I like all of them and even have a few singles albums. I discovered her with Boys for Pele. I like the variety of styles, not just piano-centric stuff.
I’m warming up to The Beekeeper. There is at least one song that is reminiscent of her Venus days (I think, could be Choirgirl). I don’t know the names of songs on her albums unless it’s obvious by the song itself. If you ever get the DVD Welcome to Sunny Florida, there are some cool (also piano-centric) tracks on the bonus CD. Who wouldn’t like a song called “Bug a Martini”?
I listen to her the most. Her songs and voice speak to me in a way that’s very nourishing.
I just got a ticket to her concert in Chicago April 15! Presale, and it’s not going very well for the fans…I got lucky. I guess the Chicago Presale is sold out. Tickets go on sale on Ticketmaster this Saturday. But here’s the link if you’re interested.
I’m liking the album a little more. I can listen to it. It doesn’t really blow me away, and there are a lot of things I think the Tori of Under the Pink could have added or changed. Too many songs are weakened by some just plain uninteresting lyrics, IMHO.
I’d never even heard a Tori Amos song until last week. Being most a classical sort of person, I don’t listen to the radio much at all, and none of the local stations would be likely to play her music anyway. So based on a review I read, I downloaded a song on I-Tunes just to see what it was like. It turned out to be Parasol. I liked it. A lot. Downloaded the rest of The Beekeeper and burned it to a CD. I’ve been playing it in the car ever since.
Most of the comments on this thread have been all about comparing this album to older works. Not having heard any, I don’t have any basis to compare. But I love almost every song from The Beekeeper. The melodies are lush and memorable, and her voice is much prettier than I expected. I’m left very confused by some of the lyrics, though. Are they supposed to be utterly cryptic, or are they more easily parsed by her long-time fans? My favorite song, for example, is Martha’s Foolish Ginger, but I can’t figure out what on earth the title refers to. Can anyone enlighten me?
I bought the Beekeeper and kinda liked it.
I still think that her lyrics are gettings worse with the years, but I like the sound.
Looking forward to Scarlett now.
Welll, we’re actually all comparing it to our younger years of course: beng cynical and all we are used to a lot of her work, and it can’t help but feel to longtime fans that new stuff never matches up to old stuff, or that things feel too familiar, and so forth…
It’s not an operatic or R&B voice, but she has some pretty stylings indeed.
Her earlier stuff is definately as cryptic, but at least I thought once that I could understand some what some of it meant. It’s certainly often meant to be evocative and stream of thought most of the time. If you actually hear her describe what she thinks her songs mean, it sounds a little batty, so you’re better off interpreting it yourself.
Take parasol: I think this one is pretty straightforward: there’s been some horrid news that someone has just gotten, and to cope they are reading into the calmness of a static picture on the wall (perhaps that famous ponitalist picture?)
Under the Pink had some pretty out-there lyrics (Little Earthquakes is awesome, but I would say that Pink is the absolute height of music + lyrics). But for some reason, it all worked: all sorts of crazy images that somehow have a definately underlying emotional content. I think over time he’s become more conventional and coherent in the actual lyrics as written but also less coherent in the evocative meanings.
Sometimes in a while you can figure out what a song is about, but most of the time it’s cryptic to everybody. In my opinion she kind of speaks her own language when she writes, picks a lot of images and ideas that mean something to her and mean something in total, but you get more of a vibe than a literal understanding. Apos: when I read what she says about her own songs, I usually think she’s either overexplaining it, or that I have a better explanation.
There’s a gardening thing going on throughout the album, but past that I don’t have a clue.
Tori does love the cryptic nature of her lyrics. If you go to a fan website called “Here in my Head” you can read the lyrics and see a collection of Tori’s comments about songs that help explain them. Cornflake Girl being one of the more interesting:
Yeah, there’s a good exception. Helped me make sense of the song, which I think is one of her best.
But if you read that and thought “what the hell does that have to do with Cornflakes?” I think I can provide the answer. John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of the corn flake was a temperance nut, sort of like Sylvester Graham (of the Graham cracker). Unfortunately, this guy had a license to practice medicine.
So there’s the link back to the Alice Walker book.
I was a big Tori Amos fan whith Little Earthquakes. Since then, I’ve been kinda, meh. Same stuff, same strife. Got a little old. I still download some of her live stuff from time to time.
Still, I had never wanted to be a piano bench more in my life.
I got it yesterday, I like it. I’m listening to Cars and Guitars right now, and I kinda don’t mind it. It’s ‘smoother’ than previous albums of hers. I’m a Boys Of Pelé fan, as well as Little Earthquakes.
I have the special edition with the DVD on which she tries to explain some of the topics of the album.
It has to do with the sacred femininity and Mary Magdalene and a bunch of other “Da Vinci Code”-ramblings.
She also speaks of her songs as people who came to her and told her their story.
I think it is best to not hear Tori speak about her songs and/or lyrics as she is about as batty as Charlie Manson (but a lot friendlier).
I love Tori and all her albums for different reasons. ‘Under the Pink’ was obviously my favorite, but each of her albums have something unique to share about her quirkiness. I like her BECAUSE she’s not like everyone else and because her lyrics are cryptic and symbolic. Right now I haven’t gotten the whole CD yet, but I’ve bought Sleeps With Butterflies and The Beekeeper and I absolutely LOVE both songs. I think her maturity grows with each project and this one so far is incredible, but that’s just the opinion of someone who’s followed her from the beginning. YMMV
I love Parasol and find myself humming it all the damn time. Jamaica Inn is also getting dug into my brain. None of the other songs have really caught my attention yet but I’m enjoying the album in general, and it usually takes many listen-throughs for various songs on any album to jump out at me and grab me.
Then again I LOVE From the Choirgirl Hotel. So I’m probably atypical.
I’ve listened to the album a little more, and my favorites right now are Beekeeper, Parasol, Ireland, the one that goes “What I would have done…”.
She said something recently to the effect of that she’s 40 years old and angry music by a 40-year-old is just sad, but she fully supports younger women expressing anger through their music.
As Marley said, sometimes it’s better to get a general feeling from the music rather than trying to understand the lyrics.
The first of her albums that I bought was “Little Earthquakes”, way the hell back when I was in high school. I loved it and love every subsequent album up to and including “From the Choirgirl Hotel.”
Unfortunately, her work since then hasn’t done anything for me. “To Venus and Back” was probably the biggest disappointment but I’m not fond of “Scarlett’s Walk” or “The Beekeeper” either.
