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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: splent on April 22, 2010, 05:31:15 PM
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Inspired by the female singer songwriter thread...
Favorite songs are Precious Things, Winter, Cornflake Girl, Pretty Good Year, Bells For Her, Concertina, Spark, Bouncing Off Clouds, and Fat Slut. I also love The Big Picture from Y Kant Tori Read, even though she hates it.
I saw her live 3 years ago at The Vic in Chicago... got the tix for the gf (now wife) for her birthday). We had excellent seats. She did something historic there and performed Me And A Gun with the band, for the first time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W6lfTUzKPA
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I love Tori Amos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmETxWM0h0 - Winter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPZvCoELcU4 - Crucify (I love this version)
I missed her last time she came around but I should check out if she is coming to Florida anytime soon.
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She has always been hit and miss with me. Her best songs are absolutely amazing though - Winter, angel, precious things and silent all these years are great!
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I love these
The Big Picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTNhdO0elM
Before they were Stars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbZLWdBSaZg
Just right commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iZ8ys-utfs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iZ8ys-utfs)
I'm Tori Amos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLCMC1yDRGE
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Tori is awesome. I'm not as into her as I was for a while, but I still have a bunch of her albums and still spin them once in a while.
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I agree that she's kinda hit-and-miss. I love Sleeps With Butterflies and A Sorta Fairytale
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I dug up Boys for Pele this week. I was nuts on this album for about nine months when I first got it, but had more or less forgotten about it since.
This album is seriously solid start to finish, which is quite an accomplishment when its seventy-something minutes. Very quirky, but that's Tori. Next time I make up a 25 favourite albums list, I think I'll have to consider this one.
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Her musical talents aside, :heart :heart :heart :heart :heart.
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Didn't she cover Raining Blood at some point?
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This thread only has 8 replies?? Fail, DTF. Fail.
I've been loving her lately. I'm absolutely obsessed with Little Earthquakes, and From the Choirgirl Hotel and Under the Pink are awesome, too. Can't wait to dig into the rest of her discography.
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I've loved the few Tori songs I've heard, those would be "Give", "Flavor" and "Welcome to England" then a few other ones I can't remember.
Gotta check out the rest of her discography. :tup
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Little Earthquakes is beyond incredible. I can't stop playing it in its entirety.
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This thread deserves a bump.
So Tori is pretty much one of my favorite artists already, have been listening to her loads the last 1 ½ month or so.
Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys For Pele and From a Choirgirl Hotel are pretty much perfect albums, can't say enough good things about them, because they are truly wonderful.
Recently moved on with the next album chronologically (To Venus and Back) which I'm also really liking, first half is more of a B-Sides (from what I've read) and second disc is a great live-album, containing some of her classic songs.
I refuse to think negative about her latter albums, which I've heard from different directions.
I'm gonna go into the latter albums with the same mentality as the first ones, and hope that maybe they'll click more with me then for others, I'm not sure, but at least want to give them all the same chance. :)
The first songs I ever heard from Tori were a couple of songs from Abnormally Attracted to Sin, which were all fantastic, so I refuse to believe anything bad about that album.
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Caught a Lite Sneeze
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She has a new album coming out this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gzKwOcCOYA
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Yeah I know that, really excited about it. :)
To Venus and Back is really good, listened to it some more times, and it has some killer songs.
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I went out and sampled her recent albums a few months back, to see if they were really as poor as people say. Listened to two or three tracks which a fair consensus of people seemed to agree were strong tracks, okay tracks and bad tracks (as in, a few tracks for each category).
There is definitely some slump compared to her earlier albums overall, but there was still some good stuff. Beekeeper was a mixed bag, some great, some good, some rubbish; American Doll Posse was pretty bad, didn't enjoy anything there; and Abnormally Attracted to Sin was pretty damn good, reminded me a bit of Choirgirl, but approached from a bit of a different angle. Didn't try out the Christmas album.
Her new album sounds very interesting and promising too.
I also recently gave Little Earthquakes a few plays and found myself liking it a bit more than some years ago. It's never gonna be my favourite, but it seemed stronger than before.
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I like American Doll Posse.
Her Christmas album is very very good, there are a couple of songs I never listen to, but for the most part it's very good. You hear the return of the harpsichord in it!!!
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She is such a talented, gorgeous, impressive hot woman....
...adore her work.....
Didn't she cover Raining Blood at some point?
