortable.

So far, this is what we're looking at with instrumentation:

Reindeer King - Piano and strings only, with lots of reverb/a wind effect. Wings - Synth heavy Broken Arrow - "Sonically adventurous." Cloud Riders - Wurlitzer/Rhodes, Hammond organ, electric & acoustic guitar, drums Up the Creek - "very electronic sounding," synth heavy; programming, drums, strings ("heavily digitized"); intense piano breakdown in the middle; wailing electric guitar; Tash Breakaway - piano and/or strings only Wildwood Chocolate Song - synth heavy w/ electronic bleeps; Wurlitzer (Rhodes?); screechy guitar at some points; acoustic guitar, bongos/drums Bang Climb Bats Benjamin Mary's Eyes - piano and/or strings only Upside Down 2 - piano only Russia - piano only

_______________________

Kind of bummed that we're only getting 3 piano/piano and strings tracks on the album proper. That's how I like my Tori. Low fat.

Anyway, I'm still excited and ready for this.

Reindeer King - Piano and strings only, with lots of reverb/a wind effect

Wings - Synth heavy

Broken Arrow - "Sonically adventurous."

Cloud Riders - Wurlitzer/Rhodes, Hammond organ, electric & acoustic guitar, drums Up the Creek - "very electronic sounding," synth heavy; programming, drums, strings ("heavily digitized"); intense piano breakdown in the middle; wailing electric guitar; Tash

Breakaway - piano and/or strings only

Wildwood

Chocolate Song - synth heavy w/ electronic bleeps; Wurlitzer (Rhodes?); screechy guitar at some points; acoustic guitar, bongos/drums

Bang

Climb

Bats

Benjamin

Mary's Eyes - piano and/or strings only

Upside Down 2 - piano only

Russia - piano only

^ Forgot to add a space between Cloud Riders and Up the Creek.

Wailing electric guitar on Up The Creek could be Annie.

R186 Yeah, it is pretty interesting. In her memoir and in many interviews over the past 15 years or so, Tori complained a lot that her labels invested nothing in publicity for her new releases. I've interviewed her twice (eternally grateful...she is the exception to "never meet your heroes"!) and I pitched an interview for this album. Her publicist declined, saying her schedule is too full and she's got all the interviews lined up that she needs. I don't write for Rolling Stone or the New York Times or anything but turning down interviews by people who respect her music seems like a major step up publicitywise for someone who 10 years ago said she couldn't get any press.

she's toast. she will never go beyond her loyal following of fans at this point in her career. her music sucks now.

That maybe be true or r195, but her loyal following is enough to sustain a long term career in away many artists don't. Most artists don't have such a loyal fan base that is large enough to keep their careers going in a way Amos has.

R195 She's already a legend - and more talented and prodigious than most musicians - so what does she have to lose, really, at this point?

Her albums earlier albums are already considered masterpieces - and not just by her fans. She's having fun now and challenging herself.

I think this will be the best of [bold]Abnormally Attracted to Sin[/bold] and the best of [bold]Unrepentant Geraldines[/bold], with hints and swathes of [bold]Night of Hunters[/bold].

R198- Based on that gentleman Noah's rapidly decreasing assuredness in his "reviews":

I do think some people will have some reservations about some things (I can hear people not being into some of the synth tracks or the more heavy Mac Aladdin-y tracks) and that's fair, as there's def stuff I don't love, but overall there's some really, really beautiful stuff going on here and it's my favorite thing she's done in ages. I really feel like she's plugged into this one.

I am thinking it will be a combination of The Beekeeper, Night of Hunters- AKA: Na-Tash-Sheena meets Mozart (the actual working title), Choirgirl (MY FINGERS ARE CROSSED) TVAB, Unrepentant Geraldines, and sadly, the corniest parts of American Doll Posse.

My vibe is a complete schizo mixed bag with SOME KILLER SONGS. And I'm fine with that. Very few recent albums of had some straight up, kick ass songs.

Also, sweet darlings, will Na-Tash-Shania be sitting on a little stool singing back up for Mummy?

You KNOW THAT SHIT IS coming sooner or later, cunts.

"Mum! Can I go on tour and sing backup? I know the audience will LOVE me!"

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R199 I like your schizoid mix :-*

R200 - R201 I don't like this, you vicious little slit! Tash-e-ra will rule!

Official lyric video for "Cloud Riders". LOVE the imagery.

Still listening to CR on repeat, still not tired of it.

R204 I took a break because I don't want to tire of it before the album drops. Promo has been so slow, but it probably has to do with her mother's health.

I can't wait to hear more.

sounds like a turd to me.

R206 You should be very familiar with turds...

It's annoying that so many fans panned and picked apart Cloud Riders when it came out and now say they love it. Many of us don't love her new music at first, whether we quickly grow to love it or not. When will we learn the lessons she keeps teaching us about not judging too early and trusting?

R208- I will give you this one. 100%

I remember my first listening of Boys For Pele. From the very first note - that creaky door sound on Beauty Queen/Horses -

I was like WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT???

And it grew on me by the second.

That has always been her brilliance- Her music works on a fucking subconscious level. It is beyond all comprehension.

That being said,I'm vibing that Na-tash-ay-ny-a Hawley is gonna be singing back up for Mum.

That's where I am drawing the line, bitchfucks!

And Cloud Riders is lovely. You can see my bitchy original posts earlier in the thread. This one grew on me quickly. But it is mellow and disappears like cotton candy.

Thank Mark-Alexis for the reassessment. Everyone is echoing his praises. He was really the first one to "dig it", while those other shit stains just wanted another opportunity to flog her.

[quote]That has always been her brilliance- Her music works on a fucking subconscious level. It is beyond all comprehension.

So true. I can't count how many times I thought while listening to a new song, "This is not for me," only to fall in love with it weeks or months (sometimes even years!) later.

"Darkest Hour" (solo) and especially this song are such highlights. Very UtP.

Thank you for your input Nat-ash-sheena!

You have a HUGE career ahead of you, daring! WONDERFUL VOICE!!!

But you all of that, don't you dear.

"Promise" dog howl AND my windows shatter!

R214 I don't understand Ebonics.

God, this track is everything. So pristine and crystalline.

In regards to unforumzed (I know some of you bitches are here):

[quote]Oh, I admit to being a terror over there - about 8 years ago. That was the last time I had a registered profile on unforumzed. It was 2009, at the height of their snarkiness. They were making fun of Tori, being totally insulting and demeaning in regards to her daughter and husband. Making up disgusting scenarios. I mean, it was no holds barred.

[quote]I, myself, was really rooting for Tori after what I felt was a really low period for her (2005-2009). I was seriously about to check-out of her music. I just couldn't connect with it and worse, I couldn't connect with her. She was off writing about dolls and butterflies and I felt like I was losing my mind; unraveling like a colorful maypole.

[quote]When AAtS dropped and she called it "a personal album" and ditched the damned concepts, I decided I'd meet her halfway as a fan. I was pleased with the album. I felt something again. And I recognized her, unlike with TBK and ADP.

[quote]Anyway, when they continued making fun of her and her family, I got snarkier with them. There were flame wars and all that jazz. My whole point was that if they were going to go as far as making up death and rape scenarios "just to get a good album again", they needed to keep that shit private. Tori might not read the forum, but her team and possibly her daughter do, which is just as bad if not worse. They eventually did privatize the forum for a long period of time, just after banning me.

[quote]A frequent member of Tori's team privately contacted me after and thanked me for defending her, letting me know that people close to her were aware of the insane things being posted. At first I thought it was someone from unforumzed pranking me, but after getting confirmation, I was convinced otherwise. That began a wonderful exchange that really changed me, but that's for another story.

[quote]Anyway, I guess they never forgot or forgave me. I wrote the only SOTW thread for "Marianne" over there, which some of them trashed, even though I was being open and vulnerable. The thread still exists if you do a search (username: The Quickest Boy).

[quote]I know I can be overzealous - I mean just look at the threads in this forum - but I truly mean no harm. I operate from a place of love, but don't cross me with some cunt shit because I will devour you.

P.S. The "frequent member of her team" was John Philip Shenale.

"The adventure is always and everywhere a passage beyond the veil of the known into the unknown; the powers that watch at the boundary are dangerous; to deal with them is risky; yet for anyone with competence and courage the danger fades.

The [heroine], instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died. Instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the [heroine] goes inward, to be born again. The disappearance corresponds to the passing of a worshipper into a temple where [she] is to be quickened by the recollection of who and what [she] is: namely dust and ashes." -Joseph Campbell

"Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well." Lady Lazarus, Sylvia Plath

Everyone has a moment of striking clarity that, much like the sight and sound of a mirror falling and breaking, quickens the mind and awakens the heart.

There's the falling: the melancholic echo of childhood fading, the sweeping madness of youth, of drifting and floating, of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole into the abyss, of Joseph Campbell's hero with a thousand faces crossing the threshold and plunging into the belly of the whale, of the whore, the addict, the societal outcast, the eternal student leaving home, of Mary Magdalene, Rimbaud, Jean Genet, William S. Burroughs and David Wojnarowicz, and of Holden Caulfield and Esther Greenwood - of all of them crossing the threshold to find all of those eyes and faces just staring, guiding them, as if by a magical thread, into the great beyond.

Then, the breaking: a quick, thunderous death where everything flashes before you: summer days of yonder still scorch your skin and the beads of sweat that once lined your upper lip feel as palpable as when, on those long, lazy days, you harbored dreams of fame and freedom (though there was also a secret part of you that never thought you'd make it past your twenties) and you turned your face in the dusk light, feeling as if youth and beauty and freedom would never fade, some beautiful boy or girl staring at you with the bright, buoyant hope of youthful love...

The loss of virginity and of innocence. There was a time when you were so pure, nothing but the air you breathed and the food you ate had invaded your body. And then the world spins and turns and you remember the reckless abandon with which you thrust yourself into life. You remember the first time you left home and the first time you realized you were an adult and the first time you stripped and the first time you got paid for sex and the first time you fell in love and the first time you realized you had a vendetta against yourself that you had been playing at all along without even knowing it. And the first time you had your heart crushed or your life turned over or your mind broken and you just wanted to "start over", maybe by mutilating yourself or stuffing your face with food or drugs or popping pills or guzzling liquor or fucking your brains out or doing, as I did, all of the above and then just running and running and running, from state to state, city to city, town to town, thought to thought, always reinventing yourself - the quickest girl [boy] in the frying pan.

.

"c'mon pigtails girl and all those sailors get your bags and hold [on] down won't you just hold [on] down"

In the Hero/Heroine's Journey, the First Threshold crossed is that of self-annihilation and so it is with this song that Tori prepares herself (and us) for the journey ahead. Campbell writes of this moment:

"With the personifications of [her] destiny to guide and aid [her], the [heroine] goes forward in [her] adventure until [she] comes to the 'threshold guardian' at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in four directions, also up and down, standing for the limits of the [heroine's] present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is darkness, the unknown and danger."

Marianne is the "threshold guardian". She is one last reminder of all that is sweet, innocent, naive and untainted. She represents the last attachment to the "old self"/"old world" that the heroine in "Boys for Pele" must lets go of in order to proceed with her rebirth. After her there is nothing but darkness and hell - the true descent.

It's the realization that you are no longer who you thought you were nor, in looking back at what you've been, will you ever be that same person again.

Regardless of how young and innocent and unaware and later beaten, broken and damaged we've been, we all have a bit of "the quickest girl in the frying pan" to admire and safeguard in ourselves. That slick, resourceful, mischievous part of ourselves that has gotten us out of trouble or made us laugh at something otherwise utterly horrendous or that has kept us going, pushing forward, moving on, growing, expanding, shedding skins, burning fires and sustaining loves.

Yes, it may have been the sad, lost, neurotic part of ourselves that everyone else thought they had so deftly pinned down, but it is also the part of ourselves that never changes but is always simply observing us in our earthly actions. The quickest girl in the frying pan - a threshold guardian to that eternal spark in us that refuses to die and never does.

Every song on "Boys for Pele" holds a part of a deconstructed woman. I believe this song holds her heart and soul - past, present and future

I am a tremendous Tori Amos fan and I've never stopped appreciating the work she puts out into the world. She is a musician, an artist and an intellect and her work deserves to be respected if nothing else. I am one of the annoying people who talks about her to people who simply do not care, and I do it because I've ingested her music and I find great meaning in it.

As extremely as I appreciate her work, I don't fetishize her merchandise because it's irrelevant to the work as far as I am concerned. And I certainly do not presume to know anything about her family or personal life, nor do I feel I have any right to know, nor do I have any motivation to know such things. I joined a couple of her fan groups on Facebook and quckly had friend requests from a bunch of people. I naively accepted them. Many of those people were *intensely* obsessed, posting almost nothing on Facebook not related to this woman, going so far as hunting down clothes and jewelry she wears and buying it. And then there were the attacks on the family. It really disturbed me and it saddened me. People bashing her young daughter, people saying they are praying or casting spells to break up her marriage so that her music will improve. Who the fuck are these people? There are many of them, and I am honestly surprised this woman participates in meet and greets with such obsessive, truly fanatical fans.

I just don't get it. If people love her music, that's great. She's not any fan's wife or mother or daughter or friend and no one has any reason to scrutinize her every move, her parenting, her child or her familial relationships. I don't even accept that it's just passion and overzealous idolatry. It's disturbing. Stick with the music and leave the woman alone to live her life in peace. If you don't appreciate her collaborations with family, then skip the fucking song or album. She doesn't owe anybody anything. She has created her music on her terms since the early 1990s. Give her her due, but don't be a fucking stalker.

R221 A-fuckin'-men.

Unforumzed is filled with that. It's a bunch of fans still thinking about and yearning for "the old days", i.e. stuck in the '90's.

How do you guys/gals rank her albums?

My ranking:

1. [bold]Boys for Pele[/bold] (1996)

2. [bold]Under the Pink[/bold] (1994)

3. [bold]Little Earthquakes[/bold] (1991)

4. [bold]Night of Hunters [Sin Palabras][/bold] (2011)

5. [bold]Unrepentant Geraldines[/bold] (2014)

6. [bold]from the choirgirl hotel[/bold] (1998)

7. [bold]To Venus and Back[/bold] (1999)

8. [bold]Strange Little Girls[/bold] (2001)

9. [bold]Scarlet's Walk[/bold] (2002)

10. [bold]Midwinter Graces[/bold] (2009)

11. [bold]Abnormally Attracted to Sin[/bold] (2009)

12. [bold]The Beekeeper[/bold] (2005)

13. [bold]Gold Dust[/bold] (2012)

14. [bold]American Doll Posse[/bold] (2007)

1. Boys for Pele

1. Scarlet's Walk

1. Night of Hunters

2. from the choirgirl hotel

3. Little Earthquakes

4. Under the Pink

5. To Venus and Back

6. The Beekeeper

7. Midwinter Graces

8. American Doll Posse

9. Abnormally Attracted to Sin

10. Unrepentant Geraldines

11. The Light Princess

12. I don't really see Strange Little Girls as a Tori album and I never listen to it. I would include Tales of a Librarian and A Piano collections because of their original material before I'd include this. Also, a lot of my favorite Tori songs are non-album tracks and her LPs from eons ago would rank among these, before some albums. Forest of Glass, Sister Janet, Upside Down, Flying Dutchman, Famous Blue Raincoat, A Case of You, etc.

That was wonderful R221.

I must admit that I am the one making fun of Natashanna and make quips about Mac Aladdin (JUST the guitar, well, and not being a fan of the production of the albums)

That's as far as I go. I just don't want Tori to have a back up singer!!! And her daughter's appearances on the albums are truly just a funny annoyance to me.

I own that though. The stuff you are describing at these other forums I had no idea even went on!!!

Tori's music has always and continues to deepen my entire life, quite honestly. That is why I said that her music truly works on a subconscious level.

My iPod is 80% LIVE Tori shows, because that is where i feel the greatest connection to her.

Even if I end up not adoring this latest album, I am an eternal Tori fan. Whether its listening to live shows for the rest of my life, that is fine by me.

She is one of the most talented ARTISTS (and I do not use that term lightly) alive today.

I do like to add some levity to this thread because Tori fans are EXTREMELY serious. Its fun to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. But my god, that stuff you and Mark posted about makes me embarrassed. And god bless Tori for being one of the only artists left who actually does full on meet and greets. When you get to meet Tori face to face and look into her green eyes, you know that she is something special.

R225 I find your schizoid humor adorable, though. I actually find it a little sexy.

R224 Ah! Someone else who obviously considers "Night of Hunters" one of her masterpieces, but why is "Unrepentant Geraldines" so low? I thought it was the perfect follow-up album album after NoH.

R167 Don't know if I thanked you for this post, but thank you! (I have 6 planets in Libra/Gemini's house, so I can get quite fickle and forgetful!). Also, are you one of the posters that compliments me in my piano improve and Jessica Lange threads, lol?

