The Official TORI AMOS (tearing your anus) Thread

Tori talks with Harpers Bazaar about how to deal with your haters...

....

Yikes ! Terrible work on her face she had. Why!!!!!!!

R1 Why did Madonna, Why did Cher, Why have a million other musicians?

Also, she looks DIVINE.

Check this bitch out here (from earlier this week):

For me the album sorta proves one thing; she should make a solo acoustic record. She her piano or even adding organ, Rhodes and maybe some strings. Everything brilliant on the album is basically her and her piano, even in the more heavily produced songs,the sound of her playing and singing shines through. For me the bad, cheap production really drags the album down.

I disagree about "the bad cheap production" bit. "Native Invader" is lunch and intricate, and her husband's guitar work is finally up to par. This album along with her 2011 ode to classical music, Night of Hunters" are both her most personal, coherent and thrilling albums since her masterful and legendary 90's run.

We do agree on her piano and keyboard playing. This is the true linchpin of Amos success. It's always been her prodigious piano chops that take the songs to their barest point. Elton John once commented that he wish he had Amos left hand. The elemental and transcendent piano lines she produces with that hand alone make understand why.

A solo piano album is definitely what she should do next. And she should be loose with it. Her best songs have come from improvising. "Marianne" and "Yes, Anastasia" were both one-time wonders that she's had difficulty replicating. She was lucky the sound engineers were recording even when she was "just fiddling around," as she puts it.

A piano album from her would be epic.

^sorry for the typos. Also, it should be "one-take wonders".

I don't know of anyone since Hendrix and Joplin that plays like this.

That shit @ 4:30 is INSANE.

I mean, seriously. Who does that?

I would love to hear solo demos for Spark, Liquid Diamonds and Hotel on the Choirgirl reissue.

There are "artists" and then there are artists who are "musicians" . She is an a great artist and a great musician.

Queen.

Omg. She did not. lol! Yas, mama.

I've finally fallen for Reindeer King. it took a while though, but I have, I have finally fallen for it.

R13 At this point it seems more like a YKTR tour than a Native Invader tour. Hasn't she played more songs from 1988 than from 2017 (only two, I think) so far?

I think the full band tour is going to be the US tour.

She already saod more songs are coming. She kust started touring less than two weeks ago.

R17 I hope so. Has she ever sung live any of her duets with Tash or Kelsey?

R18 Nope.

Is the US tour really with the band!???

My premature "Native Invader" Song ranking (FYI: This was hard because I love each song so:

Climb

Bang

Mary's Eyes

Reindeer King

Bats

Breakaway

Upside Down 2

Wildwood

Broken Arrow

Benjamin

Up the Creek

Wings

Chocolate Song

Cloud Riders

Russia

Yes, mama. Bring it.

So Bang into Climb into Bats is everything I never knew I needed. I can listen to those three in that order on a loop forevah.

Bitch, R23, give Benjamin some love. I simply LOVE that song. add it to your loop list, motherfucker!

Eat my pussy.

What's with the googly eyed glasses look? She looks like Mr. Magoo.

R25 She is 55 years old and she can't see without her glasses anymore. She has said this many times. And so she's made the best of it by making big wacky glasses part of her personal style. She also has very painful TMJ that I believe resulted in maxillofacial surgery, which has something to do with having the teeth changed, and the jaw pain affects how she sings. Some of the affectations people resent about her have a medical basis.

From CBS News: "I am going to wear the glasses," Tori Amos announced on stage, "because in my menopausal state I need to see!"

R24 I love all the new girls, bitch, lol. The three I listed are the heart of the album.

R28 I agree with you about Climb and Bang being the heart. Bang is really the central focus to me. It's pretty psychedelic. She said in a recent interview that she doesn't take any drugs anymore, but Night of Hunters is explicitly about an entheogenic experience, and so are Bang and Wildwood. I wonder if she can still access those other realms of reality as a shaman now through her music without needing the technology of plant medicine.

R29 I think so. She also said Night of Hunters was connected to Boys for Pele, hence the tree on both CDs.

Oh, it surely is. They're all connected in a lot of ways. Native Invader is spiritually Scarlet's Walk and Night of Hunters without any doubt, but Boys for Pele's spirit is there, too.

Her boring looks, boring voice and boring comments all fit with her boring music perfectly.

A Frau she was and a Frau she be.

Frau? Did she write songs about scrapbooking and fibromyalgia? Her lyrics are antithetical to everything fraus represent.

R29 Also, yeah, "Bang" is everything. I've unexpectedly connected to it emotionally.

R32 Sounds like you're eerily describing yourself, dear.

Debuts at #8 in the US.

She's still got it.

Congratulations, Queen, on your 9th Top 10 album!

So, the "from the choirgirl hotel" reissue is up next.

She needs to include a DVD with her Sessions at West 54th Street set. Probably her best live performance ever.

Am I the only one who hears little to no difference in the remastered albums? I am one of her biggest fans, but it's kind of funny to me that people have complained about her production quality declining over the past decade, and she's newly remastering albums that she made back when people liked the production quality...

R39 I hear a difference, especially with LE.

Also, I'm loving her performances this tour.

Mother 😭

Queen is still slaying me.

The shows very short, calming , and sweet. Not much FIRE but very good vibes.

Tori seems hesitant or worried...

I love her like my sister.

R43 Her mother is dying. :(

She looks so good in the pic below. #9, baby!

Somehow, "Breakaway" became a lament for when my mom passes within the next 10-20 years.

I know. It's a far stretch, but the best Tori songs are so malleable. Fuck. Only Tori can pull this shit from me. Not even Jessica.

My mom is "the Bard" in the song. Duh.

Also, I actually cried to "Chocolate Song"...

Like, WTF?

I have no words for "Climb".

Let's just say it came at a crucial, faith-testing time in my life and it's perfect.

It single-handedly elevates the album to another level, along with "Bang" and "Bats".

How can you not find this sexy and bewitching?

This is my panty throw to Tori.

Breakaway has become a huge favorite of mine. I think it will be the underrated track on this album. Very much a modern day Baker Baker. Someone on another board said Tori is lamenting her musical not going further. Totally see this in the song now..

And now I have finally come around to Russia! That Native Invader line gets me right in my heart.

Bats is sexy as fuck. It reminds meow Sweet Sangria. Its far deeper than you would expect.

Climb is still not getting me, other than that first part. But my god I love the St Veronica lyrics.

And Benjamin is probably my favorite of all.

R51 I agree about "Russia".

"Broken Arrow" is also quite transfixing.

Wildwood is like a collaboration between Tori, Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks.

Most of this album can be mixed up with most of Scarlet's Walk for a pretty consistent and moving playlist.

R54 They go even better with choirgirl and Venus songs.

Confession:

I would've maybe retitled "Upside Down 2" as "Falling Down" and sandwiched it between "Benjamin" and "Mary's Eyes".

One of my favorite things she's done ever.

