Tori Amos will release a new studio album called “Ocean to Ocean” on October 29, 2021 via Decca Records, the company announced Monday morning. Described as “an emotional record,” the new album has the pandemic and the attack on the Capitol as touchstones, leading to “a return to the kind of introspection she recognized from her 1992 debut album, ‘Little Earthquakes.’”
Amos says in the announcement, “This is a record about your losses, and how you cope with them. Thankfully when you’ve lived long enough, you can recognize you’re not feeling like the mom you want to be, the wife you want to be, the artist you want to be. I realized that to shift this, you have to write from the place where you are. I was in my own private hell, so I told myself, then that’s where you write from – you’ve done it before…
“We have all had moments that can knock us down,” she continued. “This record sits with you where you are, especially if you are in a place of loss. I am fascinated when someone has gone through a tragedy, and how they work through their grief. That is where the gold is. When somebody is actually at that place, thinking “I’m done”, how do you reach that person? Sometimes it’s not about a pill, or a double shot of tequila. It’s about sitting in the muck together. I’m going to meet you in the muck.”
Amos’ released her second book, “Resistance,” in 2019 and her staged her musical “The Light Princess.” Nearly 30 years ago, she became the first public voice for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), which is the United States’ largest anti-sexual assault organization, and continues to be member of its National Leadership Council.
[quote]In spite of the various crises that have occurred since 2017’s Native Invader, Tori Amos has emerged with Ocean to Ocean, her most personal work in years – an album bursting with warmth and connection, with deep roots in her earliest song writing.
[quote]Written during the 3rd Lockdown in Cornwall this year, Ocean to Ocean is a universal story of going to rock bottom and renewing yourself all over again.
[quote]For a record written within limited surroundings, two things are remarkable – its rich stylistic variation, from tango to wide-screen romance, and the big-heartedness of songs, which run almost like a series of love letters to family both present and absent. It is, in one sense, her most Cornish record yet: the artwork says it all, with Amos shot on the cliffs, and in the caves on the county’s south west shores.