R168 I'm sorry I doubted you. I just know how the DL can be, lol.

The Beekeeper had some real potential, the idea was wonderful as were some of the songs like Garlands (which should have been on the album proper,) Mother Revolution, The Beekeeper, Sweet The Sting and Toast (minus the Mac'n'Cheese guitar) . But the album suffered being half assed. There should have been more sonic and lyrical /thematic coherence between the gardens and the album should have been sequenced so all the gardens were grouped together.

R228, Yes, that's me! It's rare for anyone on DL to share themselves and their enthusiasm the way you do, so I can't help feeling a bit protective of people who are talented and a bit vulnerable.

This sorta sounds like inside a hive. There was also some great photos for this album I don't know why she went that that album cover.

R229 I agree. But I think The Beekeeper suffered from many problems.

It was the first album which featured her, achem, "new look". The artwork and styling were all off and you can tell it was so because she was deeply insecure. Her brother died suddenly (car accident, no?) during the making of the album, too, so I'm sure she was in a hellish place. The album also suffered from really bad mixing. Her voice was not properly integrated with the music; it sort of floated above it and it wasn't as strong as in the '90's. It was another mellow album (following "Scarlet's Walk") and, as you pointed it out, it seems to be the album in which Mac n' Cheese really let his cheese doodles rip! It was, like, too much shit - literally - being thrown at the wall during that era.

That album actually ended up depressing me. I plunged into her catalogue just to avoid it. I still have PTSD from the cover.

God, it feels so good to be out of that era - and the American Doll Posse era (::shiver::).

R230 You really are a doll. I'd kiss you if I could touch you, lol. Do you dabble in the arts?

BTW If your looking to listen to a stark spectral piano based album a female signer this year, Shannon Wrght's album Division is awesome.

R227 I like The Beekeeper for a number of reasons. I consider it one of her mystical albums, with straightforward shoutouts to Gnosticism via Marys and particularly Original Sinsuality, and The Beekeeper is one of her shamanic songs that involves crossing over and communicating with "the other side." Parasol (and Garlands, which is based on works of my favorite visual artist) are early examples of the ekphrasis she continued to explore much later with Unrepentant Gerladines. A lot of songs on the album, such as Barons of Suburbia, Mother Revolution, General Joy and others are in my opinion overlooked. Even Ribbons Undone, which on the surface seems trite and superficial, is a really meaningful exploration. The subjects of the song are Tori's daughter *and* her mother, one growing into a woman, and the other's spirit trying to leave a body that is coming undone. I like these songs a lot, and I feel like The Beekeeper overall is an interesting experiment, particularly in the face of the death of her brother and her mother's brush with death, and reconciling that with motherhood and the natural order. I have a lot of respect for the album. Remember too that her memoir accompanied the release of The Beekeeper, and I think it informs a lot of the songs. I don't love some of the songs on it, but I think it's an intelligent body of music.

I didn't list Unrepentant Geraldines at the end of my list because I don't like or respect it. I just don't listen to it often, and in my view as a whole it doesn't present that shamanic view I've come to revere from her music. Pele, Night of Hunters and Scarlet do. They are for me transcendental, and in them the elements and the land are alive, and the songs and lyrics transport me across time and space. Unrepentant Geraldines is a different kind of work, grounded with a less adventurous focus (in my view). Cloud Riders alone has more spiritual intrigue for me than all of Unrepentant Geraldines, and I absolutely feel like this new album is going to reframe a lot of the themes she presented in Night of Hunters that went ignored by most people. I expect it wil crack the top of the list.

I'm not invested in convincing anyone that my preferences are better or worse than anyone else's. Art is subjective and its value is determined by its audience. I just respond most to the albums I listed near the top of my ranking. It doesn't mean I think they are "better." They're just more aligned with my interests and my aesthetics.

R233 I'll definitely check that out. Thanks!

R234 I dig your analysis, even though I'm not a big fan of the album.

R232, I don't think I really dabble in the arts. I was a straight A student in Art and Art History, but I graduated high school at 16 (too smart for my own good), and have pretty much worked menial jobs ever since. Even so, I've managed to achieve some financial stability. As for the other arts in which one may dabble, I used to read quite a bit about Wicca, Santeria and stuff like that, and while I don't engage in that, I found much of what I read pretty enlightening, and I try to attend to my spiritual life. Anyway, I can draw and paint pretty well. But a musician's ability to simply pull notes out of the air and turn them into a composition, a work of art, is one of those things that just amazes me to no end, since it's something which I totally lack. It seems to me to be like having a direct connection to the higher order in the universe. Ineffable is the right word for that: "incapable of being expressed in words"

R237 Well, you've described Tori Amos. She pulls notes out of thin air like that. I suppose I can, too.

I remember being 2-3 years old, growing up in the Bronx, just beneath the 4 Train, and I would try to imitate it's frenetic, rhythmic sound. I would go on and on for hours. My remembers, too.

I've always heard sounds in my mind. Rich, lush, lavish scores. It wasn't until I got into Tori (in my mid-to-late teens), that I felt compelled to play the piano. She made it seem so intimate, so personal, so relatable. And when I finally did, I realized I found a very close friend.

Playing the piano is like having a conversation with something grand and elemental. It truly is a mystery.

I didn't know Tori influenced "Frozen"! How cool is that.

-----

3. When writing for  Menzel, the songwriters had some unexpected influences. “In terms of references, I was thinking about Tori Amos, I was thinking about Adele, some of the artists who have that vulnerability, who are talking about shame and then owning their power and letting that out,” says Kristen. “So if I was influenced by anything, it was Tori Amos, because I love her and I think she really understands having a secret. For her, it’s religion. For Elsa, it’s the religion of this ‘You can’t be free.’

While I was disappointed with The Beekeeper, I still listened to it a lot, it was probably the last Tori album where that happened. After that I bought all her records but wasn't really into any off them.

One thing I will say about the Beekeeper is I agree with r234 and it's beautiful mysticism, but I also think that was the last album where Tori wasn't bluffing her way through. She felt that album, the way she talked about the "Artillery Soul" and a mothers view on war was really affecting and honest. I think had it been done right, had another producer been involved and some session players, it could have been amazing.

Also it has the most beautiful last line on a Tori album; "I thought I'd see you again. You say you might do, maybe in a carving, in a Cathedral somewhere in Barcelona." what a line to end a record.

R240 I agree; it's the last album she was 100 percent invested in.

Wow R240, I was almost going to say a similar thing yesterday!! The Beekeeper is somehow known as schmaltzy and light. And it is actually far from that. I kind of "rediscovered" it in 2013-2014 and was quite surprised at its elegance. A lot of the drama at that time, whether we want to admit it or not (subconscious or conscious, if you will) was Tori's appearance after plastic surgery at that time, as well as the downright horrific artwork on the cd. That cover alone looks like Tori did an ad for tampons or contact lenses. I still despise Sweet The Sting, but I also despise China. There is always one song on a Tori Album that I simply dislike. Did I like Ribbons Undone? Not much, until I heard it live at the Boston show where I was first row! And it was really nice. And if you would have told me in 2007 that American Doll Posse would have been ranked below The Beekeeper in my rankings, I would have told you that you were insane. But it definitely is now. And reading that last line to Toast- That gave me a lump in my throat. That IS a fucking amazing last line to an album.

R241 I don't agree.

I feel she was MORE invested in "Night of Hunters" and "Unrepentant Geraldines" than she was in "The Beekeeper" , which is really just a collection of b-sides and other things, as she herself put it.

....

....

I feel like we're finally seeing the Blair witch and she's faaaaaaaabulous

The Beekeeper is a lovely mellow honey rolling record. It's slow and sweet and maybe basic, but so is honey.

There is a beautiful line in Our New Year, which always gets me, "Every corner that I turn, I've convinced myself, one day you'll be there." Even in bad albums there are always little gems.

R248 I don't think Midwinter Graces is bad at all. Winter's Carol in particular is an exciting, pagan-power song I listen to year round. It's interesting that the song made it into her musical, obviously diluted into something less extraordinary by the demads of storytelling with collaborators. I wish she would do a whole straight-up mythical album with the sorts of instrumentation and arrangements used on Winter's Carol.

Pink and Glitter is fun, too. A lot of fans have wanted her to do big-band jazz for decades and she gave them what they wanted with that song.

R249 Midwinter Graces is actually quite good. That and Abnormally Attracted to Sin restored my faith in her in 2009. Winter's Carol is a stunning composition.

I'm not going to lie. I wish she'd do something poppy and poignant like this. She would KILL this track. It's my current on-a-loop song of the month.

[quote]Under the Pink for me is ivory and very soft glowing lights . Scarlet is mostly muted greens and browns and faded reds and yellows. American Doll has very little color for me, some pinks and purples but not much, AAtS is colorless for me, I think that was a bluff album. "A lot of Choirgirl is fiery oranges and reds against dark, empty spaces with some electrostatic interference that kind of pixellates everything" Yeah I get that. Excited though for the new album.

Love this. Pink has always been very much like the artwork for me: whites and ivories and light blues. Like wind chimes....

R251 I don't mean this as an offense to Lorde, but that song is based on a kind of trite "you and I" relationship lyric Tori doesn't do often anymore, and perhaps not ever again. Like Noah Michelson said in one of his quotes about the new album above, "I don't think that's how Tori works anymore." It's not about charting or releasing poppy singles. Night of Hunters purported to be about a relationship breakup and so of course people naturally assumed it was a romantic man-woman relationship, but that relationship was between a woman and her god, and the woman's past lives and her relationships with language and the spirit of the land. These sorts of topics do not make for hooky radio fodder. She is the anti-Madonna: Her music is intellectually and spiritually inquisitive and not made to be commercially appealing. It's experimental and truthseeking and probably no longer will deal with smoochy heartache. If Tash tries a pop career, I'd expect her to be Lorde-like.

R253 I was talking bout Tori doing that sound. She'd make up her own brilliant lyrics.

Case n point (an underrated dance classic):

R253 Also, though I appreciate you well thought out post, "Night of Hunters" was definitely about her and her husband Mark. She's even said as much.

I do agree, however, about that album also being about a lot more than just a cracking relationship. It's also about everything else you mentioned, which gives it an epic, mythic quality. I rank "Night of Hunters" 4th on my list of her best albums. It's the best thing she's done in the new millennium.

A timeless, stunning piece. I'm about to post the review blurbs from Wiki. People need to convert!

R254 BT says that a lot of what she sang she didn't actually sing...he cut and edited together her recorded vocals to make sounds that he liked. I've always thought Blue Skies was a thousand times better than that atrocious Professional Widow remix she has put on 99 albums. I really don't get why she has such affection for that awful track except how well it charted.

[bold]Reviews for "Night of Hunters"[/bold]

The album was awarded the Echo Klassik-ohne-Grenzen-Preis (Classics without Borders Prize) in 2012.[11

Although some critics took issue with the extensive concept of Night of Hunters, reviews were mostly positive, with many also citing it as Amos's strongest release in nearly a decade.[13][14][21][22][23][24] Additionally, a number of critics took note of the vocal contributions by Amos's daughter and of Amoss' own skills as a pianist, citing both as major highlights of the record.

AllMusic gave the album a glowing review, stating, "[Amos] employs her finest vocal and piano-playing skills [here]," resulting in an album of "sophistication, elegance, and poetry" that "contains the power, dynamics and splendor of her very best material,"[1] while the Associated Press observed, "There are clear classical, even operatic influences, from sweeping strings and reedy woodwinds, [to] Amos' gripping piano" on this "beautifully composed album which highlights Amos'[s] classical training and fierce intensity as a musician and songwriter."[25]

The A.V. Club praised Amos for "[getting] back to the basics", calling the record a "sprawling [...] thesis on the enduring beauty of classical music" and "[Amos'] most enjoyable album in years,"[13] while Blurt magazine insisted, "There's so much more to Amos' latest music," stating, "The one-time child prodigy is a celebrated virtuoso for a reason. Doubters need only listen to her ever-masterful piano playing intertwined with orchestral movements [here] and her as-distinctive-as-Stevie Nicks' voice to confirm that", declaring the album "a rare musical vision you'd be foolish to pass up."[26]

The Daily Express also hailed the album, calling it "complex, accomplished and [Amos's] finest work in a decade,"[14] while the Daily Mail declared it antithetical to "easy-listening", raving, "[Amos] is a real talent. Her virtuoso piano work [here] is augmented by stunning orchestration."[27] Glide Magazine was taken by the "power, immediacy and splendor" of the album, stating, "Amos has delivered her most absorbing, forceful and captivating record since 2002’s Scarlet's Walk," declaring it, finally, "a venerable tour de force."[23] Drowned in Sound gave a positive review, praising Amos for the sparse production of the album and noting "as a whole [it] showcases the best of [Amos's] piano work."[15]

The Guardian criticized the album for its "overthought concept" and focus on "resolution rather than build-up", but praised Amos for her craftsmanship as a musician, stating, "[The fact] that Amos can weave her own songs so deftly into variations on classical pieces is testament to her talent, and the piano, string and woodwind arrangements frequently sound as lovely as her earlier orchestral experiments."[28]

The Harvard Crimson praised Amos for "composing an album that effectively uses chamber music as a tool relevant to the times," declaring it "the work of an accomplished musical architect" and describing it as "an inimitable blend of vocal arrangements, orchestral scoring, and a spiritual homage to nature" with "moments of impeccable instrumentation" that "play more like the score of a dramatic film than the work of a singer-songwriter," all of it culminating in "an intricate, swirling triumph."[29]

Holy Moly! called it "a sumptuous sounding work, with the piano to the fore," also noting "While this is a new approach for [Amos] (abandoning her usual musicians in favour of [a] clarinetist and string quartet), she sounds completely at home with what is essentially an intellectual take on the Broadway musical."[30]

The Los Angeles Times called the album "a beautiful kaleidoscope of remembering and letting go", comparing it to the works of Kate Bush and stating, "[Amos'] voice is a crystal bell with only the ivory [of her piano] guiding her" as we witness "an artist maturing and growing with her music, [and] making sense of her past in a wholly original, intelligent way."

The London Evening Standard praised Amos for handling the classical proceedings "triumphantly", stating, "From the reassuringly bleak opening to the breathy piano and scratched strings of the [album's centerpiece], these graceful, imaginative, all-acoustic songs threaten to give classical crossover a good name. Amos, meanwhile, deserves a reappraisal."[31]Metromix called the record "one of the most gorgeous and challenging albums of Amos' career," pointing out her "stunning acoustic piano skills," and labeling it, finally, "a master class in Amos' artistic power."[18]

The Digital Fix gave the album a positive review, distinguishing it for its "rich sonic tapestry, with strings and woodwinds swelling underneath [Amos'] always virtuoso piano performances,"[32] and NPR declared it "the album [Amos] was destined, by early apprenticeship and spiritual affinity, to record."[33]

The Observer, in turn, criticized the album for its "florid excesses", stating, "it plays out like an intermittently absorbing, if overly demanding, night at the theatre [...] but Amos'[s] voice possesses enough conviction and personality to breathe life into what could have been an orchestral folly,"[34] while Ology also cited it as "[Amos'] best album in more than a decade," calling it "an overpoweringly lush rumination on her classical influences that’s both sprawling and intimate, powerful and delicate."[24]PopMatters criticized the album for its "elliptical" narrative but noted, "Nevertheless, the album does contain its share of gripping drama, undeniable poignancy, and iridescent beauty" and "it is hard not to applaud, even marvel at its intense focus, meticulous craftsmanship, and bravura performances, not to mention its sheer artistic ambition."[35]

The Salt Lake Tribune commended Amos for "[skipping] the gimmicks that have marred her later works and [returning] to the raw emotion and power of her earlier songs,"[36] while The Scotsman hailed the album, also comparing it to the works of Kate Bush and calling it "piano rich", "intensely personal", "bonkers, mesmeric and charged with a pristine eroticism," declaring, finally, "This is a real record by a real artist, a rare thing in this age of disposable culture."[37]

The Scottish magazine, The Skinny, praised the album for its "focus on delicate symphonies and baroque drama," comparing it to "the stark and candid nature of Under the Pink," and citing it as both "a breathtaking return" and Amos's "strongest album in over a decade,"[21] while Slant criticized the album for its uniform sound and tempo, but noted, "The more direct songs are genuinely beautiful and transcend the trappings of the album's rigid construct," also stating, "every [string and] woodwind instrument rings with the purest of tones in support of Amos' typically stunning piano work" resulting in a "beautiful, smart record."[38]

Spin praised Amos for creating "a wildly imaginative ride full of orchestral fireworks and fairy-tale melodrama,"[20] while Uncut Magazine declared, "If the aim was to out-bonkers Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush while creating a compelling album, Amos has more than succeeded."[12]

The UK-based women in music compendium, Wears The Trousers Magazine, continued with the praise, also crediting the album with being Amos's "most cohesive and consistent" in nearly a decade, lauding her for "[building] on the work of past masters to develop an utterly distinctive vision of her own," resulting in "a rich, immersive record of beauty, danger and grace."[22]

R256 That's strange. I'd have to see a direct quote.

