Album: Little Earthquakes
Artist: Tori Amos
Artist: Tori Amos
Born: Newton, North Carolina
Released: January 1992
Genre: Indie Pop
The first Tori Amos album that I bought and listened to was Boys For Pele, her 1996 LP, which featured the brilliant single, Caught A Lite Sneeze. Everything she did at that time was weird and experimental and captured my imagination. Comparisons with Kate Bush were unavoidable, especially in terms of vocal delivery, going right back to the start of her solo career when Amos' record label suggested she moved to London and release Little Earthquakes in the UK first, given the country was more receptive than the US to eccentric performers. Like Suzanne Vega and Liz Phair, Amos was part of a new generation of American female singer-songwriters who adopted a much more direct, confessional tone which was a direct challenge to social stereotypes about gender. This is evident right from the beginning of the LP, with Crucify containing the line, "looking for a saviour beneath these dirty sheets". Crucify is not the only song on the record to deal with Amos' anger at being a rape victim, as well as her feelings of religious persecution and guilt, but there are lighter moments too. Both Happy Phantom and Leather have a music hall feel that strikes a balance with the album's darker themes.
Amos' piano playing is great and really lights up many of the best songs on the record, like the title track and Silent All These Years. Both songs have complex structures, which reveal Amos' classical training. The fact that Silent All These Years became a successful UK single showed how strong the appetite was among the British public at the time for new and original music. Part of the song's appeal was the unusual video, which created a buzz on MTV and won awards. The "a capella" song, Me & A Gun, is even more emotionally raw for its unadorned arrangement, with Amos singing softly and purposefully about a sexual assault she experienced at knifepoint. Written in response to the film Thelma & Louise, the song ends with the haunting refrain, "But I haven't seen Barbados / so I must get out of this". This courage and willingness to tackle themes outside of the standard pop repertoire made Amos a popular new female voice. Her upbringing by a Cherokee mother and Methodist minister father no doubt added to her unique character, something she recognised herself: “I’m an acquired taste. I’m anchovies. If I was potato chips I could go more places.”
The first Tori Amos album that I bought and listened to was Boys For Pele, her 1996 LP, which featured the brilliant single, Caught A Lite Sneeze. Everything she did at that time was weird and experimental and captured my imagination. Comparisons with Kate Bush were unavoidable, especially in terms of vocal delivery, going right back to the start of her solo career when Amos' record label suggested she moved to London and release Little Earthquakes in the UK first, given the country was more receptive than the US to eccentric performers. Like Suzanne Vega and Liz Phair, Amos was part of a new generation of American female singer-songwriters who adopted a much more direct, confessional tone which was a direct challenge to social stereotypes about gender. This is evident right from the beginning of the LP, with Crucify containing the line, "looking for a saviour beneath these dirty sheets". Crucify is not the only song on the record to deal with Amos' anger at being a rape victim, as well as her feelings of religious persecution and guilt, but there are lighter moments too. Both Happy Phantom and Leather have a music hall feel that strikes a balance with the album's darker themes.
Amos' piano playing is great and really lights up many of the best songs on the record, like the title track and Silent All These Years. Both songs have complex structures, which reveal Amos' classical training. The fact that Silent All These Years became a successful UK single showed how strong the appetite was among the British public at the time for new and original music. Part of the song's appeal was the unusual video, which created a buzz on MTV and won awards. The "a capella" song, Me & A Gun, is even more emotionally raw for its unadorned arrangement, with Amos singing softly and purposefully about a sexual assault she experienced at knifepoint. Written in response to the film Thelma & Louise, the song ends with the haunting refrain, "But I haven't seen Barbados / so I must get out of this". This courage and willingness to tackle themes outside of the standard pop repertoire made Amos a popular new female voice. Her upbringing by a Cherokee mother and Methodist minister father no doubt added to her unique character, something she recognised herself: “I’m an acquired taste. I’m anchovies. If I was potato chips I could go more places.”
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