R56 If it were titled differently, it would lose its connection with Upside Down. I'm sure Tori hopes the songs will illuminate one another. This album resonates very strongly and explicitly with a lot of her earlier music, not by accident.

Two vocal moments on this album break my heart.

1. Chocolate Song at 2:00. A half second of silence, a beat: I don't have to like swinging from extremes: The lows so low, the highs so high. (Especially the last word.)

2. Upside Down: "uhh-huh-uh-us." (Kills me. She should forgo the echo effects and let us hear her perfectly vulnerable voice.)

R57 Interesting. Either way, I would've liked it on the album. It's a somber but quietly uplifting song.

Less is more though, especially regarding this album, so I understand why it didn't make the cut. However, I'll include it on my version of the album.

It's still amazing to me that that's the only change I'd make this era. It feels so good to have music like this from her again.

Oh, I would've made one more change. THIS should've been the picture accompanying the "Bats" lyrics.

I'm very curious about the packaging. It's interesting to me that the artwork has universal acclaim from fans, but I haven't seen any discussion about it beyond "it's great." The photo of her hunched over by the knives in the wall is so bizarre and eerie and Blair Witchy to me, and others of her in the forest with talismans are witchy in a medicine woman/shaman kind of way...and NO discussion of her informal coming out as a pagan shaman?!!

R60 So true!

This era's artwork is subtle and sublime.

Her best since from the choirgirl hotel.

I just realized that the piano breakdown in "Edge of the Moon" is derivative of the piano breakdown in "Spark".

@ 2:44.

Well fuck, Now Russia is favorite.

I didn't even listen to the B sides, as neither grabbed me.

It has been a long time since I turned consistently to an album of Tori's (Its always been the live shows playing on my iPod)

This one is a keeper.

This is such an underrated collaboration.

Her piano playing is elemental in this.

Tori performing Upside Down 2 on German TV.

My favorite of the b-sides. So bittersweet and hopeful.

Link.

I've had 4 glasses of wine and I have finally bonded with Wildwood!!!

It is gorgeous under the influence, bitches!

R67 It is the influence. Wildwood is a companion to Battle of Trees. SO many layers. And also if you haven't yet, be sure to read about the British wildwood of folklore. It really illuminates this album and in some ways Night of Hunters.

I love when that happens, R67.

"Reindeer King" is a masterpiece, the rest of the album bored me. It feels very easy listening country. Yikes.

Really R70?

I ask you to at least reconsider:

Broken Arrow

Breakaway

Bang

Bats

Benjamin

Mary's Eyes

And Russia, which is basically Not The Red Baron in a much more literal way..

John P. Shenale retweeted my tweet of my favorite performance of Reindeer King so far.

I feel so close yet so far, lol.

Mark, Stop making Tori all about YOU.

You are very talented and you don't need HER voice BITCH, because YOU HAVE YOUR OWN, BITCH.

We know that Shenale and you correspond and it says a lot about your talent too.

R73 Coming from you, that's very sweet.

Go let your monkey out to taste the sweet of spring, CUNT!

R75 lmao. You're so bad. Please don't tell me you're Sergio or Sigg.

Yaaaaassss

R77 Perfection

Is it me or does she give some serious '92-'96 vibes here?

When she smiles and bites her lip during "the moon's of Jupiter" bit... 😭!

This might be my favorite live performance of hers of the last 15 years.

The improvised intro to this is everything.

I cannot believe it has been 23 years since I saw her live and she's still at it, and has become a lovely, still eccentric eccentric lady.

21st Century Tori (Spotify Playlist). Enjoy on shuffle, bitches.

P.S. This may be blasphemous to some of you bitches, but I don't include the concept albums (SLG-ADP) or anything from AAtS-gr.

Everything is from NoH, UG, and NI, with some collaborations, instrumentals from Sin Palabras and her solo renditions of two The Light Princess songs, which are truly DIVINE.

Everything on this playlist is classy, effortless, interesting and piano heavy, with some exceptions.

These songs compiled remind me of how much gorgeous, genius work she's produced this century.

*anything from AAtS-GD.

P.P.S. NoH is not a concept album, it's an extremely personal song cycle chronicling the splintering and mending of a marriage through the pov of a woman who delves back into myths and deep spirituality to healwith the aide, literally, of her daughter.

Poops! I lied, lol. I did include 3 songs from GD on the playlist: Flavor, Girl Disappearing and Snow Cherries from France. Really, the ideal versions of each of those songs.

I can't believe I'm sharing this, but it's the DL so I feel entitled to be crazier than usual.

I was broken today. Could feel my fingertips grazing the bottle of vodka and pack of cigs, but I pulled back as if struck by a flash of pure light.

At home, with nothing but good old trusty Mary Jane, I listened to some music until I felt that voice just above my diaphragm say, "Go. Now. Play and record."

And so I did. It's messy, vulnerable and elusive just like me, but I'm proud of it. I have quite a bit to uncover with this one.

I called him "Clean & Sober".

Um. Yes. Very different from how she usually does this mash-up but it works.

Upside Down 2 from the German TV show. Love how she looks.

Please let this happen.

T talks with Rolling Stone. Published 2 hours ago.

Tired old bitches trying so hard to keep this thread alive.

R93 But you're reading and responding to it .

This thread is probably more alive than you are.

Why so many threads about this person??

Tori did CLIMB tonight live!

Since I'm not wowed by the album version (I am apparently only one ) I am vibing that the live version will kick my ass..

"Breakaway" is one of my favourites from the new album. Supposedly it's about her experience with The Light Princess musical, but I associate it with my disappointment and sense of betrayal at all the in-fighting within the left right now:

[quote] no I don't expect/you to forgive me this/siding with the soldiers who say/we cannot win the day

[quote] a theatre of war the frame/inner conflicts now reign/their intent: division till/there is no side to take

[quote] you feel betrayed/and I feel played/by our so called friends/not the friends we should have made

Her Pitchfork interview is incredible. I understand why people would reject her New Age-y/self-help-y insights--I would have years ago--but she is really a fountain of wisdom and empathy. Decades ago I thought she was nutso and potentially schizophrenic but now that I have read a lot about shamanism, indigenous beliefs and Gnosticism, I understand where she is coming from and respect it utterly.

Wildwood has now gone from near the bottom of my list to near the top. THIS song could have been on Choirgirl or Venus.

Gosh it has enchanted me.

Wildwood is a beautiful prayer to Gaia.

Shit thread!

Go give Taylor Swift your money, R101

So good.

The two b-sides paired with Cloud Riders AND Up the Creek are getting released on vinyl.

Also, still loving the album.

Fantastic new interview. Love her story about Prince going to see her in 2007.

Omfg. This Q & A with Noah is everything. When she started listing the other songs that didn't make it, I screamed.

"Black is the Color"

"Stone by Stone"

"Baptize Your Love"

Such a good interview.

R106 I am envious of their rapport. They do seem like genuine friends. I love this interview and the one someone posted above it because they’re not for general audiences. They’re interviews by appreciative fans for appreciative fans.