It's obvious Tori is singing the lyrics and that it's not just some patch-up job of her words.

"Blue skies in my head..." is a good example.

"Let's go to this magic wonder show. And I'm walking, and I'm rolling..." Another good example.

I hear no cut and pasting. He must've cut and pasted whole swathes of her singing/lyrics to make a narrative. That I might believe.

R255 In almost all promotional materials and in almost all interviews, Tori described Night of Hunters as being about the breakup of a relationship between Tori and "Him." She's very careful and skillful about tiptoeing around who this "he" is. Because she talks about things shattering in a house and him leaving, of course it sounds like it's a domestic squabble. I think the story is about a spiritual-religious crisis. Watch this video...as she finally describes the story in the interview, she refers to "the male and she." The male, not the man. It's not an accidental usage. She did this throughout interviews for the album.

R261 I will find the exact quote. The interviewer asks her about Mark and she says something loosely along the lines, "Well, of course I relate. Mark and I have been together..." etc., etc.

It's obvious to me this was a very personal album for her. Hence why it's the best thing she's done since the 90's (almost two decades).

R260 BBT: Tori put the CD on, and sang for 15 minutes over an unreleased version of "Divinity" at a soundcheck for a show, and sent me the DAT without ever even listening to it. There was a note attached that said, "Brian, listen to this," and I took it and took literally every phrase and every breath and cut it into pieces to make a song out of it. She sang the words "blue" and "sky" next to each other one time in the whole thing, and I cut, glued, pasted, and made this thing that ebbed and flowed like a song.

DJ Times: Was the end product anything that Tori had imagined it would be?

BT: I think it was absolutely nothing that she'd expected. In fact, when I sent her the DAT, she called me immediately and was like, "Did I sing this sh*t?" Then she hung up and called back five minutes later saying, "This sh*t is bad-ass!" She was tripping out, because [her voice] was so edited up. That's what I'm talking about -- that was a dope-ass performance, but taking technology and manipulating it like clay.

R263 Giiirl...

You got to me quick, lol. I like that. Hm... He did a masterful job, then, because you literally cannot hear the edits. At all.

R262 I think of course her personal relationships influence much of the narrative, but I do not think the narrative is about a romantic man-woman relationship per se. Listen to her description of the story as a mythology-influenced epic. The EPK for the album is the one place I noticed she refers to the antagonist as "he...the man." That throws me a bit because in a lot of other interviews she very obviously avoids ever referring to "him" on human terms, to the extent that it's distracting to me when she keeps saying "the he" and "the him." She's brilliant in all ways, I think, and that includes her subversion even to those who are aware of her tendency toward the subconscious and subversiveness. Her albums, such as Scarlet, always involve "Tori," and always involve womankind, and since Scarlet the spirit of the land and the watchers in the cosmos. When she sings about the land or trees, you should consider that she is singing about divine beings. When she sings about the stars, constellations and celestial bodies, she is likewise singing about divine spirits. Part of her genuis is translating these spiritual beliefs down into more or less earthbound dramas.

R264 BT is masterful. He's much more of a legitimate musician than most electronic music producers--like Tori, he is classically trained, but he has used technology in ways so experimental that like Tori he went far astray from the commercial path with many of his concept albums.

[158] lol Courtney did not kill Cobain. Did you get fired from Spin Magazine?

R267 Oh, she did. Believe me.

Didn't she describe UG as her selfie album? And she sorta discover insta at the time and was posting a lot of selfies while on tour. I think that's why I just couldn't grab on to UG, it felt very surface to me.

R269 I never heard her say that but it sort of makes sense. She did post a new selfie on IG almost every day, or at least on every day of her tour for that album. Some of the songs on UG were typically thoughtful and forward thinking, like America and Weatherman. Some were sentimental, like Wedding Day and Invisible Boy. Some, like Oysters and especially Forest of Glass, really connected with what a lot of us have been longing for. But some, fro the Maids of Elfen-Mere to Promise to Rose Dover just missed the mark for me and detract from the overall album because they do feel surface-y. Somehow Parasol, Garlands, Weatherman all are inspired by visual arts and capture my heart and my imagination, and other attempts at the same like Maids fall flat.

Maids is gorgeous. Really harkens back to some of her early work.

The only songs on Unrepentant Geraldines I felt fell flat were "Promise" and "Giant's Rolling Pin". The b-sides were AMAZING, from "Forest of Glass" to "Dixie" to "White Telephone to God".

Now, "Unrepentant Geraldines" is a warm album, to me.

Ahhhhh! From the new booklet.

Somebody decipher Marcel's mixing jargon for us, please! It is imperative!

-------------

NATIVE INVADER - mixing backwards

The first thing that struck me after I had arrived in Cornwall this time around, was how together and complete the early "Native Invader" rough mixes sounded. Mark had achieved this great initial result without any significant signal processing (EQ & compression), which is a clear sign that shows just how good the arrangement and recording quality was. At one point I even questioned why I was even there: what exactly I'm I supposed to bring to the table if things are sounding so good already? It simply did not make sense to pull the existing rough mixes apart and start completely from scratch, something I would do in most other mix scenarios. Instead I did something that I'd never done before at this early stage of the mixing process: I started at the end!

I've been using my mastering Manley Labs Slam! compressor/limiter ever since we mastered the Tori Amos & Metropole Orkest album "Gold Dust". The SLAM! (stereo limiter and microphone pre amplifier - although the mastering version does not have any onboard mic pre's...) is an amazing dynamics control unit that up till now I had been using only during the analogue mastering process, well after any mixes had been completed. The SLAM! has a very smooth sounding optical compressor as well as a very tight and punchy sounding FET limiter on board. Compression and limiting form an important part of the mastering process because it raises the overall level of the mixes, yet at the same time it prevents any overloads and distortion from happening. It basically ensures that the mixes are sonically compatible with other current commercial releases. The SLAM! is so much more than a dynamics control unit however: as well as controlling levels, this unit adds a certain amount of very pleasant sounding harmonic distortion to the original signal. This harmonic distortion is enhancing the original input signal by making all the timbres richer more detailed, deeper, fuller, but also tighter and punchier, all at the same time! This box it is essentially a sound engineer's wet dream... The SLAM! is one of those rare analogue units that seems to work wonders in any scenario: no matter what the quality of the input signal is, the output signal nearly always sounds better! During my last few London based projects for Iamthemorning and Hattie Webb I developed this nagging feeling that I could do so much more with this unit than just use it as a mastering/finalizing tool that is engaged only towards the end of the production process. This time, and only because Mark's initial rough mixes were so together, I was able to start applying the overall mix bus dynamics control at the start of the mixing process! The SLAM! thereby became the main signal processing unit of "Native Invader". Rather than used as an "afterthought", this unit now became central to the "Native Invader" mixing process. Because Mark had used little or no compression within the initial mixes, I was able to achieve much more overall average gain reduction compared to before. This time I could make the SLAM! work much harder, taking full advantage of all the extra harmonic distortion; we were utilizing this unit so much better this time around.

Marcel's mixing rant cont'd:

On "Native Invader" the SLAM! was working in conjunction with two of our favourite equalisers. Both were patched before and in series with the SLAM! First up in our mix bus insert chain is the Manley Labs Massive Passive tube equaliser. I've mentioned before how this unit is my favourite mid-range equaliser. There are two reasons why we have this unit at the top of the analogue insert chain. First of all the input level control of this unit allows me to fine tune how "hot" the signal runs through the rest of the analogue chain. It thereby acts as a "drive" control that allows me to fine tune the exact amount of harmonic distortion that is required: too much harmonic distortion makes the mixes sound fuzzy and undefined. The second reason why the Massive Passive comes at the top of the chain is it's onboard high-pass filter. This filter cuts off any unwanted rumble frequencies. It is very important to remove these unmusical frequencies at the earliest instance. First of all we don't want the compressor/limiter to act on frequencies that are not really part of the music, but also we want to avoid that the rest of the analogue equipment creates any harmonic distortion (enhancing!) as a result of these unwanted frequencies.

The outputs of the Massive Passive feed into one of our George Massenburg Labs 8200 solid state equalisers. We used this amazing unit primarily to gently boost the lows and highs of the frequency spectrum. Most of the time we used shelving EQ to achieve these boosts. Compared to parametric EQ, shelving EQ is a quite a bit more respectful of the original timbres; I did say how much I liked the original mixes... The outputs of the GML 8200 were finally feeding the inputs of the forementioned SLAM! which was patched at the end of the analogue chain. We used these three units to shape the overall sound of each song on "Native Invader", after which we went back to "update" some of the individual vocal and instrument sounds within the mixes. I will write more about how we went about this "internal mixing" in my next post.

Stay tuned Mx

Even though I barely understand what he wrote, you can tell even Marcel was surprised by the quality of the album in it's rough stages. I'm so fucking psyched.

Finally! Tori speaks about "Cloud Riders":

She looks great and she sounds so at ease and relaxed.

Sounds to me like Marcel is being paid or has a financial stake in promoting SLAM! Just a cynical guess. :)

R278 lol! I did love this part:

[quote]The first thing that struck me after I had arrived in Cornwall this time around, was how together and complete the early "Native Invader" rough mixes sounded. Mark had achieved this great initial result without any significant signal processing (EQ & compression), which is a clear sign that shows just how good the arrangement and recording quality was. At one point I even questioned why I was even there: what exactly I'm I supposed to bring to the table if things are sounding so good already? It simply did not make sense to pull the existing rough mixes apart and start completely from scratch, something I would do in most other mix scenarios. Instead I did something that I'd never done before at this early stage of the mixing process: I started at the end!

It must be amazing to hear music in your head so sudden and so complete like that. I can't even realize how that must be.

R280 Sometimes it's rather frustrating because you can't always translate it to auditory world right away.

I'll have whole scores running through my mind and then when I sit at the piano to try and articulate those pieces, I'm suddenly overwhelmed and don't know where to start, lol.

Other times, things just happen literally, as Tori says, "in one take". The feeling that washes over you when that happens is kin to an orgasm. Sometimes it's better, because it just all you.

*it's just all you

another journalist has heard the album and the songs he likes most are Reindeer King, Up the Creek, Climb, and Russia. says the album is "darker-toned, more ambient" than Unrepentant Geraldines.

New Tori time (like with new Jessica time) makes me all silly and nutty! I love it, lol. Especially after a glass of wine. Say hi to my boyfriend :) I've been painting around him all weekend so he's not a happy camper.

So, I'm drunk, at the beach, enjoying the summer breeze and post-noonday sun. I'm not sure if I posted this before, but oh well.

Anyway, this is an improve I've dedicated to Tori (tweeted it to her and everything, lol). So, yeah. When you can just sit at the piano and something like this just comes to you, it's magical.

I thank Tori for giving me the courage to find my own voice and to finally speak.

*improv

NEW TORI INTERVIEW!

Neil Gaiman called the album "breathtakingly good."

R288 It would be kind of devastating if her best friend called it anything else...

...but I have a feeling he's being honest! :)

New interview.

Production-wise, she compares the new record to "from the choirgirl hotel".

Okay. I am finally feeling that this may be awesome

Smoky Mountains?

Asking the universe to cocreate?

Choirgirl???

And my god I had a lump in my throat when she talked about her mom.

Its okay if Natashashanna-boombalacka is on a song or two.

I'm officially IN.

And prayers for Tori's mom.

My favorite album cover is the cover for Scarlet's Walk digital version.

God, R291 / R225, you are annoyingly adorable. I want your cock in me.

[quote]Its okay if Natashashanna-boombalacka is on a song or two.

You have such a Tash fetish, lol.

Q & A with Pitchfork.

omfg. "Up the Creek" is out and it's aaaammmmaaaaazing.

Link, R295? I can't find it anywhere online.

I'll type up the media file. Shhhh!

R297 what? Where?

Up the Creek

It's the best thing she's one with Tash, bar none. It's also one of the most galvanizing things she's done this millennium.

That piano breakdown is everything I live for from Tori.

It reminds me of a plantation song mashed with some 80's film score. I'm in love.

R299 File not found...

Is this a joke?

"Alas, the page you requested was not found. Probably something to do with a court order or something."

wtf. I promise it's real.

It's a rip from this vid, which is available for some.

R303 Well it's inaccessible.

Well.

www mediafire.com/file/n0pz03jgnv82ehg/Tori_Amos_-_Up_The_Creek_(Rip) mp3

Try that. You know what to do.

Let me know if it works, bitches. And say thank you!

R305 I just posted the mediafire link (modified, of course) @ R306. It looks like DL restricts links from mediafire or something. It redirects you to an error page that contains the original mediafire link as part of it's link. Just delete the excess shit and download the song.

Thank you! It works on my laptop but not my phone.

R310 Tell me what you think?

I can't believe I'm about to say this about a song featuring Tash, but I so fucking needed this.

Odd sound...it's like Siren mixed with Phonography by Britney Spears LOL

R312 Hell no. It's so much more than that. I just got a lump in my throat during the piano breakdown.

I feel her.

Tash's voice sounds highly processed...but it sounds like her voice is maturing and less little-girlish (as one would expect). I wonder how much her voice may end up sounding like her mother's when she is older. Tori's voice on "Baltimore" was very different than the one we know.

Anyway, the tempo and overall urgency of the song with percussion are really nice to hear from her. I can't wait to absorb the lyrics.

R314 Tash and Tori's voice blend beautifully here. She's definitely matured.

I love that you use the word "urgency" to describe this song. That's exactly what it feels like - urgent.

Holy FUCK, I love this! It sounds like Olivia Newton John's Twist Of Fate from 1983.

NashaTawshaee-yawn-a actually ADDED something to this song! It works!!

Very interesting and surprising.

R316 Daddy, you're home!

I see plantation workers working from sun up till sun down and then the galaxy explodes above them like the Aura Borealis.

I want to live in that piano breakdown forever.

I wasn't able to focus on hearing the lyrics yesterday. Here they are. Lyrically the song is a manifesto like Unrepentant Geraldines and Original Sinsuality. And it names Gaia. I hope this explicit, unabashed pagan language is threaded through every song. Between the album art and the lyrics, I really feel like this is her big coming-out as a shaman.

I like "Cloud Riders", but I love "Up the Creek"! It doesn't really sound like anything Tori's done before. Really excited for the album now. But God, that guitar. She just needs to tell her husband that he is the world's worst guitarist and have done with it. It's so frustrating to hear it drown out the awesome piano work at the end.

R321 Yeah, you or someone kept talking about the big piano bridge and I had to listen to it a few times to realize that oh, they're talking about the subtle piano riff under that loud guitar riff...

i'm familiar with turds because i shit them everyday.

R321 I disagree. In fact, that's why I think the track is so successful. Mark's wanking is tempered and the climax of the song - the piano breakdown - is enhanced by the fact that his contributions are interesting but muted. It's all bout her piano playing and those wonderfully rich and low bass notes.

A+

R323 No, you [bold]eat[/bold] them everyday which, now that I think of it, means that you practice cannibalism.

You get zero sympathy from me.

As it is, it is very good, I'm surprised how OK I'm with Tash's involvement. She hasn't sounded so vital as this for a while now.

It's up for everyone now. Better quality, too.

Another fan described his reaction this way. I fucking love the musical references, lol. Totally hear them in "Up the Creek".

[quote]The Pretty In Pink / Breakfast Club Soundtrack vibes got me bouncing all over this office!

one of two people are keeping this tread alive. sad...

R329 Oh Matthew, go focus on the Goyim or something.

Bitch, I'm like -

New interview with the BBC:

Review from Peeping Tommi:

Today I got access to the stream of 'Native Invader', including the two bonus tracks 'Upside Down 2' and 'Russia'. As I am writing this, I've heard the entire record twice (and 'Cloud Riders' and 'Up The Creek' a few more times of course). I'll try my best to give you all a song-by-song review. Please do not get too excited or disappointed: my ears are different than yours. My taste can be different than yours. So please do not pin me down on certain things I'll be saying below. I know some fan-reviews from the past are still haunting certain people after years, ha!

Reindeer King Beautiful opener, classic Tori. It starts a bit like 'Boys For Pele' with a certain 'windy' sound getting started. Then heavy piano comes in, before Tori starts singing. The structure of the song is not completely clear after one or two listens (which is the case with a lot of her songs), but I enjoyed every second of this track. Her vocals are mixed somewhat the same as 'Oysters' - in fact, the song reminded me of 'Oysters' quite a bit during the "Get you back to you" parts (it is somewhat similar to the "working my way back" part). Her vocals are sometimes doubled. There are light strings in the background and they add a really dark vibe to the song. And there's another odd sound running through the song - don't ask me what it is. Really dark, moody song. I'm quite sure most of you will really enjoy this one. And perhaps will have a laugh at the way she pronounced 'Scandinavia'. Only Tori, and we love her for it.

