Tori Amos' masterpiece, NATIVE INVADER, is finally here!

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Don't even, OP. STOP.

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R3...

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And now, the b-sides:

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Queen.

Slay!

Yas!

This album!

Hey, Lange Fan! I think you're in Florida. Please, please be very careful and safe right now. You're too precious for us to risk losing you. If you're not evacuating, please be sure you're in a safe place.

R21 You're a doll. I'm safe and "riding this storm".

Why so many threads about this person??

What a gorgeous. poignant yet buoyant album. Her best album of original music since her masterful run in the 90's.

It's perfect for reflecting on New Year's Eve before celebrating.

It really is her best album since 1998's from the choirgirl hotel. Spacious, eclectic, whimsical, deeply felt and put forth with genius, verve and aplomb.

Rolling Stone reviewed it best when they wrote,:

[quote]It adds up to one of the most purposeful full-length statements in her quarter-century career.

Beautiful

Favorite album, R26?

Mine are:

1. Pele

2. Pink

3. Earthquakes

4. Invader

5. Hunters

6. choirgirl

7. Venus

8. Geraldines

9. Girls

10. Midwinter tied with Scarlet's

The rest (you know who you are)...

Majestic.

I'm sorry but I simply can't get enough of this album. It was only last summer that I was composing my own pieces on the piano way before the album broke and I could feel a current something palpable in the air.

I haven't been this into a Tori Amos record at all this millennium. she really captured something special unique and magical with this album. in her conquest to navigate through mourning resilience and hope for the state of her own mother and the state of mother earth, she taps into something cosmic and grand.

She needs to do a solo acoustic version of this album to celebrate its success and brilliance. It'll also make up for the, lack of live versions of the songs from this past tour. She played like 5..

Threw this on some minutes ago, as the sun begins its drawn-out descent behind the horizon, the sky tinged a light cerulean blue with not a cloud in sight. A cold, biting breeze whips through my apartment and the drum section in “Broken Arrow” comes on and I get chills, physical and emotional.

This is such an amazing fucking album; perfect for winter. It’s her best album this millennium.

Despite R31's DRAMATICS. I too love this album. It will always remind me of winter and fall, as that is when it was released 3 years ago. It reminds me of the election and how far (and not far) we have come since then. This is definitely a go to album for me as well, and one of my favorites-

My favorites are Benjamin, Breakaway, Wildwood, and Broken Arrow. In fact the only song I do not like is Chocolate Song.

R32 I’m entitled to DRAMATICS during these testing times. I do love Chocolate Song but tend to slip in Upside Down in its place and tack it on the to the end of the album, after Mary’s Eyes and before Russia.

I don’t omit any of the songs, though.

He e eeee e e whoa oh oh

R34 I’m literally wailing “Bang” right now. Ugh ❤️

“With the backbone of night...”

My neighbors must be like WTF. Thankfully, I live in the suburbs behind a massive and secluded horse farm.

“All I wanna be is the very best machine I can be!”

CRAP!

R37 Be sure to feed the koi in the pond.

R31, did you, by chance, ever happen to post on the old unforumzed site?

R31 You might appreciate this article/review. It's an underappreciated album for sure.

She has a new EP out called Christmastide. It's only four songs, and they sound like a mix of Native Invaer and American Doll Posse. I didn't like the first release very much at first but as her music always does, it gets better with more listens.

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

Thanks for sharing R42, it's interesting that I've been following her since 1997 and I still find new things in her interviews. I had no idea about how she voted in 2000 and how she felt about that now.

R39 Here and there throughout the years it was active. I was more of a lurker.

R40 Thanks for the link! Trust me, I read all of the reviews, lol. “Native Invader” has turned out to be my favorite album of hers (of original music) this millennium; “Night of Hunters,” though not original music per say, is my other favorite. I do have a special place in my heart for “Unrepentant Geraldines,” though songs like “Giant Rolling Pin” (::shudder::) and “Promises,” which I like, DO NOT belong on the album and the omission of “Forest of Glass” - one of her best songs this decade - is downright offensive. I can’t with her sometimes.