I am not a Harry Potter fanatic but I took a quiz because Tori keeps talking about it. According to Buzzfeed’s quiz, I am a slight majority Ravenclaw (like Tori), but with a lot of Hufflepuff, which if says means that I am kinder than most Ravenclaw people are. Not much slytherin, which means I’m not very ambitious or cutthroat to get what I want, which is true.

Her story behind "Bats", which has crept into my top 5 on the album, was exactly something I was hoping to hear from her.

"I don't know what was in my tea that day!" 😂 So perfect. The song sound spirited and inspired and I wouldn't be surprised if she had a little herb with that tea while composing it.

If you see-ee thre-ee candles in the wind-ooowwww

LOVE BATS!!!

The album has only gotten better with repeated listens.

Good job, T!

The early assessments, including Noah Michelson’s, of the album have proved correct. It’s one of the best she has been inspired to make and we’re lucky to have it. In spirit, to me, it’s Scarlet + ADP / Night of Hunters. Actually, it’s my wish-come-true of a pop interpretation of Night of Hunters and it could not have been done better. It’s a lesson: Once you find a genius, never give up on her. Remember that most geniuses create only a few master works, with the work in between being necessary progress and part of the process.

R109 / R110. I want your cocks in me now.

"Broken Arrow" still makes me cum.

Another great interview

Note: T's commentary on the recent Weinstein scandal and her own battles- at 15!- in the Washington D.C. bar circuit is chilling.

O.M.F.G.

What she did last night with "Blood Roses" is career-best level. She performed it with both meditative tranquility AND demonic intensity.

Also, I want a solo piano/keyboard album from her sooo bad.

The improv before Blood Roses is one for the ages.

I was not impressed with the european clips of this tour as Tori seemed overly restrained, nervous, and tentative.

I read the set list for this show in Chicago and it looked like a big blah. Then I watched the songs on Youtube and LOVED THEM. Even Croce's Operator, a song that I have never enjoyed was lovely.

In fact the shows so far in the US look really great.

I will never count this phenomenal woman out.

I love Tori Amos more than a person should be able to love someone they don’t know. The interview above with the two other women deepened my appreciation for her tenfold. I am not an obsessive collector of all things Tori and memorobilia who catalogs her performances of each song, etc. (LOTS of those exist.) But the way she thinks and speaks, and the music she creates, are simply extraordinary. I really regard her as some kind of spiritual guide, and I don’t think that that is an overstatement. She is several levels elevated above most of humanity.

R118. You have described her perfectly. She is very much a shaman of sorts. And if you listen to her describe how the songs come to her, she is definitely guided by some kind of innate intelligence. Her mind is extraordinary.

R119 I agree. I almost cried listening to her discuss the process of writing Bang, which may be my favorite song. I used to write fiction and I experienced what she described a lot—thoughts materializing faster than you can keep up with them, and then having a responsibility to make sense of them because you know they belong. But I never had the discipline she has.

I do regard her as a shaman. When I saw the cover art, I had a notion this album would be her official coming out as a medicine woman, and I think it is. She either transformed with the song Winter’s Carol, or she gave herself the permission to acknowledge that she has a spiritual pagan agenda and to let it out in a less enigmatic way. Night of Hunters is shamanic. This album is shamanic. In that interview above, she calls the album a wildwood where people who need a magic mushroom can find one, and people who need clear water will find it. Everything she says is imbued with meaning beyond the surface, and it’s all based in compassion. I don’t see anyone else like that anywhere in this world.

R120 So agree about Hunters and Invader being shamanic.

Pele is probably her most shamanic record, imo. All of her work is really, going back to Little Earthquakes, which is a deeply shamanic song.

Also, the full concert vids that are popping up on YouTube are really great.

This one made me feel like I was in the audience. I teared up during Take to the Sky.

Note, these are actual vids, not justly audio. They're especially great to watch on a big screen tv. It almost gives you the same feeling you'd get being there.

Part two of MN.

Part three of MN.

Another ridiculously lyincredible interview with Noah.

They need to do a web series stat.

That was an outstanding interview. I loved that they talked about vocal issues. Tori has certainly struggled this tour vocally, but she is 54 for christ sake. I love how she brought up Sugar. I watched a few performances on Youtube from 2014, all of which she nailed and after each one, she was like PRAISE JESUS that I nailed that song. Its very cool to see her reaction. After hearing how she sounds this tour, I am not surprised that she is not even attempting it.

I have been watching the Periscopes and last nights show in North Carolina was her best vocally. It was really great.

R126 I need to watch those Periscopes.

I love how surprised she seemed to hear that people would "run" to see her perform all of Pele at a show. Still humble after all of these years.

I live in South Florida, so hearing her talk about composing Mary's Eyes in the dark in her beach house in West Palm Beach was pretty great.

CBS interview

Tori Amos? LOL, go back to the 90s, methuselah

Her voice was very thin in the CBS performances, but her interview was lovely. If (God forbid!) she ever retires from music, I hope she does a podcast or writes books. She’s brilliant.

She's an artist, My fave:

And, a brilliant cover of A CASE OF YOU. No one else could do this:

She is an artist indeed. And for me a spiritual inspiration. I downloaded Taylor Swift’s new album and I like a lot of the songs on first listen. I usually dislike Tori’s best song with the first listen...and then they become lifelong essential music for me. I don’t mind pop music products, but Tori Amos is music-music, complete with the muses.

[r133] Agreed. This court is adjourned.

R132 Strange Little Girls is the only Tori Amos album I don’t like. It doesn’t seem like her at all to me. It doesn’t contain her spirit. That’s probably because it’s all covers, but...A Case of You and Famous Blue Raincoat are among my favorite Tori songs, which is odd considering they aren’t hers.

I LOVE Strange Little Girls.

The Beacon show contains an amazing performance of Pancake. Stunning.

I ordered you a payeencayeeeeeeaaaaaaayyyyyyk-eh

Did anyone post the debut of To The Fair Motormaids of Japan yet?

R139. Nope. I thought her second performance of the song was ON POINT.

Are there any unreleased songs from Choirgirl that might get onto the reissue?

I disagree, the 2nd performance was NOT AWN PERNT! She was horribly off key in Boston. The Madison performance was AWESOME!

Holy fuck, let me say that T's voice has been temperamental during this tour, but the recent fucking North Carolina and Nashville shows have been AMAZING.

Tori is using her chest and stomach voice and it serves her so much better, I lover her rock and roll deep voice, most people do not.

The remastered albums have been mostly disappointing insofar as bonus material. I buy them all, mind you. I just wish she would pull more from the archives. It seems like she would easily have scores if not hundreds of unreleased tracks shelved.

And the first time I have LOVED "Climb" was from this Nashville performance- And her cover of We Don't Need Another Hero was beyond AWN PERNT!!

She must also have a good few unreleased tracks from the NI sessions.

Holy fuck. Flicker in Nashville. This bitch nailed it.

This Nashville show will be one of the best live shows of her career I think...

Damn.