Wings This one is a great follow-up to 'Reindeer King'. It starts with a lovely, simple beat. Her vocals on top of that are pretty high, sort of like in 'America'. Once again, the structure of the song is hard to discover after the first few listens (at least to me). I can hear some keyboard in the background, but it's not upfront. There is guitar featured, but mostly it's the beat/rhythm that is present in this song. It has a nice melody and I love the parts "hurt you, hurt me" parts where there a nice reverb on her vocals. I truly cannot compare this song with any of her other songs. It's definitely a new sound for her. It's uplifting, yet a bit sad - and definitely one of those songs that will be a grower.

Broken Arrow The song starts with a typical guitar sound that a I cannot compare to something at this very moment. This guitar riff basically runs through the entire song. Tori's vocals are pretty low during the verses (which I very much enjoy), then during the chorus drums are added and you can hear the hammond organ in the background. The bridge features piano and had quite a lovely melody. After that, some real drums are definitely present and some kind of short jam session goes on with the guitar rif, the hammond, backing vocals and the real sounding drums. Don't get your hopes up too high when I say 'jam session', but it definitely sounds somewhat spontaneous.

Breakaway Just Tori and her Bösendorfer. It's a dark, moody song. It reminds me a bit of 'Darkest Hour' and 'Wild Way' and perhaps 'Indian Summer' (in a sense that it's very 'one and the same mood'). The lyrics are pretty straight forward for Tori ("So, when the story ends/ and the stage goes dark / and we all can hear / the writing on the wall"), but they work quite well. At first it didn't leave much of an impression, but now that I'm listening to it for the third time, it's quite beautiful. I think it's be a great song for her to play live.

Wildwood This one is really hard to describe, since once again it doesn't sound like any of her other songs to me. It starts with a lot of guitar and a simple beat. The verses remind me a bit of 'Rose Dover' in terms of how her vocals are mixed. They put a lot of work into the production of this one and I cannot quite wrap my head around what I am hearing. I am liking the vibe of this song - one of those tracks that is great to play while driving. I can hear some keyboard in the background, but it's mostly the vocals, guitars and drums that dominate this song.

Chocolate Song Starts with some digital sounds, then a simple keyboard intro. "I don't have to like the things you say sometimes", Tori sings in what some call her 'baby voice'. The pre-chorus reminds me a bit of the "you don't have to throw it all away" part from 'Rose Dover', but then with a beat present. The chorus is different sounding, with layered vocals that sound quite sensual. The second verse it pretty awesomely mixed if you ask me, then the typical 'band sound' kicks in that was present on some songs of 'Unrepentant Geraldines'. For some odd reason, this song (and more stuff on this album) reminded me of 'Rose Dover' in terms of production. Just to point it out: this is not a 'Giant Rolling Pin' type of song, but it might not everybody's cup of tea either.

Bang Alright, this one is quite awesome. Eventhough I think some people may have a problem with the production, I guess most will agree that this is a great track on its own - it grabs you immediately. It starts with a beat and heavy piano and low vocals. During the chorus a lot of guitar is added, but the melody of the chorus is great and sounds quite 'dangerous'. Then after the chorus, this beautiful part "So it blinded me / I had to shield my eyes" part comes, which is classic Tori. Towards the end, a lot of guitar is present, but the piano is definitely there and the song builds quite beautifully. To me, definitely a highlight. It doesn't sound as 'Code Red' at all, but it definitely is the 'Code Red' of the record, if you get what I mean.

Climb Another great song in my opinion. It starts with piano and Tori only, and it's one of those melodies that you think you have known for ages already, sort of like 'Job's Coffin'. Not that it sounds anything like that, but that song carries the same 'hey, I get this!' melody-quality if that makes any sense. Light acoustic guitar is added during the beautiful chorus with is somewhat choir-like singing: "all of me / wants to be / believe / that the angels will find me / Saint Veronica". During the second chorus, light drums are added. The melody of the bridge is quite lovely too. Some might find this a bit too snoozy, but I'm truly loving this. Definitely one of my personal early favorites because of the lovely melody.

Bats Alright, this one and 'Wildwood' are pretty hard to describe. There is quite a lot going on, sound wise. I can hear keyboards and/or piano, but also guitars and light drums. It seems like it starts with the chorus (which I can barely hear because of all the sounds and the way the vocals are mixed and doubled), then a verse, then the chorus again, then another verse. I'm sorry but this one is really hard to describe. Perhaps it's it a mixture of 'Rose Dover' and a faster version of 'Jamaica Inn'? Honestly, I have no clue to describe this. Definitely need to hear this one more often.

Tori has me feeling effervescent.

Benjamin Starts with computer bleeps and piano, then drum kick in (that sound somewhat remind me of the drums in 'Promise' but more heavy) and Tori starts singing "Benjamin…" in quite a catchy melody. It really sound a lot like a band-track, but I'm quite sure the drums are programmed. It's almost a song you can sing-a-long to in a certain way, since the melody is so catchy. I can hear the same Wurlitzer as in 'Bug A Martini' and I believe I also hear the hammond organ. It's quite a unique song, yet it's typically Tori - it's all over the place yet the melody is contagious. I'm loving the Bösendorfer.

Mary's Eyes Quite a beauty, but not really the song I expected perhaps. The song starts with strings and beautiful piano, then layers vocals asking "What's behind Mary's eyes?" before the first verse kicks in. The melody is beautiful, but I think you need to give the song a few listens before you discover the structure. It definitely reminds me of 'Reindeer King', so in a sense the album comes full circle. I think the lyrics speak for themselves and they make the song extra emotional. But to me, it's not a tearjerker like 'Gold Dust', 'Toast' or even 'Invisible Boy'. But don't get me wrong: it's a beauty and typically Tori. I definitely need to hear this one more often, though.

Upside Down 2 A typical Tori song. And to be honest: quite lovely to hear after listening to a heavily produced album, since it's just Tori and her piano. "Watch the boats go by…" she sings in the beginning. It's one of those lovely b-sides like 'Seaside' and 'Dixie' in a sense that it's short but lovely. And it's quite a moody, dark song again like 'Darkest Hour'.

Russia Starts with a Russian woman talking, then piano kicks in and honestly for a second it reminded me of 'Not The Red Baron'. The melody is dark, the piano is heavy and the melody of the chorus is amazing: "Is Stalin on your shoulder?" she sings if I'm not mistaken. And in the end, again you can hear the Russian woman talking with the piano over it - which is very 'Not The Red Baron'. To me, it's as good as 'Forest Of Glass' - not similar sounding, but it's one of those b-sides that makes you wonder why it is not on the actual record.

Russia sounds delicious. The whole album sounds as if it'll be a fun, intricate and poignant ride. Cannot wait.

Also, here are some demo clips of a few of the songs on "Iridescent", which I'm currently working on.

The songs heard are:

1. Hosea

2. The Man in the Chains

3. Calming the Storm

4. untitled

5. Judas

Sounds as if she should have put Russia on the track list and taken off Chocolate Song.

R344 Aside from the first single, she seems to talk most in interviews about Chocolate Song. Its message obviously means a lot to her. Her albums are always intensely personal. I think it's kind of funny that her fans feel they know better than she does what songs (her creations) belong on her albums (her creations).

I state this observation in full admission that I believe Forest of Glass should have been the central showcase of Unrepentant Geraldines. Hypocrisy and irony notwithstanding, Tori's nearly unique in that every single aspect of her music comes from her mind and her muses. The integrity of her music, whether others respond to it or not, depends on her stubbornness since 1995 or so in writing music and lyrics, singing, playing, collecting and ordering the songs and making calls on production elements of her albums. I respect that.

YANTA is incredibly fast. Here's his transcription of the piano part of Up the Creek.

R346 He's also incredibly hot. Gorgeous!

So Annie Clark (St VIncent) sorta confirmed she is the Annie in Cloud Riders

Hmm, She often says that they wanted her to take all the piano off Little Earthquakes and replace them with guitars, I guess her husband has finally persuaded her to do just that.

R349 Har har. The piano is as present as ever. She also said (after her most commercially successful early albums were behind her, beginning after the release of from the choirgirl hotel) that she wanted to integrate the piano into a full band seamlessly, not to make it an inferior player to the guitar, but also not to have to build all the instrumentation on top of the piano. She has said she wanted to be able to jam on equal terms with other musicians, and she found that with Matt and Jon. She probably feels she has found that with her husband, as well. Either way, she'll always make her own music on her own terms and so her fans may as well accept it.

The only guitar part of Up The Creek I do not like, is that last 30 seconds. If you could actually HEAR a cliche, this would be the version of a 1980's guitar sonic cliche.

Other than that, the song is way, way cool.

R351 I love the percussion mucho. I am not really fond of the Middle Eastern-Bollywood hybrid sound. But as always, credit to Tori for expanding her horizons and ours. The production is utterly unique for her, and it does not sound like anything from her box o' tricks. So Tash was right years ago: Mum can't retire cuz Mum still has a shitload of talent and ideas to share with the world.

I love the "desert sister" bit, it sounds like 90s Tori more than anything she has done since well....2000.

So, a journalist I chat with on twitter interviewed her a few days ago and asked her my question:

[bold]Will you consider doing a piano-only album?[/bold]

Her reply: I would, but it would have to have a strong visual component to it.

I'm so psyched! So, she's actually thought of doing a piano-only album already to the point where she's decided it needs to have a strong visual component. This should really be her next step. Strip everything down and just give us an album of Alamo's and Sister Named Desire's and Not the Red Baron's and Garlands' and Yes, Anastasia's please.

Also, [bold]from the choirgirl hotel[/bold] is being remastered and the reissue will definitely be out next year.

The interview should be published on PopMatters sometime next week.

I would love for her to make soundtrack for a ballet, just using piano only something like that. But not like TLP, something less theatrical. More like To the Fair Motormaids.

from the choirgirl hotel is my favorite Tori album so I'm so excited about the reissue.

THE PIANO HAS BEEN with me since 1994. She’s a Bösendorfer, a black beauty. I take her and another whenever I’m on tour. They’ve been my collaborators for over 20 years. In June of 2016, I started writing tracks for my new album, Native Invader, in the lyric book on the ledge. It traveled with me to a coffee shop in a little town in Florida and to the mountains of the Carolinas and Tennessee, where my mother’s people have lived for hundreds of years. My mother started to get very ill last year, and during that time we spoke a lot about my grandfather. Those conversations drove the record, and me. In the studio, when we put a mix down and it gets mastered, we light the candle on the left side of the piano to send the song into the world before other people hear it. The parasol is a reference to a joke: Like Mary Poppins, you can pull almost anything out of my handbag, but the one thing you’d better have, especially if you’re in England, is an umbrella.

The statue I call Bat Girl. I picked her up in Cornwall, where the studio is, in 1992. She wears the wires in the studio like a scarf, so she has a practical function, but she’s also the watcher. Next to her is honey for my tea; the honey is made by my piano tuner’s husband, who is a beekeeper. I’m not a smoker, but I love smoke, and burning the sage in the buffalo holder on the piano bench keeps my mind clear. The books—Robert Graves’s The Greek Myths and Joseph Campbell’s The Mythic Dimension—were pivotal research for the new record. Every album has its own references. Under those is a Pendleton blanket I’ve had for years. When my daughter, Tash, was a little girl she loved pink, so when I saw it in a shop in Oregon, it just spoke to me. That’s the key—trust your heart, and sometimes just pick something up. I got the figurines on the piano, the Zuni fetishes, years ago. They’re sometimes very cheeky. But the armadillo fellow makes things lighter for me when I’m dealing with tough subjects in my music. I hold him, and he makes me feel safe. And then we go on to the next song.”

—As told to Sara Morosi

Going all the way back to the 90s, I've heard her fans blabber about their dreams she'd return to her roots and do an instrumental album and tour with an orchestra! Well, she did that to brilliant effect and her fans shit all over it and didn't give it a chance or buy it. All they talked about was the cover art and what many felt was a silly story, without thinking about what she was doing with that story, which, again, is brilliant if you invest the time and energy. People say they want X from her, but really people just hang on hoping she will remake her first four albums, returning to the same youthful, angry state of mind and the same howling energetic voice. If she does a piano-only album, I expect it to sell about 20,000 copies.

Apparently it's more of a Mac Aladdin album featuring Tori Amos.

R357. That's unforumzed for you.

Personally, I rank NoH at #4.

R358 Relax. There are 5 piano/piano and string tracks.

Well, I feel a bit late to the party, but I finally got the album. I haven’t read any other reviews so I don’t know what has already been said, but I know some other people have already heard the album and discussed/described it.

Again as a point of reference: my favorite Tori album is Pele. Not a huge fan of her recent output (anything post Scarlet, I guess), but there are some gems here and there.

Reindeer King Gorgeous 7:06 track. It’s mostly piano but there are some echo’ey atmospheric sounds in the background and some strings. I feel like this is a pretty bold album openener. If this is what the whole album will sound like, I’m in.

Wings The beginning reminds me of Flavor a bit. There are some synths, the drums are definitely programmed, there’s Mac Aladdin guitar but it’s not too bad. The song is fine but it didn’t blow me away.

Broken Arrow Opens with wah-wah guitar, more Garage Band drums. But then towards the end it seems as if real drums were used (or the samples used for the programming are just more authentic sounding?)

Cloud Riders You’ve all heard this one. It’s fine, I guess.

Up The Creek You’ve heard this one too. I like the fact she tried to do something different. Tash being on it doesn’t bother me that much.

Breakaway Piano ballad. Fine.

Wildwood This track is a non stop Mac Aladdin self-indulgence fest. But the other 'layers' are rather pretty and dreamy. So I’m looking forward to hearing her play this solo live. That could be really awesome.

Chocolate Song I was really expecting ‘Programmable Soda part 2’ but it’s not a ‘silly song’. There are some sound effects that sound as if someone is trying to find an analog radio station. Rhodes. Lots of acoustic guitar. Garage Band beats. The verses are nice, I’m not crazy about the chorus. First track I didn’t play in full.

Bang Someone told me this was one of the more remarkable tracks. Personally, I don’t really hear it.

Climb The verses remind me of those evergreen songs from the 60s that I never got into. There is what sounds like a tambourine on it.

Bats Has percussion it, what do you call those big bongos? Acoustic guitar throughout. Sounds like Rhodes. Would be nice to hear a solo live version of this.

Benjamin This shortest track on the album at 2:43 (Russia is 2:44). Hammond. The first few seconds reminded me of Kate Bush’s Babooshka, but that faded quickly. At this point I’m pretty sure there are other sounds an electrical guitar could make, Mac Aladdin just chooses not to explore them. Skipped through this one.

Mary’s Eyes Has strings. Skipped through this one as well.

Upside Down 2 No relations. Pretty piano ballad.

Russia This is a pretty great piano track. Starts with a lo-fi sample, something that could be from an old Russian radio broadcast or something. Political song. ‘For those in Washington there is only one question: is Stalin on your shoulder?’ Namechecks album title.

Overal thoughts: My favorite tracks are the first and last ones. I guess Tori has permanently left the ‘alternative’ genre and will now always be MOR or Adult Contemporary. It’s almost as if you’re listening to a different artist who was influenced by pre-Scarlet Tori. The album seems more interesting than Unrepentant Geraldines, though. But as with UG, I don’t see myself listening to this at all, except probably Reindeer King. I think I should just stop getting my hopes up when Tori announces a new album. Her current output just doesn’t resonate with me anymore.

Ahhh! I'm conflicted. I need this album now!

R361. Pretty dreary review!!!!!!!!!! Ick.

Marcela-DeAlexandria, don't panic just yet little chicken!

This album may not SUCK totally! BUT JUST ALOT!!!!!

If everyone hates it, stay calm.

I was kind of getting excited after hearing Up The Creek, but it appears that my excitement was hasty.

And fuck R361 for ruining MY day! Between the events of this weekend, that little loony tune fella Mr. Kim Jong-Un, and this SHITTY review of Mac Aladdin Comes Alive, sorry, I meant Native Invader. I'm just pissed off!

And shit, this bitch R361 even skipped over Mary's Eyes!!! Cold bitch.

One thing that is becoming crystal clear, is that Reindeer King is going to be a Tori classic.

In my personal opinion, the last Tori song that really became a classic/standard was A Sorta Fairytale..

So I at least predict that for Reindeer King.

I'm personally excited to hear Bang and Reindeer King. And I am very curious about Chocolate Song.

Russia & Reindeer King seem to be the two that are going to be worth the wait.

At this point it seems clear that Mark has cemented himself in as a permanent and vocal player in "Tori Amos". Both Mary Ellen and Mark consider him to be an equal and important part of the musical outfit that is "Tori Amos".

There is no way anything on Night of Hunters came close to acoustic songs like Here, In My Head, Baker Baker , Cloud on my Tongue, Cooling even Ode to the Banana King.