R41 I have fallen unabashedly in love with it. It is a proper EP of songs held together by the at times brooding and effervescent, and always atmospheric nucleus that is “Circle of Seasons,” which makes all of the other songs make sense. “Holly” is fantastic. I have grown to really like the uplifting quality of “Better Angels.” The title song is a pleasant enough opener. I needed some time with this EP but it’s definitely clicked for me - and I’m not even smoking pot!

R43 I know, right? I had no idea about Mary (her mom) being a Republican, though I sort of figured - may she Rest In Peace - and I certainly didn’t know about Tori voting third party in ‘00!

R44, so was I (a lurker). I tried to sign up a few times but registration was never open. Still, reading the forums got me into a lot of great music I wouldn't have found otherwise.

R45 Yeah, it could be a highly informative forum.

R40 I love Tori's music and her artistry as much as anyone. Weirdly, though, Unrepentant Geraldines just did not really click for me. I never listen to any of the songs from the album, I agree about Giant's Rolling Pin, and honestly, Forest of Glass is my favorite of that era by a mile and I cannot understand what she was thinking by keeping it off the album and releasing it in an obscure way while including other album tracks that she did. It's so weird to me that Geraldines is one of her best-reviewed albums, and Oysters, I recall, was called by many critics a return to form that sounded like Under the Pink. I just didn't hear that. The album's production felt strangely amateurish to me, and Oysters in particular (like Better Angels, Goodbye to Pisces and a rare few others) felt lyrically sentimental and cliché-driven.

I love Night of Hunters because although the classical compositions are not hers, she really appropriated them as her own and not only created original, imaginative songs, but she wove them together the way she did on Scarlet's Walk. And while Scarlet's Walk's narrative sounds thoughtful and sophisticated on its surface, Night of Hunters's narrative sounds absolutely preposterous on its surface--a breakup, a psychedelic dark night of the soul, time travel, a spiritual tree language, a fire muse, space travel, a shapeshifting fox-goose spirit guide...--to the point that even I, who love her mind, thought it was going to be too over the top, and yet I think it actually comes together in at least as rich a way as Scarlet's Walk does. It's really a work of genius to me because it draws from her abilities to select disparate music from different composers for her own multifaceted storytelling, the lyrics work on many different levels simultaneously to create an extraordinary tapestry that is fantastical and mythical and psychological and insightful, and just like all her best music, repeated listens and investigation into themes she sings about on the album constantly enrich its meaning. I do think that she worked out a lot of her metaphysical storytelling ideas on Night of Hunters and then by and large translated those ideas to a more contemporary form and content with Native Invader. When she comes out with an album that good, I always hope she will ride that wave to the next one, but the next one is always something so different. I am encouraged by the EP. Native Invader, Night of Hunters, the *ideas* of The Light Princess (I like the two tracks she sings, but the full cast performances are kind of grating to me.), and even Midwinter Graces are so great. I expect she will continue to do 180s, but I do hope she sticks with the medicine woman perspectives and never again will write anything like, "Boys, I bring home the bacon" or "I am an MILF," and when she is so gifted with sophisticated, nuanced emotional lyricism, I don't understand why she does occasional songs like "Better Angels" that are so loaded in sentimental clichés.

R47 I get what you’re saying about UG, but tracks like “Weatherman,” “Selkie,” “Wedding Day,” “Maids of Ellen-Mere,” and even the sometimes mawkish “Oysters” (the music though!) and “Invisible Boy” are beautiful and a return to form. I meant to write above that “Forest of Glass” is one of her best songs this millennium, not decade. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Your thoughts on “Night of Hunters” are spot-on. I thought the concept - really a variation on the concept for, or reality behind, “Boys for Pele” - works mostly because, as with her first four masterpieces, she doesn’t overwhelm the album with it nor belabor the point. The music on NoH, and her piano playing, in particular, are sublime. It and “Native Invader” are albums I constantly go back to because of how emotional, evocative, and atmospheric both are.