She did Flicker?

Yes, I am down away by the entire show-

Mother Revolution was AMAZING

Fast Horse- FUCKING AMAZING

Flicker- AMAZING

And these are 3 songs that many Tori fans do not like!

The performances were fucking INSANE.

Honestly, I have been seriously underwhelmed by this tour, and Tori's performances have been extremely dodgy. And god bless her, she has lot going on personally and she owes us nothing. But the the last two shows were on the level of the Strange Little Girls tour in 2001. Which to me were Tori at her absolute peak.

And her piano playing in Nashville was the best I have seen it this tour.

The Beulah Land segue into Climb- unfuckingbelievable. And I have stated numerous times in this thread that I am NOT a fan of Climb. THIS version? Holy fuck.

Tori. I will never doubt you again.

R148 what surprising and delicious song choices. I need to hear this show!

Also, new interview with Vulture.

Gorgeous shot.

Nashville

Yas!

HOLY FUCK. Tori has lost her voice (thanks to Nashville) and is doing some fucking RANDOM and amazing show in New Orleans. She's totally is fucking with the set list and breaking every rule of the tour. Tons of covers and using her deep chest voice. Its a fucking crazy and somehow amazing show. Watching on Periscope.

R153 That was quite stunning.

In other news, how the fuck am I three years late in discovering this?

My jaw has officially dropped.

Thanks for posting about New Orleans. I am watching Do It Again. I love her using her lower register.

I'm intermittently crying and feeling strengthened by the new album tonight. It's been a merciless last couple of days. Though I loved it from the first listen, I don't think I truly realized it's emotional power and resonance until tonight.

The music makes me ache and reflect and I feel all the stronger for it.

Thanks, T.

P.S. Upside Down 2 doesn't get enough love from the fans. It's one of my favorite songs of hers EVER and definitely among the best songs from this era.

P.P.S. "Climb" into "Bang" into "Bats" is everything to me. Everything. It slays, buries, resurrects and prompts me to ascension.

BUT "Benjamin" and "Mary's Eyes" also make up her best closer since choirgirl.

I can't help but hear Kate Bush when she sings, especially songs where it's just her and the piano.

R160. Tori is a better pianist, though.

I’ve posted too much about Tori vs Kate, etc., so just the overall stuff.

Kate is a true musical innovator and a pioneer. At 19 she scored the first number one song written and performed by a woman—about an incredible historic novel that was written by a woman. She incorporated dance into her work, expressed herself differently than anyone before her, and she evolved tremendously at her own direction. She writes outstanding songs that explore philosophy and the arts and human empathy, often from the perspective of character who is not Kate Bush. I consider her a musical fiction writer with a theatrical style.

Tori is a true musical virtuoso. I studied creative writing in grad school and my department chair said there are two types of great writers: the innovators and the masters—equally great. Tori is more of a master, Kate more of an innovator. Technically and emotionally, I think a strong argument can be made that Tori’s piano playing, her compositions, the resonance and versatility of her voice and the poetry of her lyrics are fuller and more sophisticated in many ways. Where Kate writes a sort of fiction, Tori is a musical essayist who explores her experiences of life, spirituality and religion, and sociopolitical interests. She almost always writes from an intimately personal perspective, and with enigmatic styles that seem to me to be influenced by Joyce’s writing.

On the surface, Kate and Tori have a lot of similarities, but they are very different artists who have different interests, perspectives, goals and methods of delivery. I don’t personally hear similarities between Kate’s theatrical vocals and Tori’s unique vocals aside from both having soprano-type voices. I really admire both of them. Tori certainly was influenced by Kate, and that’s a compliment to both of them. People have said that listening to Kate’s music it’s veritably impossible to identify her influences, and that’s *really* remarkable.

Although she doesn’t sound like her, Bjork sounds a lot more derivative of Kate Bush than Tori does.

R162 Fantastic post. I lo e them both more than anyone should love ANY musical artist.

Loooved Flicker live.

Also, she debuted Wildwood last night, though I heard it was with a backing track.

Nashville was the BEST show of the tour times 1,000,000 .I am searching high and low for the live show mp3s.

Her voice was so powerful on Flicker- And her piano playing has been better than I have ever seen.

Its a sadly downplayed tour for the most part, few songs off of the new album, she seem very restrained a lot of the time. What makes it sadder is that the new album is stellar and fans really wan to hear the new songs without backing tracks.

But since Nashville, even with her sickness, she seems to really be coming alive. I am sad this tour is over in a week..

I am really hoping for some kind of short summer tour .

R165 Has it been confirmed that she's ill?

Also, I have this hunch that she's going to do another tour to properly celebrate this album and it's critical success. She's acknowledged that she simply wasn't prepared to do songs on the album solo and I truly think her talks/interviews with Noah have made her much more aware of what the fans like, love and want from her.

I think she said there weren't many b-sides for choirgirl and I don't think any unreleased tracks, which makes me think she might not reissue it. There is very little she can do other tan remaster it.

R166, Yeah, she got really sick right after Nashville. Her voice is supposedly back at least!!! And I really agree R166- This album DESERVES the promotion. Even after 3 months, this album gets BETTER and better. Its a classic. This tour seems truncated and rushed. And I know with Tori's mom and then limited time to prepare, Tori can only do so much. These tours are financed by her so this is a lot of responsibility.

I just don't want this album to disappear and Tori comes back 2-3 years from now, and these songs are just forgotten.

I wonder if Tori knows how much we all love this record. I hope that she knows and is proud.

And those Noah interviews are amazing. Thank god we have a fellow fan who knows what questions to ask. Its a real gift.

R168 Agree on every point.

To be honest I've already stopped listening to NI, I did enjoy some of the songs, but it hasn't held me like other albums have this year. I'm still listening to the BFP reissue and I've started listening to FTCGH a lot b/c of the possible reissue. Having sad that Pele, Chorigirl and Venus have always been albums I play a lot, they have never lost their relevance, immediacy, potency and urgency to me.

And Of course I'm listen to Midwinter b/c it's the season and I think it is a great holiday album. I'd say she might do a few MG songs in the Dec. shows.

[quote]Pele, Chorigirl and Venus have always been albums I play a lot, they have never lost their relevance, immediacy, potency and urgency to me.

Agree. Still, perhaps you haven't had enough time with it.

The albums you've listed have been with us over two decades. Our lives and the events in them have allowed those albums to really find a place in our lives. That's definitely the case with Pele for me.

I didn't expect Native Invader to hit me on a personal level. I loved it from the get but was more intellectual about my love for it. The other evening I just let the songs wash over me emotionally. I felt beaten and invaded, and since I already trusted and approved of her work this outting from a critical point of view, I threw it on instead of one of the classics hoping to connect further with it. For that hour plus I was America and Mary and Benjamin and even chocolate! It really opened up to me in a way I quite haven't felt since her first four masterworks.

Don't judge your reaction to it prematurely. You obviously respected it when it first came out. Now it just needs to weave itself Into the fabric of your life and experiences. That'll come. With life and further experiences, lol.