And the Gold Dust version of Anastasia was deeply inferior to the original. Releasing Motormaids was by far the best thing she has done in 15 years.

R365- AGREED! And I keep forgetting about Russia.

R366- Totally agree about NOH (lovely record, but not even in the same league as those aformentioned songs..

And my god, Gold Dust (The record) was truly a disappointment to me. However, I really enjoyed Flavor and kinda dug Precious Things. I also thought that Marianne and Gold Dust (the song) were solid, but ultimately pointless. None of the songs exceeded the originals or added a different perspective., other than Flavor.

And Motormaids, is perfection.

That wistful piano in the beginning. And one of my favorite lyrics of all time:

And let's not forget that sea foam suit she put you in to see the greyhounds Sure they run real fast, faster than you ever could- or WILL.

I knew Reindeer King would be good just from the title and even if there is one truly awesome song, it'll be worth it.

But I am a bit disappointed because she seemed to become so relevant again in the mainstream music press, and if the new album is sub par it'll be a lost chance at a resurgence she deserved. I keep thinking how Up The Creek would sound via Boys for Pele production.

R368, like I told Marcus-Alphonsius- NO WORRIES

The album will NOT suck TOTALLY, but it will probably suck ALOT!!!

R363 I want you inside me.

Night of Hunters and the piano tracks from the UG era are the best things she's done this millennium.

That's all.

Actually, NoH and all of UG.

The lyrics for "Native Invader" are some of her best in years. Very Sylvia Plath; very reminiscent of Tori's earlier work.

I'm enthusiastic again. Tori is a genius and also emotionally compromised (e.g. plastic surgery, disassociation - The Dolls, TMJ, etc.), but she's pure of heart and a genius pianist.

I will always follow her. And, personally, I think this album will be better than Scarlet' s Walk through Abnormally Attracted to Sin. She plunged from the precipice already and made her way back with Night of Hunters, haters be fanned.

If you're still holding on to some feverish nightmare of what you think and know Tori Amos should be, it's time to move on, .

If you've stuck it out, g8ve the birch a chance to move you again

*damned

*give the bitch

Sleepy!

That intro to Motormaids does contain a lifetime.

From the last reviewer:

#245 dollsbitches dollsbitches is online now Senior Member

Join Date Jun 2010 Location Amsterdam Posts 1,267 Today I listened to about 2/3 of the album while walking to work (yesterday I was at the office and didn't have a lot of time).

I still think Reindeer King is brilliant. Breakaway reminded me of the verses Digital Ghost, but without the drums. Wildwood is really growing on me, I don't mind the acoustic guitar that much actually, and the Mac Aladdin signature electric guitar that always sounds the same, isn't not too upfront in the mix.

Who said the album was Choirgirl-esque and did they say why? Because I don't hear that at all.

Just for some perspective, this is what they wrote about Wildwood in their initial "review":

[quote]Wildwood This track is a non stop Mac Aladdin self-indulgence fest. But the other 'layers' are rather pretty and dreamy. So I’m looking forward to hearing her play this solo live. That could be really awesome.

You just never know, lol.

time for this thread to die.

R380 It will continue and there will be a Part 2 and 3 and so on.

Suck it up, buttercup.

well you need to find something else to do with your time, buttercup, than be the sole poster to this thread.

R382 But I'm not the only poster, cupcake.

I'm calling it now:

Night of Hunters/Sin Palabras

Unrepentant Geraldines

Native Invader ------------------

Scarlet's Walk through Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Even though I will -kind of- agree with the poster above who says there is one person posting on this thread, its actually probably myself, MarchettaAlexandria, and Maria from the Tori Groupies. So that's 3, BITCH!!!

Anyway, I agree, we have to give the birch a chance to move us again. And that birch, is Tori.

And I love how Marcus Welby Alexander calls Tori "emotionally compromised- i.e Plastic Surgery" I fucking rolled on the floor with that one!!!

My god, she just shouldn't have fucked with her eyes. Her eyes were hooded and so beautiful. The teeth at least look well shaped and nice. The absolutely no wrinkles is just disturbing. The only other person I know who has that taut, perfectly unwrinkled skin is Nicole Kidman. Tori has no expression lines and no laugh lines. Even when she talks- Its fucking CRAY. 54 years old this birch will be!!!!!!!

Ma - I'm on the DVD bitch - ria?

I never noticed before watching this video that her right eye is kind of tilted.

R385 i don't think she had anything done other than her eyes.

Tori' s face was always very still, hence no wrinkles.

R388 Oh yeah lol

She is a stunning natural beauty. No aging and no surgery will ever take that away.

And even more beautiful of a spirit.

FUCK ME! That face transformation thing was awesome. Total brow lift. My god, her eyes opened a good 1/4, 1/2 inch! That doctor lifted that shit up. My god she was so stunning in that 2003 photo- the eye difference is dramatic. Just look at the space between her eyebrows and eyes- Wow. I actually am fascinated by plastic surgery and this has nothing to do with Tori.

2002ish is also my favorite time period for her face. When shallow parentheses appeared at the sides of her mouth and her face lost a little of the baby-fat volume, she was just stunning. I think she was beautiful younger and still is now, but IMO 40ish was her prime.

R392 Her Native American ancestry was so visible then.

She's still a beauty and I still love her.

I remember when I first saw the cover for UG, I almost wept. She looked like herself again.

Uncut music mag in the uk..review of NI.

For most of its hour long run,Tori Amos' 15th studio album couches the political within the fantastical.These are worried protest songs populated by reindeer kings and cloud riders and they're no less persuasive for being so evasive. Musically, she remains a compelling shapeshifter,' Broken Arrow' sounds like a blaxploitation soundtrack, 'Bang' goes full prog, and 'Bats' refracts 70's soft rock through a Philip Glass prism. The more straightforward her statements the more awkward her songs become:'Russia' is not only the 17th track on this extremely long album but also the most obvious and therefore the least compelling. 6/10 Stephen Deusner

That lukewarm review's descriptions have me even more excited, lol.

R392- That picture is WHAT I"M TALKING ABOUT! What a stunner.

There is a horrific pic out there circa 2005 of Tori at a meet and greet and it does not even look like the same person as 392.

And yes, the work has really settled in a nice way. And I LOVE Tori's glasses that she wears. Makes her even cuter.

R398 the 2orst one is the one with her and Matt during TBK.

I uploaded the digital booklet.

The lyrics are amazing; the photographs are beautifully evocative.

She looks like herself ♡

Up the Creek lyric video is up.

The piano-centered tracks, i.e. solo piano and/or accompanied by acoustic guitar or synth and strings, are:

Reindeer King

Climb

Breakaway

Mary's Eyes

Upside Down 2

Russia

Songs with "piano breaks" are:

Up the Creek

Broken Arrow

🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹

I downloaded the booklet and only read the Reindeer King lyrics. Beautiful.

oh... you again....

R404 Forever and ever, bitch, echoing in your mind like a primal scream.

Reindeer King is out, and lovely.

I REALLY like what they did on this production wise, and the lyrics are really great.

It sounds like it is from a movie soundtrack-

To be honest, I'm pretty underwhelmed by Reindeer King, it's not a great as I thought it would be. All her songs since Night of Hunters kinda song the same, it's like Oysters and Flicker, the melody is so slight, she seems like she is really trying hard to fit the words into a barely there melody.

And the lyrics are rather weak too. I mean compared to her early stuff, I loved all the abstract impressionistic lyrics of early work, or even the way she could turn a phrase into something so interesting and thought provoking.

I'll listen to it again a couple of times and it might grow on me.

Really R407? I was -ever so slightly- disappointed because I had elevated it in my mind so much, but after 3 listens, I really, really love it. However, I thought of Flicker too! Its very glossy.

And you also noticed, what I noticed- that the song does not have a melody, it is kind of abstract and goes all over the place.

But now I cannot get the "I Have Come from The Reindeer King" part out of my head.

And for ONCE, I really LOVE her voice- They did something on the audio to give it a really rich and atmospheric sound (which Lana Del Rey excels at, and for real, live, she cannot sing for shit- LOVE her, but she really needs to get better live)

And I don't know if you care about live Tori, but I am all about LIVE Tori, and this song will be killer, live

But I feel everything you said, actually

It's not as bad as I thought, I feel it a bit more now.

You bitches are crazy.

Reindeer King is the best album opener since Spark.

Stunning.

Omg. The best fan review yet. This album is going to top even Scarlet's Walk.

____

This is after two full listens, straight through, and then skimming the songs to reference in the track-by-track below. It’s also a little stream of consciousness but I tried to talk about the songs themselves and the themes she addresses. My lightening reaction is this is Scarlet’s Walk taking another road trip, only this time she’s going backwards and seeing the threads of her relationships and the world itself unravel. It’s, and I hate how overused this word is, cohesive. That said, the melodies are not straightforward. In that way, it reminds me of a Joanna Newsom record… do not expect something like that, but think of nonlinear compositions. I'm enjoying it a lot, and I'm actually excited to hear it more and get to know it.

Track-by-track: Spoiler The Reindeer King Love the swelling intro. After a few listens, it’s reminding me more of something from Kate Bush’s 50 Words of Snow, mostly because of the atmosphere. Her voice is lower and it matches the songs intensity. Something in the background sounds Celtic? “I’ve just come from the reindeer king” reminds me of a Night of Hunters melody. “Gotta get you back to you” recalls “Oysters” in both the lyric and vocal production. Right after this, with the repeating “you”s you can hear that Celtic synth come in alongside the strings. The bass notes on the piano have a welcomed, booming low tone. I don’t think it’s possible to even comprehend the structure of this song without at least three or four listens. It’s so unmistakably her, and comforting. The bridge with the skating from Scandinavia to Jupiter line is majestic. It’s even more gorgeous she might usually use double vocals for a melody like this. Hearing her sing so passionately and vulnerable is shattering when paired with the lyrics. That last bit of reverb on her voice and sustained piano gives me chills. We’re in for a ride.

Wings Ok, there is a synth in this that I shit you not reminds me of something you might hear in a Carly Rae Jepsen song, or some kind of modern 80s pop songs. It reminds me of “I Remember” by Madonna. I hope others hear this when they listen. She pushes her upper register too high on the verse notes and the “hurt you, hurt me” bit. It works better during the latter, and the music and melody once again has this tropical 80s feel. It changes keys midway through the chorus and it’s really pretty. Especially during the “cuz sometimes big boys they need to cry” Maybe I should be referencing Y Kant Tori Read? Grower, probably won’t be a huge favorite.

Broken Arrow My gut reaction to the “wah wah” guitar, which sounds like something that could be used in a “That Guy” improv was my first, “uh oh.” The vocal production reminds me of Abnormally Attracted to Sin, I won’t lie, but not as compressed. Maybe more “Tombigbee.” The chorus rolls in with a straight up folk guitar. HOWEVER - this is the first instance of the album, I’m hearing the thread I think is most surprising: soulful, southern gospel. When the bridge comes in here, you’ll see exactly what I mean. It’s a hymn that sounds both church-like and patriotic. After that hits, it casts an entirely new light on the song, maybe even breaking the dam for this type of sound on the rest of the album.

Cloud Riders This song, in the context of the album, makes a MILLION times more sense. “Broken Arrow” bleeds perfectly into it and the forlorn, cowboy under the stars melody complements it. Think about the “we’ll be riding out this storm melody. ---> that is the kind of melody that thrives on this record.

Up The Creek Once again, hearing this alongside the rest of the album makes it a little less left-field, but it’s still worth repeating how brilliant a song like this is from her, in 2017. The strings and lyrics tie it to “The Reindeer King.” Also, including Tash on a song about something that will impact her more than Tori, and Tori being passionate about preserving that future, weaves the thread of family that’s in this album. Obsessed with the piano at the end. It’s produced perfectly.

Breakaway After the fullness of the other tracks, “Breakway” glides in like a falling leaf. No double vocals. Reminds me of “Selkie” at first. “So when the story ends and the stage goes dark” is fucking gorgeous. My first, excited thought was “Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s “Wicked LIttle Town!” There is something… adult contemporary about it, in a way? Maybe it’s the straightforward lyrics. It’s definitely not the sound. I got close tonight, but I have a feeling this will soundtrack a cry at some point. She pulls the last chorus down like one of those gym class parachutes, like the air is being released. A favorite.

Wildwood Dueling electric guitar and acoustic guitar anchor it. It’s percussive, but once again I think she’s using her higher register unnecessarily. She keeps bringing up the roadtrip that inspired this album, and this song could be a soundtrack to a stretch of nothing, causing you to think aimlessly. It’s not really a diss on it, and I’m hearing parts that remind me of “Crazy” in the way that it’s hazy and full of the rhodes

Chocolate Song Alright, so this is the one everybody is afraid of. A radio trying to be tuned opens it, which automatically makes it bizarre and more interesting than “Giant’s Rolling Pin” so relax. It helps explain the song; people on two different wavelengths. Her voice and how stripped it is with the keyboards serving 70s ballad. The chorus is reminding me of a playful Kate Bush song and I can’t place it. But yes, dig the radio sound in the verses. Percussive drums that wouldn’t sound out of place on “Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas.” When you focus on the “We used to be happy” line she repeats, it’s actually a pretty sad song? It bounces back and forth between playful and sad. The fact that it ends with a weak, defeated “we used to make happy” is a little devastating.

Bang More lower register. The “we are all made of stars” line made me smile. The chorus melody climbs until it reaches a really beautiful peak. “So bright it blinded me, I had to shield my eyes” has just the right amount of reverb to give it a space sound, and is sung over what I swear sounds like a harpsichord sample. Definitely a keyboard sample. The piano barrels back in to set the song on its initial medieval melody, rolling alongside an electric guitar. At 6:12, this is a mini epic in itself. “All I wanna be is a molecular machine” I really wish she used more lower register on this.

Climb Ok. Yes. Her voice made me melt on the opening verse. At first you think it could be “Promise” or “Selkie” from Unrepentant Geraldines, but it totally has “Playboy Mommy” vibes due to the gospel flavor. “All of me wants to be” has a high and low harmony that is so welcomed. For real, her voice gives me chills on this because of how it perfect it sounds. There’s a wisdom and optimism to it. The bridge is achingly gorgeous. The double vocals and harmonies are used perfectly here because they actually sound like angels.

Bats Percussive, shimmery. Harder to crack, a melody that kinda turns a few different corners, never quite getting to where I feel it should go. It’s kind of a sister song to “Wildwood” on this album, in that it sounds like a transit soundtrack.

Benjamin The droid sounds and Under the Pink piano is so jarring. But then it kind of becomes adorable? First impression was it could be on American Doll Posse, or potentially Scarlet’s Walk. I’m hearing the Beatles sound she seems to favor for these types of songs. Electric guitar really should exit through the back, but it’s not *that* offensive. In another era, this could be a really cute -side even? Need more time with it.

Mary’s Eyes Talk about the perfect bookend to “The Reindeer King,” and potentially my favorite song. So many rivers connect here. It has the atmosphere that’s been absent, and is just so incredibly moving knowing it’s about her mother. The way she begs for mother to remember the melody of “joy to the world”...the “patterns matern. String sequences together”... It’s hitting me that it’s totally her version of “The Coral Room” Pele fans, don’t freak out and I hope you’ll see what I mean, but it also reminds me of “Marianne.” it’s hard to explain, but I think it’s in the urgency of the song. She is working so hard to make her mother who she was. Seriously devastating.

… and like, that’s the album. I’m excited to listen more and definitely excited to read reactions. I bet we'll get a stream next week on NPR or something.

I was such a huge Tori fan for a long, long time and I still feel this tremendous sense of loyalty and indebtedness to her for helping me get through my teenage years (the 90s) and I reflexively buy all of her albums because of it and try and give them a fair listen, but I've struggled to appreciate a lot of her output the past fifteen years or so. For me, it started with Scarlet's Walk. It's a good album, but it was also the first album that heralded a shift away from her 90s ferocity and quirky dynamism and it seems like we've been getting variations on this "Scarlet" sound ever since. 'Reindeer King' is nice, but it kind of reminds me of a hybrid of "Garlands" and "Ruby Through the Looking Glass". I'm still missing the dramatic sonic shifts and boldly absurd, but evocative lyrics that she used to pepper her songs with. I want a "purple monkey" and a "velvet hologram" and "Ballerinas that have fins that you'll never find". But I digress...

R414 Where have you been for the last 6 years?

She's been done erased the atrocities of 2002-2009.

She's a fractured woman in her mid 50s and as brilliant and evocative as ever. Also struggling with some deep personal and familial issues.

How have you held up in the last 15 years?

Reindeer King is transcendent.

After repeated listens, I'm willing to go on record and call this her best since Scarlet's Walk. Different songs enter my mind throughout the day, which always happens when I'm genuinely infatuated with an album. Today's is "Benjamin," which I was initially just OK with but now I'm loving everything about it.

