Anyone pick this up today? I grabbed it on iTunes last night and have been listening to it all morning. I like it alot, especially Parasol, Toast, and Cars and Guitars.
I’m a johnny-come-lately Tori Amos fan though; I only started getting into her stuff after I heard A Sort of Fairy Tale when it was released. Any hardcore fans here? What do you guys think?
I haven’t got it yet, but I’ve checked out all the :30 clips on the AllMusic Guide. The ones that really grabbed me were the title track, Sweet the Sting, Hoochie Woman, and, shoot, I forgot the other one. The ones where she brought in kind of a funk influence and (as I saw it described in one place) an Afro-Carribean kind of a thing. It seems like she’s stayed in the warmer, direct - for Tori - vein also in evidence on Scarlett’s Walk. But it’ll be hard to form a fuller impression until I hear the whole thing.
FYI you can listen to six of the songs (full version I think) at her official site:
I will absolutely do that when I get home this afternoon, then. Of course, there’s a fair chance I’ll give in and buy the album before that anyway. 
I’ve got all but one of her albums, I guess I do qualify as a hardcore fan. I don’t know if anything else touches Little Earthquakes- it’s hard to listen to at times, but I think it’s timeless and the emotional impact is pretty shocking, and in spots remains undiminished no matter how often you listen. Which is why I don’t listen to Tori all that much, actually, it can be painful.
Nope, just 30-second clips, but thanks. And thanks for the heads-up on the release. I’m going to have to go buy the CD this afternoon.
Agreed. That was the album that sucked me in and will always be my favorite.
I still wish she’d rock a little more: too much easy listening now without some of the edge of things on the first five albums.
Does that include hearing the new one? I do agree that the easiness and lack of, I don’t know, weirdness or edge surprised me. But the songs I liked do sound like they have some of the funk or bite (without the techno) of, say, Choirgirl. Eesh, I just shuddered thinking about that album.
Ooo, a new album? I didn’t even know. I’ll have to check it out.
I got into her after I heard Boys For Pele. I just love that album.
Boys for Pele was the last album of hers that I really really liked all the way through. After that it’s been hit or miss on song to song. Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink are both serious goosebump awesome. But something about the goofiness and blandness of the lyrics as well as less interesting music on the later albums just sort of wore me down. Scarlet’s Walk was the best thing she’s done in a long time.
Having the new one and about halfway through, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as Scarlet’s Walk, though it usually takes me a while to warm up to some of her songs. I’d say that it’s almost a little like B-sides from Scarlet’s Walk, but in Tori’s case, the Bsides are often as good if not better than the albums, so that doesn’t work. 
There hasn’t been a single song that’s I’ve thought was absolutely perfect yet, which hasn’t been the case for any previous album for me. On Scarlet’s Walk I could tell immediately that Sorta Fairytale, Gold Dust, and that Taxicab Ride song were classics.
And please, artists. Bulls in China shops. We’ve heard it before. FIND NEW METAPHORS. Also, if you are going to repeat a phrase over and over at one point in the song: MAKE SURE IT ISN’T HELLA GOOFY! Her perchance for ultra-squooshy nonsense is too much on display.
So far, Ribbon’s Undone is decent, The Beekeeper is pretty good.
Sleeps with Butterflies (the single) is sort of forettable, a decent theme, but just sort of a weaker “sorta fairytale.”
I don’t think she’s ever quite topped Little Earthquakes though. How can you beat lines like “maybe she’s just pieces of me you’ve never seen” or “got enough GUILT to start
my own religion”?
A big ex-Tori fan here.
I started liking her with Little Earthquakes.
I fell in love with Under the Pink, what a great album.
I liked about half the songs on Boys for Pele.
But then we got From the Choirgirl Hotel which didn’t contain even 1 good song, followed by To Venus & Back which also pretty much sucked.
I listened to the first 30 seconds of every song on Strange Little Girls and haven’t listened to any other stuff ever again.
Does The Beekeeper compare to any of her other albums?
Oh, Chiorgirl had some good stuff. Liquid Diamonds was nice.
This album is, as I’m currently at, ok. Nothing breakout for her, but not awful. If you want good recent Tori, I would suggest Scarlet’s Walk. No huge hits off of that, but it’s a solid album with some good music and decent lyrics. a sorta fairytale is one of her best singles in a awhile, and as I said, there are a couple of other good tracks. gold dust is a good, sad song
Oh, and Strange Little Girls has some good tracks, don’t be fooled. Her cover of that Tom Waits song is good
OK, I think you confirmed it : I will also hate this new album.
Why doesn’t she just go back to what she does best : write beautiful piano-songs.
I never got the whole rock-chick thing she tries.
Liquid Diamonds was a piano song, not a rock chick song. The Tom Waits song is pure Tori piano, not a rock song. And if it matters, Scarlet’s Walk and this new album are both very understated, piano-centered albums (at times TOO understated).
And wait a minute: Cornflake Girl, God, Space Dog: all those songs were just quiet piano tunes?
Because it’s a very boring musician who picks a pattern and sticks to it ad infinitum.
Having heard Beekeeper a couple of times, I’m sticking with the assessment I already made. There are a couple of tracks I really like*, and it’s more friendly and open than you’d figure. But it’s also very smooth, and even among the tracks I like, there are bits where they ought to rock out or funk out more and they don’t.
*In no particular order, Sweet the Sting, Witness, Hoochie Woman, The Beekeeper, Toast, and maybe one or two others. I usually need to hear her albums a few times through to start differentiating between some of the tracks. I wish I could find my copy of Choirgirl, because I’d like to go through it again, but it may be 800 miles away. :smack:
Parasol is pretty good. There are some good themes here, and they are piano songs with backup. But the themes aren’t as developed, and there aren’t as many piano related explorations.
I still think vinryk is nuts if he likes the piano stuff, but hasn’t heard Scarlet’s Walk. It certainly isn’t her in her heyday, but any decent Tori fan should find some stuff on there worth having in their collection even if they think she went to shit over the course of “Pig Suck” album to the covers one.
I picked it up, but have only given it a cursory listen so far. I’ll have to listen to it more later.
I more or less agree with Apos in that Boys for Pele was the last album that I really loved, with Scarlet’s Walk being an improvement over her other recent efforts.
Honestly, I should probably go back and listen to her recent albums a few more times, though. I can’t remember the last time I listened to one of them.
I seem to be in the minority here, in that I love From the Choirgirl Hotel and find Boys For Pele almost unlistenable. I do agree that Little Earthquakes is her best.
OK, I just listened to some parts of Scarlett’s Walk and that sounds pretty great.
I hadn’t heard that one yet.
I stopped buying them after the From the Choirgirl Hotel and that terrible, terrible cover-album.
I didn’t hate Choirgirl, per se, it just felt a lot weaker than some past albums, particularly when the lyrics seemed to get even worse. Under the Pink had utterly surreal lyrics, but the music to back it up, and they still implied some semblance of sense and purpose.