Also, Midwinter Graces is lovely and totally underrated.

Broken Arrow is so strange and cathartic and empowering.

Reading the lyrics for Wildwood while listening to it, I'm utterly struck by this song's genius.

Her lyrics haven't been this stunning since Pele.

Wildwood Poppies Wildwood Touch me

Behind the birches whirl The bongo boys in their summoning The sound seeds now In the fingers of the eastern breeze Where the sleepless wait For her ascent from the perilous pit She said "The only way to change our fate It is to make it rain"

Wildwood Poppies Wildwood Touch me

Past the Alders and the Oaks Through the Willow Grove snakes the Ivy's gift Which taught you can't escape anguish But how to live with it Then reports from the robins Form in you an inner radiance It's as if they fused with a spirit you knew Who's come back again

Wildwood Poppies Wildwood Touch me

Off the pilgrim's path With the talisman he placed in my hands With its magic mapped from winter's past It leads the way After 3 long months endured with her absent Over dragon lines we walked the current A labyrinth With little green corn shoots Now in abundance As the forest celebrates She says "Make it rain Wildwood Poppies Wildwood Touch me Touch me again"

....

Fast Horse solo is amazing.

This is one of my NI edits. It's more piano and Tori centric. Perfect for on the go listens:

Reindeer King

Broken Arrow

Breakaway

Wildwood

Upside Down 2

Bang

Climb

Bats

Benjamin

Mary's Eyes

P.S. The closing bass notes on UP2 transition perfectly into the opening bass notes of Bang.

It feels good to say that Bjorks new album SUCKS but Mama T's album is perfection.

Native Invader has been a keeper for me and I am so happy. This tour has been a real let down though, but I feel there is more at play regarding that so I am just going to focus on this near perfect album.

It is so funny, my bottom 3 songs are two of most fan's favorite songs on the album!

Top 3: Benjamin- I wil never get enough of this short and sweet song. The segue into Mary's Eyes is perfect. The young meets the old. Brilliant. Broken Arrow- Somehow Sexy as fuck. Then turns sad. Then hopeful. With a line of caution and fear running through it. Have we lost her?? Have we lost her? And that last 20 seconds as it fades out with the barely audible "Have we lost her?" Wildwood tied with Russia and Mary's Eyes and Reindeer King . I CANNOT CHOOSE!!

Bottom 3: Bang- AMAZING lyrics, this should have rocked hard. I love what it says, but musically I just don't feel it. Climb- By far the prettiest opening of any song on the album. Love the lyrics. Simply loathe the vanilla sounding St Veronica parts. The MUSIC, not the lyrics. Chocolate Song- Definitely a private song between Tori and Mark. I don't find it nearly as bad as I initially did, and it has some pretty cool touches. I will never listen to this song though. Ever.

Now if you would have asked me a month ago? I would have put Wings in place of Bang! Wings has fucking grown on me in a big way.

In fact Wildwood and Wings were the growers on this album. Wildwood has such atmosphere.I feel like I am in the Wildwood. Its pretty magical. And when you read the lyrics above that I think Mark posted, you can appreciate the songs even more.

It is an album that has incredible darkness and incredible hope. There is not one depressing thing about it. It is very open to interpretation, and what I love is that the style of music doesn't match lyrically. I can barely tell what Tori is saying in Wildwood. The song is sexy and mysterious. Then you read the lyrics, and the song really is something beyond what you think.

Bang and Climb are astounding songs to me. But I relate to both Bang and Wildwood on very specific terms that are personally meaningful. I do feel like Bang could/should have BIG drums and cymbals ans would be mind blowing if it were given a serious rock trearment, not because of the song title but because it builds to an explosive, blinding spiritual encounter and the subdued drumming doesn’t do the power of it justice.

R179 I gasped when I read your thoughts on Bang and Climb! Those two are so the pulsing heart of the album. Still, I totally agree with all of this:

[quote]It is an album that has incredible darkness and incredible hope. There is not one depressing thing about it. It is very open to interpretation, and what I love is that the style of music doesn't match lyrically. I can barely tell what Tori is saying in Wildwood. The song is sexy and mysterious. Then you read the lyrics, and the song really is something beyond what you think.

Also, R180, this is such a perfect description of Bang. I think that's why the transition into Climb is so vital and perfect.

[quote]it builds to an explosive, blinding spiritual encounter...

Love it.

Bang live.

Don't LOVE Bang still, but hell if that live vocal wasn't excellent and Tori's smile at the end "YES! I SANG THIS SONG!" I have never seen her beam like that. Nice job!

I'm watching this recent performance of Seaside on my big screen. It truly is amazing. The way she looks into the camera is eerie and perfect and makes it extra special.

This made me cry. Tori doing all of "Hyperballad" is everything.

Can't wait.

Im having a glass of wine and smoking a joint. Native Invader is still giving me goosebumps 3 months later. What a sublimely subtle masterpiece.

^*ADP...

That's how irrelevant it is.

OP, I have grown to love TBK on its own merits, and the often maligned ADP has some good tunes.

SW is a classic.

But Native Invader is in a class by itself. It ties Pele for me as my 2nd favorite Tori Amos album, UTP is my 1st and SW and TVAB tie for 3rd.

TVAB will always be THE underrated work of Ms. Tori.

Native Invader I listen to EVERY DAY. And I am so proud of Tori.

And the last show last night had the most beautiful version of Apollo's Frock I have EVER heard. What a wonderful show.

R190. I can agree about TBK. ...Maybe even SW, though it's not the kind of masterpiece I love.

ADP is an abysmal sonic mid-life crisis. Even the good songs (Bouncing Off Clouds, Body and Soul, Devils and Gods, Father's Son and Velvet Revolution) can't save it.

Native Invader doesn't reach the frenzied, feverish, sweeping, prodigious and enveloping brilliance of Pele, but it does beat ftch and ties with NoH on my list, keeping it in the top 5, for me.

As for Venus, I totally agree. Datura alone is a transcendent masterpiece. I often switch between it and ftch on my list.

My list:

Pele Pink Earthquakes Invader/Hunters hotel/Venus Girls Scarlet's Midwinter

BFFs!

My list:

Pele

Pink

Earthquakes

Invader/Hunters

hotel/Venus

Girls

Scarlet's

Midwinter

The rest.

I think the fact that her first three albums are successively more brilliant than the one that came before are what made me a die hard Tori fan.

No one in music has accomplished such a successive and tender brilliance.

R192. Girl, please. Tori is a savvy business women. The troll is a fan. She has also has a good heart. She killed two birds with one stone.

^*R194

^*woman

Oh my....

omg. Go T!

I am sad for those who gave up on her music or who “don’t have ears to hear.” Native Invader and Night of Hunters are audiobooks of life.

Here’s a little playlist of a narrative conversation among a few profound women musicians:

Kate Bush: Under Ice

Kate Bush: Jig of Life

Tori Amos: Climb

Joni Mitchell: Woodstock

Tori Amos: Bang

Kate Bush: Hello Earth

R199 love it!