Did she? :omg:
*googles it*
yes she did....
love her even more now :heart
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I need to catch up with her work, I haven't listened to the last 4 albums or so. . .
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Album rankings out of the ones I know so far (going through them chronologically):
From the Choirgirl Hotel
Under the Pink
Little Earthquakes
To Venus and Back (CD1)
Boys For Pele
But all these are fantastic really, I just love them all!
This week I'll probably start checking out Scarlet's Walk.
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From The Choirgirl Hotel is probably my favourite. Or Venus And Back.
Spark and Cruel are particularly good.
And Cornflake Girl obviously.
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Best songs:
Precious Things
Winter
Original Sinsuality
Sirens
Taxi Ride
Little Earthquakes
Raining Blood (slayer cover - awesome as fuck)
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I have so many favorites, but if I had to narrow it down to like 10 or so, I'd say:
Raspberry Swirl
Hotel
Cloud on my Tongue
Precious Things
Cornflake Girl
Talula
Yes, Anastasia
Icicle
Datura
Spring Haze
Again, this was really hard!
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Her music really went downhill after Y Kant Tori Read. :P
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Her music really went downhill after Y Kant Tori Read. :P
:tup Where is the "like" button when you need one...
Tori Amos is such a great artist. I have seen her twice live (once her and piano and once with a full band) and both shows were amazing...
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Sweet The Sting :heart
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To Venus and Back is such an underrated album among her fans, it's amazing! :hefdaddy
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Bump.
I have to ask, is there any love here for "I Can't See New York?".
It's hard to say, but that song might be my favorite Tori Amos song, it has just about everything that makes her amazing, it has amazing melodies and the lyrics are just fantastic.
"You said you would find me even in death" :heart
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https://www.metalsucks.net/2011/09/26/tori-amos-challenges-metal-bands-to-an-emotions-off-or-something-and-why-its-fucked-up/
Because of this, I will never, ever, ever take her seriously.
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I think people are taking that quote a bit too seriously, I just giggle at it. :lol
Has anyone else listened to her new album, Night of Hunters yet?
I really really love it.
More classical than her previous albums IMO, but I think it's a brilliant album, and one of my favorite releases this year. :heart
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I think people are taking that quote a bit too seriously, I just giggle at it. :lol
Has anyone else listened to her new album, Night of Hunters yet?
I really really love it.
More classical than her previous albums IMO, but I think it's a brilliant album, and one of my favorite releases this year. :heart
Well she also completely butchered Raining Blood, I really don't care how "emotive" she can be if she can't retain an ounce of the original song aside from lyrics.
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The thing with covers is that they should be an artists way of interpreting another band/artist's song, and make it 'their' song.
I can't begin to think about how horrible her Raining Blood cover would have been, if she would have sung on top of thrash metal-riffs, that would probably have been pretty bad. :/
Besides, a metal-head would most likely bash it, but many of her fans have actually praised that cover, so I think it all comes down to the person.
That whole album "Strange Little Girls" is all covers interpreted by Tori, and the end results are covers that are very different from the originals, which is a good thing. ;)
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The thing with covers is that they should be an artists way of interpreting another band/artist's song, and make it 'their' song.
I can't begin to think about how horrible her Raining Blood cover would have been, if she would have sung on top of thrash metal-riffs, that would probably have been pretty bad. :/
Besides, a metal-head would most likely bash it, but many of her fans have actually praised that cover, so I think it all comes down to the person.
That whole album "Strange Little Girls" is all covers interpreted by Tori, and the end results are covers that are very different from the originals, which is a good thing. ;)
With covers though if it gets to the point where you can't even recognize the original song, then there's a problem.
Also of course her fans will praise it, thats a pretty obvious given, and now "metal-head" has been thrown into the equation. While metal is my primary digest, I listen to a shit ton of indie music, pop and rock, so I'm not just bashing it because its not "TEH METUHLZ". ugh.
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I wasn't impressed with that comment, either, and I'm disappointed that she chose to say that. But I still love her as an artist.
As for this sudden squabble over metalheads, Raining Blood, and butchering covers...I have no say in it.
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Ribbons Undone....just wow. But as a whole, I thought The Beekeeper was a disappointing follow up to Scarlet's Walk (which I thought was her best album since Little Earthquakes...and that's saying A LOT!) Then I just couldn't get into American Doll Posse. And now I just havn't heard the last two albums at all.