There will be issues people have with the production and guitars, just like there has been since American Doll Posse. However, this time, they don't ruin the record because the lyrics and melodies shine bright enough to deemphasize them.

This also feels like the most cohesive record she's done since Scarlet, too. There's a level quality control noticeably absent on ADP and AATS, and it's less varied stylistically than UG. It feels like a concentrated effort with the most unifying sound palette. Production-wise, she tried new things to give the songs better lows in terms of the bass, and atmosphere like you can hear on "Reindeer King."

I'm obsessed with "Climb." It's definitely a favorite and I'm so hoping to hear it at one of the shows I'm seeing. The tone of her voice on the verses feels so rich. The angels referenced in the lyrics as well as the overall vibe of the song ties it closely to "Playboy Mommy" in my opinion.

I've listened enough that I think I can even rank the songs. Here's how they're currently stacking up, but it's been fun to watch them move around:

Spoiler Reindeer King Climb Mary's Eyes Breakaway Bang Benjamin Up The Creek Cloud Riders Broken Arrow Bats Wildwood Chocolate Song Wings

Of course, all the piano heavy songs rank on top.

Love it.

Neil tweeted this a few days ago.

I cant wait to have some time to myself, a good joint in hand and this album.

Love her here! She looks great and is so light and vibrant.

What a difference from the zombie she had turned into by 2009.

Love.

New Stereogum interview.

We know a Tori Amos song when we hear it: the spellbinding piano, that unmistakable mezzo voice that calls out and draws us near, like a caretaker watching over and shepherding the pieces of us that get so easily lost in this world. “Got to get you back to you,” she sings simply, among more poetic lines, on single “Reindeer King”, and she makes you believe that’s possible – whether you’re staring out at a broken America or inward at your soul’s own wounds. Three singles in and Native Invader already feels like an album that’ll help us weather storms and reclaim what’s been lost. I can’t think of a better gift to the world right now than that. –Matt Melis

A snippet of T playing Breakaway from the new album. She was on fire.

Love what she's wearing. Totally old school (90's) with a twist.

Also, that fucking improvised intro is everything.

She premiered "Wings" here. It's starts at 27 minutes.

Very Madonna's "I'll Remember" meets Daft Punk's "The Game of Love" meets "Cool On Your Island"and "Floating City" from "Y Kant Tori Read".

Love it

No more stuff from the new album Marcus Welby Alexandria !!!! I want to wait until 9/8.

Its really creepy. Reindeer King has kind of slid down for me. Its a stunner but reminds me more and more of a movie soundtrack song.

For some fucking reason, after playing Cloud Riders in my car, it really has gotten into my head!!!!! Which I cannot fathom.

And Up The Creek still kicks ass.

Of all the things I expected to happen this year, Tori Amos releasing a remaster of Y KANT TORI READ (the week before releasing her new album, no less) ranked near the bottom. Not that I'm complaining.

R427 Listen, daddy. You're getting it all.

I've listened to all four songs plus the snippet of "Breakaway" (live) in my car and I'm going to tell you right now: this really is a road trip album. It benefits from being listened to on the move and/or whilst in natural surroundings.

I truly love it.

P S. I've decided to listen to it for the first time on a 20 mile bike ride come release day (Sept. 8).

I feel like I'll love working out to it.

"Breakaway", bitch.

This. Song. Is. Everything.

R428 Guess what? She released the YKTR remaster! It's on iTunes, Amazon, etc. right now.

Baby it burns to be your fire on the side!

I downloaded 4 of the YKTR songs. Good shit. Surprised it bombed. It was like a cross between Expose and Whitesnake. Overproduced but highly listenable.

i just took a big shit.

Thank you for joining us Bjork, R434!

Did you take the giant shit off of your BEAUTIFUL mountain while throwing car parts and cutlery?

I've heard the album. Her best since choirgirl/Venus in my opinion.

Present, alive, hopeful, bittersweet, cathartic.

Simply gorgeous and galvanizing.

MarkAlexis, R437 Your goddamned posts all sound the same at this point.

R438. I'm stunned by her return to form.

Night of Hunters, Unrepentant Geraldines and now Native Invader are the best things she's done this century, topping Scarlet's Walk by A LOT.

Current Ranking:

Pele

Pink

Earthquakes

Hunters

Invader

choirgirl

Geraldine

Venus

Girls

Scarlet's

Graces

The rest.

^*Geraldines

"Benjamin " just debuted on a German radio station.

Sublime. Total Kate Bush "The Kick Inside" vibes.

A little "Lionheart", too.

The production is terrible. It sounds like it was recorded using free software downloaded to a 2010 smart phone

R443 Chill out. You haven't heard the album proper so you're wrong.

This album has slayed, resurrected and made me ascend to the high heavens.

I simply can't.

It's her best album of original music since from the choirgirl hotel I'm not jumping the gun. I'm not delirious or over enthused. The realization struck me like a lightning bolt.

Everything she has worked on of real worth during the last century - from Strange Little Girls to Scarlet's Walk to The Bonn Song to Midwinter Graces to Night of Hunters to Unrepentant Geraldines to The Light Princess - has coalesced effortlessly and beautifully here. If I had to use one word to describe this album, I'd use piercing.

It's a piercing album; a sharp and concise sonic tour de force brimming with mourning, resilience and hope.

Note: The b-sides are inextricably a part of this album.

Might I add, Mark's guitar and production contributions are stunning here. Subtle, atmospheric, never overpowering and always surprising.

After years of rolling my eyes at the mere thought of hearing about his gee-tar contributions on any given song, I am shocked at how much I love his work here.

Brava, Mark "Mac Aladdin" Hawley! Mark-Alexis B. is online now Add to Mark-Alexis B.'s Reputation Report Post tEdit/Delete Message Reply With Quote Multi-Quote This Message Quick reply to this message

Review by Neil Z. Yeung A decade after the release of her most politically outspoken album, a reinvigorated Tori Amos once again takes aim at the state of the world on her 15th album, Native Invader. One of Amos' tightest and most digestible efforts, it's a standout in her late-era catalog, featuring instant classics like the epic "Reindeer King" and the surprising thrill "Up the Creek." Much like spiritual sisters American Doll Posse and Scarlet's Walk, Native Invader was influenced by political turmoil on American soil; this time, following the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. However, instead of directing her barbs at an obvious target like she did on "Yo George," she veers her attention toward nature and the land. On the smoky "Broken Arrow," Amos is defiant and persistent, calling out the elected in Washington by asking "Are we emancipators or oppressors/Of Lady Liberty?" before warning that "we the people...will be watching over you." On the urgent, onomatopoeic "Bang," she conjures the elements in a pro-immigrant proclamation that reminds listeners that -- no matter which country they're from -- we're all "molecular machines" made of the same star stuff. At the dramatic close, Amos runs through a list of elements in an updated "Datura" of the periodic table. It's a wild and inspired moment sure to please fans of the singer's eccentricities. The undulating "Bats" invokes mythical water beings to help "fight to save the fate of our waves," while "Benjamin" holds nothing back, branding the fossil fuel industry and "the men on the hill" as "those pimps in Washington...selling the rape of America." When Amos steps aside from the sociopolitical, she returns listeners to another kind of turmoil: relationship drama. Like on Unrepentant Geraldines and Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Amos' marriage to husband Mark Hawley is examined in raw detail on songs like "Wings," "Breakaway," and "Chocolate Song," where she laments "we used to be happy." Hawley's guitar also plays an important role on the album -- like on American Doll Posse -- whether it's the wah-wah on "Broken Arrow" or the sprawling solo on the yearning "Wildwood." Romantic heartbreak aside, the most devastating personal moment arrives on "Mary's Eyes," about Amos' mother, who was left unable to communicate after a stroke. After singing so many songs about saving Mother Nature, in the end, she simply wants to save her own. It's a heartbreaking plea that expands on the sentiments from "The Beekeeper" and closes the album on a somber note. Native Invader stands tall with its own vital voice and energy, alluding to beloved touchstones from throughout Amos' oeuvre while remaining fully of its time.

On June 28, 1996, Tori Amos performed to a sold-out Greek Theatre in Los Angeles months after the release of her third album, Boys for Pele. To have been lucky enough to occupy space in the nosebleeds of that theatre, listening to Amos perform evergreen songs like “Blood Roses” and “Horses” was the closest thing to a religious experience most people could ever hope to have. This particular time in music history brought with it the heyday of Winona Ryder, Janeane Garofalo, My So Called Life, MTV’s 120 Minutes, and grunge. That much cool shit happening all at the same time created a bubble that will never be popped by any generation to follow, and I’m not just saying this because I was there for all of it. On September 8, 2017, Amos releases her 15th album, Native Invader, and from the first note to the last it fills you with circa-1996 Tori elation. Not even drugs, sex, or eternal youth can beat the feeling of having your heart soar from music, and this artist can serve that up better than most. She takes you to church the way only a preacher’s daughter can, and that’s a gift from God if there ever was one.

Native Invader is one more indelible notch in her trusty piano. The seeds for the new songs were planted during a trip Amos took to the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, where her mother is from. The rejuvenating inspiration she took away from that trip was later infused with fearful sadness when her mom, Maryellen, had a terrible stroke that robbed her of her ability to communicate. From this point, Amos was guided by the need to not only face the reality of our new political climate head on via pointed lyrics like “Bang/ The world now traumatized/ By a cluster of hostile humans who side with their warlords of hate,” on the track “Bang”, but also to say what needs to be said for those who find themselves unable, or unwilling, to do it for themselves. Amos doesn’t mince words on this new album. She’s pissed, and she’s heartbroken — a combination that’s the perfect catalyst for getting out there and making a difference in the world in any way possible. The difference she is making with Native Invader is a straightforward serving (spoon, plop, plate) of emotive reality. Shit is fucked. It’s okay to feel something about that.

(cont'd)

Consequence of Sound (cont'd):

It would be difficult for an artist to release an album now and have it not be political in some way, unless they tried super hard to avoid the topic all together by just straight-up singing about shoes or something. Native Invader makes no moves to mask the meaning behind lyrics like “A theatre of war the frame/ Inner conflicts now reign their intent/ Division till there is no side to take,” from the track “Breakaway”. The orange clown currently staining up the White House (when he’s there), who Amos referred to as “master showman” in a recent interview with Huffington Post, isn’t mentioned by name on the album, but he’s a frequent topic for sure. On the track “Chocolate Song”, chocolate being a thing that many have found themselves clinging to for comfort since November 8, 2016, she sings: “And I hear your pain screaming/ And I hear your pain in the silent evenings/ We used to be happy.” Remember what it felt like to not be embarrassed of your country or fuming mad at relatives for voting us into this situation? This song is for those moments of contemplation, remembering healthy minds, healthy hearts, and healthy relationships, unburdened (or less so) by political shittery.

The strength of this album, and the 14 that precede it, is the immense healing and soothing found in the sheer beauty of Amos’ vocal delivery. To just sit and let her voice wash over you, floating you away to a nicer part of the pool, is very much welcome right now. Prime examples of her ability to do that on Native Invader are “Climb”, which has a certain Under the Pink salty and sweet quality, “Reindeer King”, with its room-filling piano, reminiscent of “Precious Things”, and “Up the Creek”, in which she’s joined on vocals by her 16-year-old daughter, Tash. The heartbreaker of the album, in its own specific way, goes to “Mary’s Eyes”, a peace prayer for the singer’s own mother. “Hymns for us to sing/ She’s a believer/ Hymns locked in her memory/ I’m a believer they’re the key,” Amos sings on the track, wringing every last bit of love and hopefulness into the words, like you would a rag soaked in cool water, dripping into the open mouth of someone who hasn’t had a drop in days. Amos has said in interviews, including one with Consequence of Sound, that Native Invader isn’t the album she set out to make, as life and tragedy steered her towards new inspirations, but it’s definitely the album we needed.

Essential Tracks: “Reindeer King”, “Up the Creek”, “Climb”, and “Mary’s Eyes

It’s always hard to know what to expect with a new Tori Amos album. Early in her solo career, label executives attempted to neatly pigeonhole her as the “girl with a piano”—perhaps a female corollary to Elton John, they mused. Over her long and resilient tenure, though, Amos has patently refused to conform to the expectations imposed on her. 1996’s Boys for Pele found her repurposing the harpsichord as a rock instrument while channeling rage, heartbreak, and trauma, confounding some listeners even in more alternative spheres. Just a few years later, she would begin dabbling in electronica with From the Choirgirl Hotel and To Venus and Back, and in the decades since has experimented with everything from glam rock to classical music. While she never abandoned her deep connection with the piano, Amos has long refused to subscribe to the narrow, docile conception of femininity expected by those who would have her simply churning out lovely ballads (though Amos is a master of these, too, when the occasion demands it). If each album has represented a seismic leap into different sonic territories, it has been in the service of disrupting restrictive norms of gender and sexuality as much as genre. Native Invader, Amos’s 15th studio album, is the continuation of a relatively new era in her career, kicked off by 2014’s Unrepentant Geraldines. Featuring a breezy palette of ‘70s-inflected soft rock, this era has found Amos in a mellower, reflective mood even as she continues her campaign against the patriarchy, climate change, and, more recently, Donald Trump. Her songwriting and album planning have tightened as well. Gone are the days of 18-, 19-, or 24-track Tori Amos records, as Native Invader instead sits at a comparatively succinct 13. Not to mention that the album is among her most cogent and inspired releases of the past decade. Guitars abound on the record, courtesy of Amos’s husband and sound engineer Mark Hawley, often credited as “Mac Aladdin”. Based on past experiences, this could have been a cause for concern: Hawley’s style can be pretty kitschy, and many an Amos track has been tainted by his excessive noodling. As on Geraldines, however, Hawley mostly proves an asset on Native Invader. Take the lead single “Cloud Riders”, for instance: the guitar lends the song an easy, summery vibe that supports Amos’s comforting vocals, such that she sounds entirely believable when insisting, “we’ll be riding out this storm”.

(cont'd)

PopMatters (cont'd)

The vulnerable, emotive rock ballad “Wildwood” also benefits from the veil of fuzz softly distorting his playing, though as always it is Amos herself that lends the song its plaintive, yearning power. And of course, not everything Mac Aladdin has to offer is particularly welcome: “Broken Arrow” may be a humid, moody, organ-driven affair at its core, but these attributes are very nearly eclipsed by his abuse of a wah-wah pedal. Amos has also taken to regularly featuring her daughter, Tash, on each record since 2011’s Night of Hunters. Their duet here, “Up the Creek”, is by far their best collaboration yet. For perhaps the first time, Tash’s appearance does not feel forced or tacked on, and her vocals blend gorgeously with the song’s folktronica pulse. In yet another head-turning moment, “Up the Creek” also features a gospel tinge around its edges. Amos borrows a favorite saying of her Cherokee grandfather, “Good lord willing and the creek don’t rise”, repurposing it to describe the threat posed by climate change and its deniers.

Though many songs on Native Invader have the soft rock sheen of a Fleetwood Mac album, at its heart are several piano-driven numbers of the kind Amos has always excelled at. Two of these are bookends on the record: on the seven-minute “Reindeer King”, Amos’s crystalline voice echoes as if through an icy cavern, her piano alternating between pristine keys in the upper register and deep, foreboding bass notes, like tides dredged up from the deep sea. The whole experience is mystical and enchanting, and though she evokes “numb, unbearable thoughts”, as the song swells it becomes apparent as an instrument of healing. At the other end of the album is the finale “Mary’s Eyes”, written about Amos’s mother, recently the victim of a severe stroke. A spare, complex, classical-tinted piece along the lines of 1994’s Under the Pink, the song once again lets the piano do the real talking. Sitting at the intersection of love and worry, “Mary’s Eyes” lucidly evokes the nervous desperation of sitting outside a hospital room, waiting for news.

Nestled in between is “Climb”, another ballad and one of the most poignant offerings here. Amos adopts a wide-angle lens to examine the suffering and persecution intrinsic to growing up and growing into “the woman you’ll become”, as if imparting wisdom to a younger soul. Bearing the same stoic weariness that she brought to Tom Waits’ “Time”, which she covered live on David Letterman in the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks, “Climb” is deeply personal and emotional without ever being sentimental. In the most memorable line of the whole record, Amos sings: “Only when you’re whole can you forgive / But it’s a long, long climb”. Coming from the woman who wrote “Me and a Gun”, this is pretty devastating material. Over the course of her unpredictable career, Amos has shed many fans who refused to tolerate her wild vicissitudes. She regards her songs as independent entities requiring their own unique treatment, which has at times led her to make all sorts of unusual decisions about how to dress them up. Running through her entire catalogue, however, is a common thread addressing the ways gender, sexuality, politics, spirituality, and trauma intersect to shape our lives. Native Invader is the continuation of a relatively new chapter in her career, treating these familiar concerns with a subtlety, restraint, and poignancy that was sometimes missing in the period following 2002’s Scarlet’s Walk. Those who have strayed away, or who are unfamiliar with Amos’s music, would do well to sit with this album. Amos may never again sound the way she did in the ‘90s, nor should she feel the need to. She confidently wields her status as a veteran rock performer, dispensing wisdom and evoking complex, unspeakable emotions with inimitable skill.