Still listening to new album.

It cuts deeper and heals more wholly upon repeated listens.

My mother is in the hospital in a state I can’t even bring myself to write about. She is my best friend, only 66, absolutely impossible seeming and I am falling apart completely. I lost it today when Reindeer King was on my car radio on the way to the hospital. Numb unbearable thoughts are haunting me every second. Absolute hell. I am so scared. I’m sorry to write this here. I feel so alone.

R202. I am so sorry to hear that. Please don't apologize for sharing and no, you are not alone. I'll read and respond to your posts as long as you need me to.

Also, it's good that you are allowing yourself to feel your feelings. That's key during a time like this. Repressing or drowning them out will only make you feel worse in the long run.

Feel your feelings, pray for solace and guidance and spend as much time with your mother as you can, expressing to her how you feel.

Let is know how you're doing.

😍😍😍😍😍

Does anyone else find Upside Down 2 piercingly gothic yet buoyant?

The way she sings "those smiling faces" is brilliantly and subtly macabre. It conjures up images of a hazily remembered Buffy.

It lulls me into a quiet determination.

*Buffy episode.

Ugh. Broken Arrow is everything. Career best stuff.

The whole album is, really

Oh, and Bats. So iridescent and beautiful . Uplifting

So is Choirgirl not getting a reissue. Shame, but I guess she feels it doesn't need it and maybe there are no unreleased songs to add to the bonus disc.

R209. I expect it'll be released in the fall. She already confirmed it's happening.

NI is 8 months old and better than evah!

I hadn't realized how dark and gorgeous her playing is beneath the drum breakdown in "Broken Arrow" until a few days ago.

Utterly bewitching.

I've just started to get into Ni, I didn't really like it much when it came out,but recently Ive been listening to it alot and really enjoying it.

R213 What about it has changed your opinion most?

It's starting.

MY expectations were too high. I wanted Choirgirl part 2, well that was the sorta word coming from early reviews. I still feel th album is badly produced. But the songs themselves are her strongest since Scarlet so I've come to accept it on its own terms rather than mine.

So excited r215.

R216 To use a Kate Bush comparsion: Invader is Tori's Aerial and it's sublime.

Also, How can you consider it cheaply produced? So many gorgeous things going on at once in each song. I'm sorry, but fans who continue saying this just don't want Mark contributing to her work. Bad/Cheap production = I don't like Mark being on the album. I've mostly felt the same.

This go around, however, he's done an EXCELLENT job. His guitar playing and overall production contributions are fantastic. Some of my favorite moments on the album come from him: that kick ass drum breakdown at the end of Broken Arrow; the guitar work on Up the Creek and Wildwood makes me wet; etc.).

Up The Creek sounds cheap, and more like a demo with synth instruments, and the production on Wings sounds like a cheap 80s song, even though I love that long. I think the production on at least half of the songs is too condensed and labored.

Previously I would have said meretricious, but that maybe going too far.

R218 See, I don't have an aversion to a more organic, homes", as Piound, especially when the musicianship is at the level it is on "Native Invader". The compositions even intricate, well crafted and varied. She's also looser and more improvisational here than she has been in years. It's definitely a "heady album" as Pitchfork reviewed. One thing I absolutely ADORE about how Mark mixed this album is how he keeps Tori's playing up front. You can hear her piano and organ, Hammond and Rhodes and the synthase ad other keyboards so beautifully.

The production, however you at feel about it, never overshadows or diminishes performances here or quality of her compositions.

Here vocals are beautifully produced here, too. I'm sure there fact that they used the same microphone they used to record her during "Boys for Pele" helped.

Rolling Stone calling "Native Invader:

[quote] One of the most purposeful and fully realized statements of her quarter century career.

Was probably my second favorite thing last year.

homes", as Piound, = homespun

Please forgive the typos. I'm listening to "Broken Arrow".

Heady, indeed.

I love Native Invader and I love Tori overall. I don’t blame her husband for “ruining” her music as many of her fans do, and I’m bothered that so many people involve themselves in her family’s concerns.

I didn’t love the overall sound of Unrepentant Geraldines, however, and most of the reason is due to the style of production. I do get the comment about Up the Creek, too. The tempo of that song brings some energy to Native Invader, but it sounds inorganic and a little lightweight compared with the heft of much of the rest of the album. I also think that Bang—a lyrical masterpiece IMO—is something like the original studio version of ‘Sugar.’ It could use more ‘bang’ from live drums and less restrained performance in general to live up to its potential. Imagine Bang with a powerful, hard-hitting percussive climax, followed by Climb in its current quietly graceful form. That would take us back to the Choirgirl era, not as a soundalike but as a spiritual cousin.

Don't get me wrong while I have criticized the album, overall I have come to like the album very, very much. And it's def my favorite Tori album since Scarlet.

Upside Down 2 is as good as early b-side music.

Broken Arrow,

Cloud Riders,

Breakaway,

Wildwood,

Climb,

Bats,

Benjamin are the songs I am listening to a lot. Breakaway and Bats are my favorite.

R223 You get UP2, too! Thank God. I think the title is what throws most fans off. It's such a gorgeous, bittersweet and even dark little song. Also, I'll take ANYTHING with Tori solo. Love your song picks, too.

R222 See, what others consider cheaply or thinly produced, I consider organic and homespun. And I love the restraint.

Seriously r224, her fans don't like Upside Down 2, that's insane. It's my favorite song of hers for years. Also it's one of her best vocals.

R225 The Upside Down 2 lyrics are unusually simple and straightforward for her, and that confuses me, but her vocals are absolutely heartbreaking.

I really wish she had put Forest of Glass on this album. It’s one of my favorite Tori songs, and I only have it on a fucking CD that’s lost somewhere in my car. It’s not available on iTunes and I can’t find it on YouTube. I think it would have been a great fit for this album.

R225 A lot of the fans on unforumzed consider it corny because of the title and the "turn that frown upside down" lyric. I find it dark and tongue in cheek. Also, her performance of it is perfect on every level.

R226 I LOVE Forest of Glass. Definitely one of her best songs ever. It encompasses what I love most about Tori, lyrically, musically, vocally and pianistically. Still, I think it would've fit better on "Unrepentant Geraldines" along with "Dixie", "White Telephone to God". I would've also included her solo versions of "Darkest Hour" and "Highness in the Sky" on UG

Forest of Glass + Reindeer King. Meant to be together.

R228 Totally get that.

I've placed Dixie right after Unrepentant Geraldines in the track list on my playlist of UG, I like the fact in the ending of UG she sings about the Vicar's Wife and Dixie is about her mom, who is a Minister's wife.

R230 Nice connection thereh m.

Here solo songs of the past 5-7 years have been some of her very best

I wonder if Violet's Eyes will make it onto Choirgirl reissue. Most people seem to think she has very few unreleased tracks for Choirgirl. But she did say some of the songs that didn't make it on to Pele, she tried to rework for Choirgirl, Walk to Dublin for instance, or Take Me With You, she wrote for Earthquakes but tired to rework it for Under the Pink.