I'm extremely "on again/off again" when it's comes to her stuff. I was working in a CD shop when Little Earthquakes came out, and it completely hit me like a brick. (in a good way) It was just so different from anything I was listening to at the time. I immediately developed a HUGE crush, and ran out and bought any single I could get my hands on and listened to it constantly. Waited with baited breath for Under the Pink...which was almost as good, but had a couple of skip tracks. Then she just flat out LOST me on Boys for Pele. I've thought about re-visiting that album though. I'm a bit more open to weird stuff now than I was then...but that album just seemed so out of left field for her. I worked at a different CD shop later on when TftCH came out. I thought it was ok....better than BfP, but nothing grabbed me and I just figured that I wasn't into it anymore.
Somehow, somewhere along the line. Something got me curious to check out soundbites when Scarlet's Walk came out. Maybe it was just the right album at the right time...but I fell in love with Tori all over again. Now...not so much. Maybe I just really like her style, but tire of it very quickly. She's definitely one of those women that manage to be incredibly sexy without necessarily being all that attractive.
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I've actually worked my way through her discography in a somewhat chronological way, I started with Little Earthquakes and moved on with each studio-album, giving all a fair chance, somewhere around ~10 plays for each album.
Not long ago her new album came out, so I sorta messed up my chronological discovery by listening to it, but I really loved it, so that sorta makes up for it.
I've heard all her studio-albums except American Doll Posse, Abnormally Attracted to Sin and Midwinter Graces, but hopefully I'll get through them in a good timing, so that Midwinter Graces will be played near Christmas, seeing as it's apparently a Wintery-album.
Ranking-wise it's very hard for me to rank her albums, because I think she has very high low-points, and many high-points, and her discography so far is just amazing.
From the Choirgirl Hotel is most likely my favorite album of hers, but when I think about it, Under the Pink, Little Earthquakes, Boys For Pele and To Venus and Back are really not far behind at all, those are some fantastic albums as well.
Scarlet's Walk would be slightly lower then these. While I do love it, and the concept, I don't think that it's AS strong as these other albums, there are a few songs that, while not being particularly bad or anything, there is a few places on the album where there are a few of these songs in a row, which sorta makes me loose the attention for a bit.
SW does have my favorite Tori song though, "I Can't See New York", which is simply fantastic.
I would also rank her latest album about equal to SW in terms of being just slightly lower then the others I mentioned earlier, I think the highs on her new album are equal to her highs in the past, Star Whisperer in particularly, but again just minor complaints really.
Strange Little Girls and The Beekeeper would be slightly lower again.
While I don't dislike these albums, again, they just aren't AS good to me as the other's I've mentioned.
I would actually like to praise The Beekeeper a bit, I think it get's a lot of bashing all the time, but I really don't think it's as bad as people point it out to be.
I would say that most of TBK is some pretty good songs, with just a few being "decent", but my only issue with it would be that it's strongest points aren't as strong as her other strong-points, if that makes sense.
I really do like most of TBK, but there aren't any particular standout songs for me, perhaps "Martha's Foolish Ginger".
Strange Little Girls has some really good covers and some interesting ones, but personally I'm not much of a cover-person, so that kinda explains my ranking of it.
I do appreciate a good cover, but a full album of covers isn't as interesting. On the plus-side though, Tori does make her own versions very unique, and it does sound more like a "new" album, then a cover-album.
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I just started to listen to Night of Hunters. Does this album represent her sound very well? I haven't really heard anything else. I'm liking it a lot thus far though.
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I just started to listen to Night of Hunters. Does this album represent her sound very well? I haven't really heard anything else. I'm liking it a lot thus far though.
Glad that you are liking it, one of my favorites of 2011 for sure! :)
I wouldn't say that it's typical for her sound, because it's a lot more "Classic Music" then her other albums, so in comparison, many of her other albums are more simple, singer-songwriter ish, then classic.
If you do love it however, there's really nothing stopping you from checking her four classic albums (Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys For Pele and From the Choirgirl Hotel), and maybe more after that if you like it. :)
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Bump because thread deserves more attention.
I'm really tempted to buy the pink vinyl of "Under the Pink", it looks pretty cool. I must say that "Flying Dutchman" and "Upside Down" are two amazing B-Sides, and it's really a shame that they didn't end up on "Little Earthquakes". Nowadays I don't listen to that album very much, but instead I listen to the full version of it, aka. the first CD in A Piano - The Collection. (It's the full length version of Little Earthquakes, with B-Sides)
I haven't listened to Tori in a few months now, but since the summer is coming I feel an urge to spin her albums again. I discovered her last summer, so I guess she will always be connected to that time period for me. :)
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Tori is great during the summer! I'm just heading into winter so its kinda the opposite for me :p
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Coincidentally, I've been listening to her a lot this week as well.