R453 Why not just post the link instead of multiple posts to accommodate long reviews?

Anyway, I'm excited to hear it tomorrow. It seems like everyone else somehow has got ahold of the whole album by now, and they've been teasing it for a long time. About time September 8 arrives!

R454 Because I want everyone to read the praise immediately.

Why does Strange Little Girls get so much hate?

Drowned in Sound gives it a 9 and calls it "genius".

[QUOTE]What you’re about to read is a positive review of Tori Amos’ latest album Native Invader. It’s the first time since her last masterpiece, Scarlet’s Walk that you'll have read one like this. But I’m delighted to say: it’s happening again. Tori Amos is well and truly back on her bullshit. What I’m reviewing is a work of genius, and should as any work of genius, be treated critically and thoughtfully - which I have. But I can’t do so without some preamble first.

Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Florida Age: 36 Posts: 505 Rep Power: 335 Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush!Mark-Alexis B. has a reputation close to that of Kate Bush! Default Album Ranking I'm this confident.

1. Pele

2. Pink

3. Earthquakes

4. Invader

5. Hunters

6. choirgirl

7. Geraldines

8. Venus

9. Girls

10. Scarlet's

The rest.

A perfect Top 10 list. Every album is utter perfection.

Oh shot, copied my forum rep stats by mistake while copying my ranking, lol.

Jesus Christ Mark Alexis- CHILL THE FUCK OUT

Its a little much, you basically are 90% of the posts here- Let some other people post. Its like reading someone's journal here.

R460 Then post, cunt.

Lol!

Numb unbearable thoughts you inner need fire not lost.

R463 ::::sob:::::

The album is here!

I'm excited to hear the album, She has been getting a lot more press than usual. esp. fro media out lets the in the past have ignored her. I think Pele was 20 years before its time and most people are only catching up to it now and realizing what a work of breathtaking genius it is. So giving her the credit she deserves.

1. Pele / Choi girl (They share top spot)

2. Venus

3. Pink

4. Earthquakes

5. Scarlet

6. Midwinter

7. SLG

8. Y Kant Tori Read

9. Librarian (4 Snow Sherries)

The rest.

Well, I decided to start by listening to 3 songs that got middling reviews prior to the release-

Bats, Benjamin, and Broken Arrow....

Well, I really, really like them! Broken Arrow is killer to me, despite some trite lyrics.

The production of this album has NOT failed Tori!! Like the last 3 albums. And I LOVE SCARLET, but wasn't even into the production on that one.

I am really impressed, and it has been a long time.

And Broken Arrow has some hardcore porn guitar courtesy of Mark.

And I like it!!!

I don't know why she tries to make her lyrics so decipherable now, before she just had created her own language like Kristin Hersh has. Hersh never let that language go and still uses it to the continuing success of her music, but Tori's lyrics seem to be much weaker now.

If you take say Hersh, Amos, Harvey and Bjork, for me Hersh is the only artist who's music never dropped below a certain level while all the others did. Bjork came back with Vulnicura, Harvey's 4 English and war correspondent albums haven't really compared to her 90s work, like Amos, but this new album might take Amos closer to that point where her albums was wondrous. I mean it's not there, it's still a good distance away but it's the best album she has made in 15 years.

Okay, I must say that I despise Chocolate Song and I am not feeling Wildwood yet.

And there is another song that got raves, that I am extremely disappointed by, but don't want share that yet. I suspect that it is a grower.....

It appears so far that the songs that most are not feeling, I like the MOST!!!

Bats is HOT.

I love Bang immediately. I haven't had a lot of time to take in the music yet. I find it fascinating that this album deals with our horrible political environment through the lens of climate change and natural disasters, and it came out during two massive hurricanes, an earthquake, wildfires, floods. I think she's a prophet. I honestly do.

I think she could have snarled her teeth a little more. It lacks intensity and 60% of the lyrics are terrible, but over all it's good.

I'd give it 7 out of 10.

R472 It's deeper, more intense and more intricate than you can handle.

What is your favorite album of hers, anyway?

You tangential cunts.

How dare you come with your validated insecurities to the throne of Tori Amos to demand?

Bastards!

I'm hoping all of these posts are not Mark Alexis talking to himself.

Anyway, Its a solid album with some great production (it has been a LONG time)

My one real disappointment was with Climb. The most beautiful 30 seconds at the beginning but the song never takes off, which is sad because the lyrics are wonderful. And that first 30 seconds is heartbreakingly beautiful.

The standouts for me are not really the ones I expected- Bats, Benjamin, Bang, and Broken Arrow!! Very odd and I am surprised!

Cloud Riders has completely grown on me and charmed me , I actually sing it in my car! Up The Creek is awesome. Reindeer King is a classic however it is too much like a movie soundtrack song- It is almost TOO beautiful.

Chocolate Song is HORRIBLE. Oh my god... Wildwood I am not feeling at all yet, but it could grow. Not feeling Wings. Breakaway is solid.

The BEST song on the album is Mary's Eyes. Wow. What a perfect ending. It is hopeful, yet sad. It has a mysteriousness to it that I did not expect. It really reminds me of death in all of the beautiful and sad ways. It ends the album with a sense of infinite possibility AND finality. And it is beautifully produced and I love the lyrics. I hope Mary Ellen will someday speak again.

R472 She's not fueled by anger anymore. This whole album is about healing spirits, souls and Earth. Snarling is not healing.

R475 I thought Reindeer King's chorus was a little self-help-y but then I came to believe the whole song is really about Mary, and that changed everything. The Beekeeper (song) involved Tori begging a soul-keeper for more time with her mother, and I think Reindeer King is a similar sort of journey.

I really love Bang. It is so good. I love Tori's elemental songs!

Rolling Stone

4/5 stars

Few artists are as deft as Tori Amos at writing about the ways people process pain. In these times of national trauma, then, a new LP from her feels uniquely urgent. Amos confronts the Trump era most effectively with "Broken Arrow" and "Up the Creek," darkly funky protests against white supremacy and climate ignorance. Elsewhere, she rolls through psychedelia ("Wildwood"), chilled-out trip-hop ("Wings") and her trademark passionate piano ballads ("Bang," "Mary's Eyes"), scattering political allusions like seed pearls. It adds up to one of the most purposeful full-length statements in her quarter-century career.

This album is so cathartic and healing.

The pinnacle of the album for me is Benjamin and the segue into Mary's Eyes- Its fucking magic. I love Benjamin and Mary's Eyes the most.

Bang kicks ass and Wildwood is a grower- it will be an awesome few glasses of wine tune.

The only misses for me are Wings and that fucking Chocolate Song.

Climb has the best lyrics on the record. Love that first 30 seconds or so, the rest is a little light- but the song's beauty cannot be denied.

Its a really evocative piece of work. Tons of hope running through it, but it makes it clear that we have really fucked things up.

And the Smokey Mountains REALLY shine through here- You can feel the Carolina vibe in a big way.

Its quite a good album.

This album could have been awesome had she had some outside help. I keep thunk how it would sound had John Parish produced it. His studio is in bath, not a long trip from Cornwall. The main problem with Tori is that she has totally cocooned herself away from outside musical input it is now detrimental to her artistic vision.

Working with Paulina Otylie Surys on the visual resulted he her best album artwork since Scarlet since she was able and strong enough to talk Tori out of her usual chicken holding shit. Another producer would maybe also able to advise Tori in another interesting direction.

It's also amazing during workouts and road trips. I've already done both listening to it

"Climb" slaughters me.

Really, I have yet to grasp the entire album even after like 15 listens, lol. It's just so big, the scope of what she tackles and covers here. How the political can get so personal and worse yet, how the personal can get political.

Also, her structuring hasn't been this good since choirgirl. Every song moves and shifts in unexpected ways. They're iridescent as is the whole album. I'm still surprised by it.

I wouldn't change a note. Everything about this album and era is perfection.

Again, "Climb".

Why do the opening notes of "Chocolate Song" make me choke up?

Also, I here a little Bjork / Homogenic when she sings "We used to be happy".

I don't know, maybe her early was just so extraordinary people continue to judge her work so harshly all the time. I guess when you first 4 albums are masterpieces people judge all your work against those masterworks, which is unfair, is have a constant output like that is just not sustainable for any artist.

"This album could have been..."

Can we please agree not to post anything that begins with those words? The album exists: none of us can re-produce it. Art is art, and Tori Amos is a musical artist in a true sense, not entirely but largely unmotivated and unaffected by industry profit motives and trends. She makes her art on her own terms. Is there any point in saying "Van Gogh could have sold a lot of paintings if he had painted what Picasso painted"? No, there is no point in saying that because that is preposterous. Anyone who believes they know better should forgo retrospective recreation of someone else's art and go make his own art. Invest your energy in making art instead of denigrating other people's visions and suggesting your criticisms would improve someone else's actual efforts.

Post one of two. See attached early Picasso painting.

R486 So true.

I simply can't understand how any longtime Tori fan doesn't get this album.

It kicks Scarlet's Walk's ads.

*ass

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R481- For once, I don't agree with that!! I have been saying all along that Tori needs to hire Lana Del Rey's producers. I have been tired of Tori's production SINCE Scarlet's Walk (love the album, not the production very much). I totally get what you are saying (an agree) but..

This album? LOVE IT. Her voice is produced with a much richer and fuller tone, the electronic effects on the songs are just right, Mark's guitar-MOSTLY, just right.

This album's landscape really speaks to me, and I have not felt that for her records since Scarlet.

This album for me is totally Scarlet's Walk meets Choirgirl. With best qualities of each.

I give it a solid 6.9/10

And again, I am just giving this Benjamin into Mary's Eyes vibe. Its young meets old.

And I do agree about the road trip vibe of this album. I listened to it in its entirety while walking on my beach route today here in New England, and it was pretty trippy and wonderful. There's some magic in this work I think.

And I have been extremely critical of Tori's records.

And I need to second the mastering aspect of this. The flow of the songs is impeccable. Its a story.

Upside Down 2, when she sings "everything is falling down" - Gah!

My only issue with this era is the title of that song. She should've called it "Falling Down".

Both b-sides are beautiful and haunting.

Also, they used the same vocal microphone they used to record her vocals for Boys for Pele for this album because her other one was ruined.

I love knowing that and I think it makes a BIG difference. She sounds so present and you can hear her breaths and other little vocal details.

R491 But why 6.9? Your post sounds like an 8, at the very least.

I say 6.9 because as usual I just feel that Tori could have pushed some of the songs harder- Climb, and yes, even Bang.

There is always this contentment in them where I just wish she would PUSH THE BOUNDARIES a little more.

And its not me comparing current Tori to Pele Tori, I just like a harder edge on occasion.

Broken Arrow has that hot organ underneath it, I like more layers..

And Chocolate Song is so bad that the album loses 1.5 points for that atrocity alone.

What the fuck is it? Luxurious Satiny Chocolate- What a clunker.

I'm like, listen Tor, all marriages have their ups and downs, but can we use some different metaphors next time? Wild Way was much better.

And also, that particular song is SO out of place on the record. Sore thumb.

Sorry for the bitchiness. Regardless, it is a truly good piece of work. She should be proud. And Mark too!

Hot organ underneath it? That sounds horrible. Perhaps I wrote Chocolate Song? What a horrible use of words. Sorry!

R496 I completely disagree. I find it strange, poignant and sweet. Based on the title and lyrics, I thought I'd hate this one for sure. Also, it echoes "Wings" ever so slightly and feels like the resolution to that song.

As for "pushing the boundaries", you'd have to define that for me to respond properly. I think at 54 and with a myriad health issues, she's doing wonderful work.

R497 Why would you have prejudged it based on the title? Doughnut Song is one of her most beautiful.

R497 Thanks for standing up for her. She just said in The Guardian that she's been going through the worst of menopause in recent years. She has said for a long time she has excruciating TMJ that affects her singing and she appears to have had macillofacial work to address that. Her mother has been in a coma all year. She's in her mid-50s and has to sing every night on tour after a lifetime of singing. And people expect her to belt will the full voice of a 25 year old for two and a half hours every night and maintain a churning furnace of rage throughout her entire lifetime for the sake of making music that's cathartic to them. Fuck them. As I said before, if that's the music you want then make that music. This is the music she makes now.

R498 I'm listening to it now, funny enough. Those opening notes just ache. I love the Satiny Luscious Chocalate bit. It's a song to sway to.

As for the title, I just got so accustomed to some of her ridiculous shit over the years and I thought, ok, every album (except Night of Hunters, of course) has had a really bad song on it for the last decade and a half. That's not going to change, I thought, and this is it, lol. I remember before Geraldines was released, researching "Giant's Rolling Pin" and finding out about the use of the title for certain clouds (see below). I was so sure it was going to be a badass piano track. Something like Reindeer King. Imagine my shock and horror, lol.

I am floored by Chocolate Song, though. The song really moves in so many beautiful ways.

Tori said in a recent interview that she does NOT discuss sex with her daughter and never will. "That's not how I mother." That's the most surprising thing she has said in a long time because who would ever expect her to be bashful about such a thing? But on so many albums she has discussed how we all have diifferent aspects, even different personalities, and she said in that same interview that Tori the artist is not the same person as Tori the mother. Tori the mother and daughter and wife gives us Ribbons Undone and Chocolate Song and Toast and Gold Dust and Pink and Glitter--sentimental, unabashedly sappy songs. They're not all great but again this Tori Amos person inside the persona is beloved because of her open vulnerability and multifaceted humanity, for better and worse. Taken in sum over her career she has really painted an incredible self-portrait and as she would say "soul blueprint."

"Chocolate Song" and "Gold Dust" are not sappy, lol.

Also, the lyrics to CS are pretty deep and do connect to the "hate" lyrics in "Wings":

I don’t have to like the things you say sometimes then I don’t like the things I say now vows and consonants our weaponry we vowed to love eternally and I hear you pain screaming and I hear your pain in the silent evenings we used to be happy we used to make happy on the stove on our own satiny luscious chocolate I don’t hate you I don’t hate you satiny luscious chocolate no, I need to be more like you within the tension of your opposites somehow the lingering sweetness without betraying your bitterness I don’t hate you I don’t hate you I don’t have to like swinging from extremes the lows so low the highs so high from throwing knives to dessert stirring our tight rope act just balancing then I hear your pain screaming at me hear your pain screaming we used used to be we used to make happy we used to make make happy satiny luscious chocolate hear your pain screaming we used to make happy in a cauldron on our stove we used to make happy

R502 "Vows and consonants our weaponry" and "you must out-create." I was hoping she would find a way to repackage her ideas from Night of Hunters in a sound that's more palatable to most people than the fanciful classical format, and SHE DID!! I love her.

R503 Good catch!

"Mary's Eyes" is so stream of consciousness.

I see jades and emeralds and green, green with golden punctuations and blue skies.

Her best album closer since choirgirl for sure.

That "patterns matter" section is so buoyant.

I say John Parish because he really draws in that desolate Americana so well. Remember that bit in Cornflake girl, the spaghetti western whistle, (which is one of may favorite moments in a Tori song). I think Tori's work would sound so well set in a sorta Ennio Maccaroni sonic sound scape. For an artist so enveloped in America she has never really explored the Americana sound, I'd like her to try a dark Gothic Alt-Country album, the Beatles whispers Mark's so attuned to seem old by now.

I totally agree, r506. That type of spooky, gonzo western Americana sound would be awesome and would have been appropriate for something like 'Scarlet's Walk'. She did Southern swampy so well on 'Boys for Pele' that the album actually feels humid. I definitely think her music could potentially benefit from working with new producers. She's done ethereal for a long time now where her vocals sort of float and reverb over the music, but I kind of miss her earthy and raw voice that used to interrupt and clash with the music in interesting ways. That being said, I'm really enjoying this new album upon first listen much more than I did her last album (UG).

This album has a running Southern tropical flavor to it.

Her melodies get inside my head like no one else's. I really disliked the Reindeer King chorus at first and now it's absolutely haunting me. YOUUUUU oohoohooh ooh ooh

"Broken Arrow" is giving me Kate Bush's "Wild Man" teas during the drum solo.

Also, it feels like 3 songs in one which I fucking love.

I'm all about Broken Arrow, Breakaway, Bang, Benjamin, Bats, Mary's Eyes

Whats with all the B's???

This album gets in your head.

R512 Bats has such an Unplugged 98 feel to it.

Okay, so I've listened to this album whilst working out, on a road trip and now during a hurricane.

It's perfect.

It's so gorgeous. This is far and away her best since 2002. Thank the muses 9.

All of me Wants to be Believe

R515 I honestly think It's her best since choirgirl.

Each song on this is sublime.

I think it could have been streamlined to 10 songs.

Reindeer King.