So we might hear some of the unreleased Pele songs reworked for Choirgirl.

R232 Take Me With You sounds like a LE song. Its composition and production wouldn’t fit on any other album. Walk to Dublin could have worked on Choirgirl or Venus, soundwise, IMO. Dolphin Song sounds like Beekeeper...probably too much like Marys of the Sea to have been included on the album, really. Also could have gone on UG.

It’s interesting to me how some songs sound like they could only belong on one album and others could go on many.

R28 I also wonder if she would be as forgiving of others as she demands people must be of her. If David Duke one day does a mea culpa and pronounces himself ‘tolerant’ of nonwhite people, will she sing his praises? Her apology really made no sense; at one point she said something like, “I realize that I’ve said very hateful and cruel things about the people who I want to advocate for.” What the fuck does that even mean?

OMG my browser somehow skipped back...that post at R234 was meant for the Joy Reid thread.

Does else see this as her sonic memoir?

Prologue: Reindeer King

Conflict and discord: Chapters 1-7: Wings-Chocolate Song

Climax and epiphanies: Chapters 8-10: Bang, Climb and Bats.

Epilogue: Benjamin, Mary's Eyes

limax

Well like on Scarlet she seems to end up back in Washington, emotionally, politically and geographically, so Benjamin would fit that and that would certainly tie in with her mom and Mary's Eyes.

R237 Interesting.

My edited Unrepentant Geraldine is called White Telephone to God. It's excellent.

Wedding Day

Weatherman

50 Shades of Blue

Maids of Elfin Mere

DIxie

White Telephone to God

Unrepentant Geraldine

Invisible Boy

Rose Dover

Darkest Hour (solo, from The Light Princess)

Oysters

Forest of Glass

Highness in the Sky (solo, from The Light Princess)

B Sides:

America

Troubles Lament

Wild Way

Promises

Giant's Rolling Pin

*Geraldines

I wonder if the Moons of Jupiter on Reindeer King connect to Hey Jupiter form Pele?

R241. I don't think so, the Reindeer King is definitely a Pele track in spirit. Dark, untethered, hopeful.

R241 and R242 I’m positive they connect in the sense of Jupiter’s identity in mythology and astrology. I don’t know what Tori’s actual beliefs are, but regardless of that she is fluent in what she refers to as archetypes and their deep resonances with our lives. Jupiter is synonymous with Zeus, “the god of the sky and thunder.” In Battle of Trees, Tori sings about the Thunder God dominating the pan-theistic cultures of Ireland, which represents the advent of the patriarchal Judeo-Christian church. That’s all human political stuff. On a higher level (as Tori sings about the stars looking down upon human beings), Saturn ruled all the gods before Zeus/Jupiter took over. Saturn is also synonymous with Satan and with Samael (see Original Sinsuality, in which Tori calls out to him with compassion and nostalgia), and Tori generally depicts this figure in a Gnostic sense, insofar as this complex occult/shadow/hidden/secretive deity having been maligned and literally demonized by the patriarchal church culture under the Thunder God’s/Zeus’s/Jupiter’s/the Demiurge’s rule. Jupiter mythically divided the once-unified planets into three classes. The narrative of Night of Hunters is every bit as much about the great battle among the pre-Christian gods (particularly relating to Sumerian mythology—and Tori called upon Sumerian goddess Inanna on Boys for Pele), who are embodied by the planets and represented by astrology, as it is about a man-woman breakup and cultural breakdowns over time. For me, that album is the key to understanding Tori’s seemingly scattered mythological references throughout her career, and Night of Hunters was a coded setup for Native Invader, which I view as Tori’s official, straightforward coming out as a pagan mystic/shaman.

if you see three candles in the window been expecting you Undine of the Sea The Kindly Ones are here with me.

"I think once the EPA announced the people that were going to be the caretakers of the country, it seemed like we needed to remember that, maybe there was an agreement that was made thousands and thousands of years ago between humanity and that which is on the other side of the veil -- the Devas that rule nature and work with nature -- maybe they do remember the agreement. The bats definitely remember. And so, humans have probably forgotten this agreement but the problem is they've been warning us, they'll wreak havoc, they're wreaking havoc right now. And will continue to do so"

So I think you maybe right r243

For me her scariest song is Sister Janet, I still find it hard to listen to.

R243 Love this!

R245 Sister Janet is without a doubt an account of an ayahuasca experience. I could detail it line by line but I will spare you. :) Still, listen to it literally from the first line: Master shaman, I have come with my dollie for the shadow side, with a demon and an Englishman. It’s about her appealing to a shaman who gives her ayahuasca and mediates the experience. In the end, “I think I could try this once again.”

Sister Janet is one of my favorites. Her piano in that is everything. Also, yes to everything R247 wrote.

Also, I started researching Native Invader interviews because I've grown so emotionally attached to the album. I love this one - you can tell the interviewer is a big fan - and it seems like T may have written all or most of the songs during a two week stretch. Amazing.

The album does feel and sound like one massive, cohesive sonic structure.

R244 I haven’t confirmed with Tori, but I am pretty confident I’m right. ;) The album artwork for Native Invader unabashedly presents her as a pagan medicine woman, with shamanic elements that could be Native American, Mesoamerican or even from Europe or Eurasia. She’s firmly placed in a natural wooded environment and she’s surrounded by smoke or mist, apparently summoning or at least surrounded by something mystical. I don’t love the artwork for this album because “she looks good”; I do love it because it very straightforwardly presents her in a way that represents the basis of her whole musical career, at least through the perspective through which I’ve interpreted it. She wisely always presented herself in her younger days as a seeker, but now she very fairly is presenting herself as a wise woman.

Particularly this one r249.

Yep R250, she’s not being coy anymore (or now, anyway) with her world view. I respect her incredibly.

R249 Love your analysis of her artwork, e.g. seeker vs wise woman, etc.

She really started with the pagan imagery w/ Midwinter Graces, though admittedly, the artwork for TBK through ADP reveals a fractured woman to me.

From MG through NoH, I see someone becoming whole again, but still clinging to facades...still somewhat in denial.

UG's artwork is beautiful and shows a woman more comfortable in her skin than she had been in nearly a decade. It also is a good visual snapshot of the album: a musician having fun and exploring again with her music. Not overwrought but fun, spontaneous and moody.

NI's artwork indeed shows a wise woman and the dark yet vibrant color scheme throughout very much represents the sound of NI.

Funny, how I see the artwork is usually how I view the corresponding album. Save for NoH, which is a mature, brilliant, fully realized work.

I love her earlier work and I still love her talent.

I do think from time to time she'd benefit from either

(a) a stronger hand reining in her areas of excess or focusing her vision(s)

Or

(b) a collaboration where she'd contribute to something bigger - sometimes that distills things in a beautiful way.

R253 What did you think of Native Invader?