“Native Invader” was also an instant stunner. I still cannot get over how much I love that album and how much it has grown in my estimation of her work (I rank it 4th!). It was perfect time, she was ready, and the songs and the delivery of them seemed to have come effortlessly.

Also, I agree about her solo renditions of “The Light Princess” tracks, which I used to fill in for some of the tracks I removed from UG. “Highness on the Sky” does things to me.

“Christmastide” is extremely comforting and I’ve grouped it with songs I loved from “Midwinter Graces,” which also contains some of my favorite tracks by her this millennium: “Comfort and Joy” (another exquisite song relegated to B status), “Winter’s Carol,” “Candle,” “Holly, Ivy, and Rose,” and “Emmanuel.”

All in all, I’m happy her era of truly offensive music seems to be over, and she seems to be in a healthier, much more grounded place. As you stated, this new “medicine woman” phase of hers fits her (and me) perfectly.

*”Highness in the Sky”

Ah, what the hell. I’ll post more underrated faves.

“Comfort and Joy”. God, I love this one.

Fuck. “Forest of Glass”

And I ALWAYS forget her fantastic collaboration with The Bullitts, “Wait Until Tomorrow” (ft. Lucy Liu). I think it’s amazingly produced and her slight variation on “Sugar” is perfection. I wish it had been on one of HER albums.

Speaking of Tori collabs, I really enjoy the one she did with David Byrne. When I saw the title, I assumed it would be something kinda schmalzy, but actually it's up beat and catchy.

I don't really love R52 and R53, but they called to mind Carnival, which I haven't thought of in many, many years.

R54 Me neither, and it is SO good!

It’s like Tori meets the soundtrack to the original Suspiria.

More old Tori B-sides...

R57 Just on time! It’s celebration time...

I can’t believe it’s been nearly four years since this was released and it holds up like her very best albums. I listened to this throughout the weekend and [italic]felt[/italic] things.

“Breakaway” into “Wildwood” makes me cry tears of saudade and recognition every single fucking time, and “Climb” into “Bats” is like catharsis and sweet liberation in sonic form. However, the whole album feels and sounds so effortless, like it just emerged from her in waves. My personal edit only makes one change: I swap “Chocolate Song” for “Upside Down 2”; the latter sounds like a wistful prayer leading up to the spiritual and cosmic epiphany that is “Bang,” and its closing note syncs up perfectly with that song’s opening note, too.

This album is definitely in my top five, behind “Boys for Pele,” “Under the Pink,” and “Little Earthquakes,” and followed closely by “Night of Hunters” and its instrumental version, “Sin Palabras.” Perfection.

My order is

Under The Pink, Pele, Scarlet, and then Native Invader.

Love Native Invader as well, and actually listen to the songs more than Pele even, and definitely Scarlet.

My favorite is Breakaway, followed by Wildwood(love this one!), Bats, Reindeer King, Mary's Eyes, and Russia. Also love Broken Arrow.

The album could have been written in the last year and would still sound contemporary. Its very much "of its time" and will resonate for decades.

Cannot wait for the next one, and I anticipate it will come out within 9-12 months. I can tell that Tori REALLY wants to tour in some form and is hoping against all hopes that she will be able to.

[quote][I] actually listen to the songs more than Pele even

This is understandable, R60. Pele is angsty and, I find, it’s appropriate for specific moments in one’s life when one needs to delve into the darkness to purge and mourn. While Pele can be very cathartic, Invader is more of a healing and spiritual album. It’s both wistful and affirmative - of one’s faith and self-worth and of life and love, in the divine and altruistic sense. It is a very mature and rather wise album.

For her next release, I really do hope she goes the bare bones route and releases an album of solo songs played on the piano and a variety of keyboards. I think she’s at the appropriate point in her life to do that, and the timing couldn’t be more right, with the isolation imposed by the onset of the pandemic and all. I’m excited, too, because she has a lot of profound material to work with - e.g., the death of her mother, the pandemic, the terrorist attack on the Capitol, etc. - which could make for an extremely poignant album.