Wings

Broken Arrow

Cloud Riders

Breakaway

Wildwood (best song on the album sound most like her 90s stuff)

Bang

Climb

Bats

Mary's Eyes.

I also would have loved this picture to be the album cover esp. for . I don't hear any American vibe to the album. It has a more 80s English sound so the whole American thing it. I don't know why she keep s banging on about America when all her album sound English and are made in England. To me this album has zero to do with America.

Boys for Pele could've totally been edited to 12 songs, I tell you!

R518 That photo freaks me out. It looks like it belongs in The Blair Witch project or American Horror story opening credits. I'd love to know the story behind why she's hunched over like that.

And the album has everything to do with the US. From your writing ("banging on?"), I am guessing you're a Brit and not American, which may explain your interpretation. As an American who lives in Washington, DC, this album is pointed and right on target as a thoughtful response to our current extremist political climate.

Lyrical yes r520. but musically no, it has nothing American sounding. Mark's influences are 60s 70s 80s British bands, and he produces and plays her work as if he were in one. I think she should have recorded the record in America using US players, rather than just her and Mark making an album an ocean away from the subject matter.

These songs themselves needed to be American citizens, they needed to come into being on American ground. It would have given them the weight and sound they needed.

I disagree about Wings being on that condensed album track list-

Wings is the only song I am not listening to. It is a big nothing to me.

Christ, I am even listening to Chocolate Sauce. I mean Chocolate Song !!!

The album gets better with every listen, and it is SO (TRITE WORD ALERT) COHESIVE!!!!.... It is so fucking tight!!!

And wow to the poster who says it doesn't sound American!! Holy shit, It sounds like a road trip from The Smokey Mountains to New England! It is the part I love most. It is very concise in it's Americana to me. I love the clear vision of it.

I've come around to the delicacy of Climb. It was the one song (other than that killer first 40 seconds) that I thought she really missed the boat on, but now I really love how visual it is.

Bang is kicking ass, and I really really cannot tell you how surprised I am by Broken Arrow.

But forever and always, the highlight of the album is the Benjamin/Mary's Eyes one two punch.

This album is a psychedelic experience and a complement and companion to Night of Hunters. It's about something much greater than America.

Totally agree, R523.

If you hate on "Wings", you're just prolonging or holding off on a good cry.

It's not just about a relationship with a mate. It's about your relationship with yourself.

Hmph.

"Lush and deeply, Native Invader is vintage Tori Amos." B+

Mark, Can you please STOP trying to make Night of Hunters happen?

R527 It did happen.

You must've missed the reviews, Courtney.

P.S. I'm not even the one that brought up Hunters @ R523, lol. I just agreed.

In depth, track by track review by HuffPo.

One of the things I love most about this album is how much her piano and keyboard work shine through, even though It's a heavily produced record.

That was really missing from Scarlet's Walk through Abnormally Attracted to Sin. ItIt's a BIG reason why I feel so disconnected from the majority of her work this century. It doesn't have enough of her prodigious, elemental and transcendent playing. It doesn't feel like a Tori Amos record if I can't hear her playing.

Night of Hunters and Unrepentant Geraldines (with a dash of Midwinter Graces) really pulled me back in.

This album, though... It's totally what my thirtysomething self needed from Tori. I agree with the A.V. Club review describing it as new but "vintage Tori".

Anyway, yeah, her piano, keyboard and synth work her is present, resonant and sublime. Truly, coupled with Night of Hunters, it's her best work since the 90s.

epiphany of the night.

Bang into Climb into Bats into Benjamin into Mary's Eyes might rank up there with Pele, Pink and Earthquakes as best ending run of an album.

She is too cute here. And comforting. 💗

I am the one who brought up Night of Hunters (and I'm not whomever you think I am). It is brilliant and it should be revisited by people who found value in Tori's early work. It demands a lot of attention and thought but the investment pays off.

There's been a lot of talk here about the first 40 seconds of Climb...apparently the Saint Veronica chorus isn't very popular, but I find the whole song to be gorgeous, and the bridge is kind of the fulcrum to the whole album's story arc: dream of dimensions and then cross through the veil to them, climb out of the belly of the beast. She's telling us how to get out of the rut we are in, personal or political, and it applies to all the events in her life. How did she cope with her mother's illness and with Trump (and breakups, heartache, miscarriage, other traumas)? By dreaming of music and creating it.

To me this sounds like a more heavily produced Geraldines, I think even Wild Way and Wings sound a lot a like as does Weatherman and esp Oysters which seems to have a few lines lifted from it and placed into Reindeer King.

sublime = shitty

I like Wildwood.

I don't know why she lost her ability to write amazing lyrics. The lyrics are terrible. I loved the lyircs on Riot Poof.

you know what you know so

you go break the terror of the urban spell

this alliance you say ‘I'm on the threshold

of greatness girl' so you

burn your pagoda through

the congo till there's a broken bond

on the birth of the search white trash

my native son

it will all find its way in time

blossom, riot poof

you know what you know so

you go chain her to your flow

she bites through your dried lean meat

as she's going to the movie show

in a bath of glitter and a tiny shiver

she crawls through your java sea

black sahara I'm stepping into your

space oddity.

none of her lyrics make sense. you cannot understand a damned thing she sings either.

That was the point, her lyrics had an abstract impressionistic quality to them, they were so imaginative and mysterious , but now they are the direct opposite; plain and obvious and cliched.

Fantastic post, R534 I couldn't agree more on all counts.

As for the haters, Tori has you covered here -

The similarities you hear in:

Shattering Sea

Star Whisperer

Oysters

Reindeer King

Mary's Eyes

Are real. They were all inspired by this 2005 improv.

I would love a studio version of that song r542 as it appeared there. When I originally heard about Reindeer King and how awesome it was, that the sorta thing I had in mind.

Oh, I totally agree. I gave John Philip Shenale my edited, "remastered" version of that improv bootleg back in 2009/2010 and asked him to please pass it along to her as compensation for some work I did for him and he confirmed nearly a year later that he had passed it along and that Tori definitely listened to it.

She then came out with Night of Hunters which was not only piano-based (I had also begged him to tell her how much we wanted a piano based album), but featured two songs based on The Bonn Song.

She's never been able to replicate it in all of It's gorgeous intricacy, but you can tell she's continued to try which fills me with such delight! (Mary!)

She really did a beautiful job harkening back to it with Reindeer King and Mary's Eyes. I tweeted this about Mary's Eyes to Shenale and he liked my comment and tweeted me back.

Even though the boot quality isn't the best, and you can tell she's still feeling it out/working through it in her head, that Bonn improv contains some of the most gorgeous, ethereal and effervescent piano playing I've ever heard.

It's something I revisit time and again. It truly uplifts me more than any piece of music by her or anyone else.

Tori Amos’ “Native Invader” ****/*****

Fifteen albums in and Tori Amos is reliable as ever, and her songs, while still working her original core appeal sound, are getting more nuanced and orchestral in their approach. “Native Invader,” as expected, is another sharp, witty collection of songs fueled by her cryptic lyrics that mix mystical and religious imagery. It’s actually hard to gauge what era of her career this is from, since songs like “Cloud Riders” and the bluesy “Up the Creek” simmer with her signature sound.

“Chocolate Song” is both beautiful and quirky, whereas “Climb” ranks among Amos’ best work even if conventional wisdom might make you think that its name should be “St. Veronica.” “Bang” pounds with a defining force, with its imagery that includes immigrants, crucifixion and various lists of elements from the periodic table. It’s hard not to see this track as a direct response to the Trump administration and the current political climate. Even the album’s title itself hints at this association.

Opener “Reindeer King,” is an expansive, moody, modal piece, lasting seven minutes and showing Amos at the peak of her powers, while “Broken Arrow” makes excellent use of a sultry wah-wah-infused guitar-line. At a point in her career when you could expect her to call it in, Amos is still packed with delicately-executed songs with real meat in their construction.

If you’ve been a fan of her work, and perhaps have not been paying attention to her last few releases, “Native Invader” is an excellent album for you to jump back aboard.

Focus Tracks:

“Reindeer King” If for a moment you doubt Amos’ enduring drive as an artist, right from the start of the album, with this extended, flowing ballad, she firmly re-plants her roots into the ground, putting her signature charms overtly on display. It’s closer to an orchestral exercise than alt-rock, but that shouldn’t be a surprise.

“Chocolate Song” A song as beautiful as the treat it is named for, this is a slow-burning possible single full of engaging textural choices.

“Climb” So many details are in this song, as Amos urges someone to “Climb over the church wall.” She mentions a koi pond and paints a vivid scene and establishes a strong narrative framework. It’s almost as if she’s crafted a tight, short-story into a sweeping song.

Jesus Christ Mark Alexis Le Bon-Bonn. You drive me crazy BUT I have been meaning to tell you, and I hate to say this, I REALLY DO hate to say this, but I truly do hear Bonn Song in Reindeer King and Mary's Eyes. In fact, I realized that almost instantly on Mary's Eyes. And I know you have a nice relationship with Mr. Shenale, so that kind of seals it for me. I was going to post this on another forum where you and that guy were fighting about how you say the Bonn Song is in EVERY Tori song post 2009, just to stir the pot and giggle!! But for real, ON those two songs, there is some major Bonn Song influence.

These wonderful reviews are really making me so happy for Tori. Really happy.

And to the poster above R534, I think? That is mainly me going on about the first 40 seconds of Climb (AND FUCK!! THAT FIRST 40 seconds are STUNNING) I have grown to love Climb, but yeah I am not a fan of the melody of the song after that first 40 seconds. I truly love the lyrics and the sentiment of this lovely song.

And to whomever above explained Wings to me, I didn't like the song so much, that I didn't even read the lyrics. And thanks to you, I read the lyrics, and developed an entirely new appreciation of the song...

And fuck, even Chocolate Song, which I felt was an unmitigated disaster, has now gotten into my head.

I am so proud of Tori and this work.

R546 I've posted the songs that are influenced by Bonn and they don't include "every song", obviously.

I'm glad you've seen the light, though.

I'm still imbibing this album, and I just got a press release saying Fergie is about to launch a new video featuring Nicki Minaj, and I am feeling sick as I realize the brilliant mystic Tori Amos and studio puppets are all weighed against one another by the industry and the genius always comes out as the loser on their rankings.

Mentioned in chocolate song...

These broken arrows all need heeding.

Still in love with the album. Still connecting with it deeply. Still discovering new things.

I so wish she'd get another Grammy nod for this.

R522 Love your thoughts, daddy.

R546 Also, I meant to say thank you for admitting something I'm sure hurt you to admit, lol. Most of all, I'm glad you actually hear it.

Ok, dorkiest connection ever.

My favorite comic book characters are Jean Grey (redhead!) and Batman.

I just smoked some good sheeeeet and "Bates" suddenly became a love song to Batman for me. An ode.

💗

*"Bats"

Pitchfork finally reviewed her and gave her 7.5. That's great, especially coming from them.

Slay, Queen.

One of pop’s most inventive composers returns with a braid of political, maternal, and celestial statements. OnNative Invader, Amos’ intricately arranged songs are passionate and despairingly poetic.

For much of Tori Amos’ solo career, the piano-thrashing composer and singer has navigated the porous membrane between the personal and the political—the starkly searing depiction of sexual assault “Me and a Gun,” her waking-nightmare flip of Eminem’s murder lullaby “97 Bonnie and Clyde,” the Trail of Tears eulogy “Scarlet’s Walk.” On her heady, fever-dreamy 15th album Native Invader, Amos adds a third element, bringing in the increasingly strip-mined Earth as both imperiled muse and guiding light. The self, the ever-more-chaotic agora, and the physical world triangulate in a way that allows Amos to take all of them on at once, and to create a despairingly poetic, chillingly vital album that channels its depictions of humanity’s horrors through intricately arranged songs.

Pitchfork's 7.5 seems like a fair score to me.

I've been going around singing "Wildwood Poppies" since Saturday. It's one of her prettiest melodies.

BBC this morning

Rolling Stone Australia

Nineties legend traverses deep and dark terrain.

A powerful sense of foreboding hangs over Amos’s 15th studio album – unsurprising given it was written in the aftermath of her mother’s stroke and Trump’s election win. Rarely has she sounded so troubled or her songs so murky, but repeat listens reveal some remarkably emotive songwriting, particularly on tracks where the grand piano dominates, such as swirling opener “Reindeer King”. Elsewhere, Amos revisits the sonic and thematic ideas of 2002′s Scarlet’s Walk, weaving electric and acoustic guitars around her keyboard lines on the brilliant “Bats” and “Broken Arrow”. This is potent, unsettling stuff.

I finally got my physical copy, special edition.

It is fucking gorgeous. This will look amazing on vinyl.

FYI: I've decided the Tori threads will continue. Title ideas?

I have one:

The Official Tori Amos Tearing Your Anus Thread

I actually cracked and cried during the "healing tips" video for Harper's Bazaar. I felt like I was listening to an old friend talk some sense into me.

Slayed.

Fuck.

I don't why she called it the NI tour since she only played Reindeer king & Breakaway so far.

she's gross.

R567 You don't even exist.

she got old and ugly. those glasses are hideous.

R569 And yet, you've always been old and ugly, lol.

To me this album is a more successful version of AAtS, I'm not getting any Choir girl vibes at all.

"Bang" is fucking incredible. I just had an emotional moment with it.

The way she sings "All I want to be...." is so perfect.. Also, I love how it ends with a definitive pedal release, like a sigh, before transitioning into "Climb's" resonant piano.

An exquisite cover of the Bonn Song.

He needs to give her the fucking sheet music!

I love this album. I'd say I slightly prefer it to Unrepentant Geraldines. At the moment, "Reindeer King" & "Mary's Eyes" stand out as my favourites. The only track I'm still not fond of is "Wings". I didn't like "Chocolate Song" at first but it's grown on me.

I still find it really odd that she named one of the songs "Upside Down 2", though! If you've already used a title once, why repeat it? Why not just call it "Watch the Boats Go By" or something?

I imagine because she wanted to make some sort of emotional / memory connection to the earlier song, r574? Or maybe just to confuse you?

Upside Down's central epiphany is "I've found the secret to life: I'm OK when everything is not OK."

Twenty plus years later, her mother is dying, nuclear war is a possibility, white supremacists are rising and we all feel like everything is not OK, and she's saying we need to turn out frowns upside down and forgo anger. Many of us have forgotten that life can be joyful. It still can.

R576 love this.

R574 How can you still hate on "Wings"? It's so dreamy, bittersweet and intimate.

I love it, especially after "Reindeer King".

Okay, so "Bats" totally reminds me of this performance, especially the piano breakdown at 4:30

It really harkens back to her 98 live performances.

omfg.

I am slayed.

It's not a slam, it's not an attack, it's not sexiest; this is just something I notice and think is objectively true. "Bats" reminds me very much soundwise of a few early Kate Bush songs. Listen to Delius and let me know what you think. (Bush's song is all atmosphere, whereas Tori's is more lyrically sophisticated, but the sound of it...)

She's still gross. Her new album really sucks and I've listened to the whole thing.

R583 Most critics and fans disagree with you about the album's merits. But I am curious, although I know asking this is likely "feeding a troll," what exactly makes you refer to this artist as "gross"? Is it because you don't like her music, because she's not 25, or what? I've never seen her pick her nose or fart or flash her vagina for paparazzi or anything I would call gross. She is uncommonly gracious from what I have seen.

I have seen her in concert and I used to be a fan until I became bored by her albums. This one is no exception.

Courtney Love, John Mayer, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber--I can see any of them as "gross" for different reasons. Tori Amos, no.

Courtney Love - there's a blast from the past. John Mayer is gross.

Tori's voice used to be extraordiary--far beyond most other professional musicians' voices both in range and quality and in the way she used it to express her music. She could have always had a beautiful, radio-friendly vocal but she used more color and texture than that. Her voice has aged. That's not a sin or shameful. She can't do the vocal acrobatics of Caught a Lite Sneeze or the belting she once did. That's not gross. She is doing the best she can with her palette, and that palette is still far richer than those of many other artists such as Taylor Swift.

Stylistically her music has matured, and it sounds more mature. It sounds as if you prefer angry, wild young Tori to contemplative older Tori. That is perfectly fine, but it doesn't make her gross.

If you're an old-school type who thinks women should disappear from public view after age 35 or 40, you can be that person but that doesn't mean that women will or should disappear in shame as they age. I am a little sad for your mother and grandmothers if you think adult women are gross.

This song to me is the exact opposite of gross. It's gorgeous in all possible ways. It's not rageful or loud or trendy. It's graceful and perfect.

don't be butt-hurt because i called your idol "old" and "gross".

R590 Seems like you're the one with the torn anus, hun.

R588 Amen.

New thread.

Debuted at #16 in the UK. Not sure about the US.

#8 in the US.

Why so many threads about this person??

R596 She's a genius.

A perfect album.

This album did not disappoint.