She sad there are a lot of Tracks from NI that were not ready in time, I wonder what she'll do with them, maybe they'll be on the next album, Baptism of Love was on the the tracks not ready i time, that think she said she likes.

Yeah, the unreleased songs from NI are "Stone by Stone", "Black Is the Colour" and "Baptize Your Love". Would be interesting to hear them. Or we might have to wait 20 years, like we did with "To the Fair Motormaids of Japan".

R256 Motormaids was sooo worth it though. That song is everything I expected and more.

r243 Cloud Riders from NI also papered on NoH's Star Whisperer. And I always feel Forest of Glass has strong connections to NoH.

sorry "appeared " .

I love her comments on her mother, Chocolate Song and "the bats".

Really good stuff.

Also, I had smoked some good weed and Chocolate Song all of a sudden became about Black Lives Matter. Only Tori, I tell you.

Tori is about communication, compassion, and listening to other people and to the environment and communicating back with all of them thoughtfully in such a way that encourages productive understanding and discovery.

R261 So true.

For me, it's her piano and keyboard playing that really enlightens me.

No other bitch in music om has done or can do this.

R262 Yeah, Tori’s artistry has had a huge effect on me, and I think the greatest effect of all has been to take me outside of my thoughts to consider other aspects of being. She’s extraordinarily thoughtful, but her music is inspired and intuitive, and she has said a lot recently that she sees filaments of light when she plays and sings, and she interprets the music through those visions (which is a shamanic way of being). That’s a whole other level of her music beyond lyrics—I’m trying not to move; it’s just your ghost passing through.

I also feel her connection with her fans and her gay fans is genuine, not like some other musicians who court their gay fans for more contrived reasons.

Tori has never said “I love the fans!” Or “thanks to the fans!” as if we are some disembodied, nonhuman entity that exists solely to appreciate her. Most pop stars say this, and it’s telling. Tori talks about the stories she hears from the people who come to see her, and about the energy she gets from the audience and her obligation to return that energy. She respects what people give her, and she sees people as people, not as gift cards.

Word is Choirgirl reissue isn't happening.

R267. Word from where?

I can't take this.

I'll be disappointed if the Choirgirl reissue doesn't happen. I was so pleased that we got two new songs from the Pele era last time round.

I think it's still happening. It's not her focus right now, all things re: her mother considered, but she already confirmed it's happening months back.

I just want Choirgirl on vinyl.

Tori will be "in conversation" w/ British actress, Natalie Former, on June 6th at the Royal Albert Hall. It will air on BBC 4. I hope she talks about Native Invader, choirgirl and what's next for her.

Natalie *Dormer

I don't know why it would take up too much if any of her time to release the reissue. Surely it's all re mastering, everything thing else has been done.

R274 Maybe she doesn’t want to revisit the pain of the miscarriage while her mother is in the state she’s in? I would love lost Choirgirl gems, but I hope she puts her family before her career. I can wait. Mary can’t.

Ever since I heard it, Mary's Eyes reminded me of a more refined and whimsical Violet's Eyes (choirgirl on-site)

Mary's Eyes

Tori's mum on Tori.

What an evocative little cover/transcription.

Broken Arrow is one of my faves evar!

It dawned on me today how much I've connected with Bats. I can't get over this beauty.

I can listen to it in any mood. She sounds so delicious in it and it does what the best Tori songs do: it covers about five different topics/themes at once and brilliantly.

Her playing and the melody she composed are effervescent. This is one of the those d k songs, I believe, even a non would get. It's effortless and should've been a single

It's become a mantra song for me during troubling times.

"...kindly ones are here with me...

Keep breathing, girl."

Bats

Bats is my favorite song on NI. When I listen to it I imagine a small American town at the bottom of the ocean.

R282 Interesting image. I picture being on a sailboat or speed boat out in the middle of the ocean, sunlight glimmering off the ocean.

It makes me feel hopeful, meditative and alive.

I have a type of quasi-synesthesia and I very often (most often with Tori’s music) see clear visuals in my mind associated with music and vocals. Bats projects an undulating stream of deep blue with some silver facets that flows with the keyboard from the opening notes. It’s about the same color as the blue on this Spark single cover, but it shimmers, and although it moves like water, its texture is a kind of electrostatic liquid that I can’t describe exactly. Some songs don’t produce any visual effects, and some vary a bit from listen to listen, but some including Bats and Concertina and Wildwood and Bang, etc. are highly visual and consistent with the same mental visions every time I listen.

Very interesting, R284. Doubly so because from the get "Bats" reminded me of the improvised piano bridge for iieee she did below.

"Bats" reminds me of something she would've improvised in 1998.

Improv starts around 4:25-4:30.

R285 Musically I hear what you mean, but visually that interlude is totally pink and white a buttery yellow for me.

I know you understand, understand the way I feel

It's been a hellish work week so I took a personal day and am listening to my favorite Tori albums in sequential order with some good weed of course.

Little Earthquakes

Under the Pink

Boys for Pele

from the choirgirl hotel

To Venus and Back

Night of Hunters

Native Invader

I'd love for her to do an album as sonically twisted and sinuous as her cover of PJ's We Float

Sorry I mean she has made records like that, certainly Venus, but this proves she still can and that's not to say I didn't love Invader, but maybe next time.

From a fan who attended the The Light Princess concert:

All the news, from Tori’s mouth: • she broke her ankle “in Ireland, dancing with leprechauns under the moon” • there will NOT be a Choirgirl anniversary reissue • IF talks work out, we should “look out for her at Barnes & Noble” next year. She emphasized the first part several times • next tour will be in 2020 • The Light Princess concert was amazing, they changed some things: the teenage pregnancy storyline was scrapped, they added in some new lyrics to be more descriptive of what you’d otherwise get from the action in stage • (yes there are several bootlegs, patience)

I'm dying to know what she's doing for Barnes and Noble. Exclusive music - a book?

The B&N thing might be related to a choirgirl reissue. Maybe she's reissuing it through them or working on a tie-in book for the eventual reissue.

Also, the fact that she mentioned a tour in 2020 most certainly means she intends to release another album then or in late 2019. I'm assuming she's already started improvising and composing for it.

Excited and happy that she's keeping busy, especially considering what's going on with her mother.

Native Invader is on a loop again.

It breaks me just like a little girl.

The transition from "Breakaway" to "Wildwood" is one of the best album transitions of her entire career.

Those piano notes into this airy, psychedelic guitar and that whimsical keyboard/organ playing by Tori.

Very interesting post from her regarding the shortest day of the year. I wonder if this ties into the whole Native Invader Shaman vibe.

"I would like to ask you to join me in a global meditation tomorrow Friday, Dec 21st in an effort to release all ties to negativity held in relation to one another. Winter is a time of old age wisdom and spiritual power as the plant nations rest in preparation for Spring’s new growth. This Native American-lead initiative occurs at the changing of each season. It’s important to me, and I thought I would share it with you. To learn more, please check out the event and times for it below."