I seem to go through a period every now and then during which Tori's music is the only thing I want to listen to.
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Really exciting news! Tori is releasing a new album entitled ‘Gold Dust’ set for release in October.
Tori has re-imagined a personally hand-picked collection of songs spanning her entire catalogue for her thirteenth studio album. It features re-workings of songs in orchestral settings, which Tori produced in the studio with the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley with arrangements by John Philip Shenale
Tori will also be doing a very limited number of orchestral shows in the US and Europe around the release. Click here for tour date info! www.toriamos.com
I am really excited for this. :)
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I can't stop listening to Yes, Anastasia, it's been in my head for over a month now :|
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I can't stop listening to Yes, Anastasia, it's been in my head for over a month now :|
It's an awesome song! :hefdaddy
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Bump.
Dunno if anyone else has seen this, but she's remastered Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink.
The sound on the remasters is, by my reckoning, absolutely incredible. I didn't hear these albums until about 2003 or 4, and the production on those early albums has always sounded a bit dated to me. Without overmodernising them, they now sound so crisp and clear and just damn good.
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I was a big fan of hers when she first started putting out CDs, but lost interest after From The Choirgirl Hotel came out.
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I was a big fan of hers when she first started putting out CDs, but lost interest after From The Choirgirl Hotel came out.
I don't like most of her post-Under the Pink output... But Scarlet's Walk was a BIG return to form in my book. That album is brilliant.
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I would say everything up to (and including) To Venus and Back was awesome. After that she has had some hits and misses, but each album has songs I enjoy.
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I was a big fan of hers when she first started putting out CDs, but lost interest after From The Choirgirl Hotel came out.
I don't like most of her post-Under the Pink output... But Scarlet's Walk was a BIG return to form in my book. That album is brilliant.
Maybe I'll check that one out.
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I only got as far as Choirgirl Hotel, though I'm listening to her quite a bit again and I think I'll explore further.
Boys For Pele was my first of her albums, and is probably still my favourite. There's a wee bit of stuff on there that's not amazing, but of all twenty songs, none are actually bad, and the best are up there with her best on other albums. And all her other albums have a track or two I'm not so fond of.
After Scarlet's Walk definitely seems to be the point that more or less everyone agrees she wasn't putting out great albums anymore. I've heard minor rumblings that her past few (Night of Hunters and Unrepentant Geraldines) have been better than she's been in a while though.
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Night of Hunters is definitely a great one, and I'd say the best one she has put out in the last 10 years. I think overall, even the worst 00-albums like The Beekeeper or American Doll Posse still have some nice songs. I don't consider either to be bad albums, just kinda average. There's fewer standout tracks and the overall quality is lower, but it's still listenable IMO.
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She strikes me as a good enough songwriter that even if she put out a bad/average album, she'd be incapable of not getting at least one or two great songs on there.
I intend to approach those albums of hers like lesser Dylan albums. I know they're supposedly not great albums, so if I like even half of what's on there, I'll be happy.
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She has always been hit and miss with me. Her best songs are absolutely amazing though - Winter, angel, precious things and silent all these years are great!
I loved her 1st 3 albums and I bought a few after that on the release dates but they weren't the same. The songs were not catching me anymore like on Little Earthquakes or Under the Pink.
Any of her recent work up to the same quality as the old stuff? I stopped getting her CDs after a few meh ones
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I love the Choirgirl Hotel album.
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I love the Choirgirl Hotel album.
Her best one!
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:tup
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Bump.
I finally got around to checking out a bit more music of hers.
To Venus and Back (the studio disc) is really not good. I've listened to it three times and not a single song has jumped out at me. There's nothing glaringly terrible about any song on there, it has basically the same vibe as Choirgirl, but I'm bored of the album by halfway because nothing strikes a chord.
I also got a live album of her performances at Montreux Jazz Festival in 91 and 92, all solo piano. There are some pretty neat performances on there.
And I went through a bunch of her (according to her fanbase) better B-Sides on youtube. Sirens, Mountain, Apollo's Frock, Garlands, Ruby Through the Looking Glass. She's as bad as Bob Dylan is about leaving astounding songs off of her albums.
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Her first few albums had me listening quite frequently. But I seemed to listen less and less with the new albums, and then I didn't even feel an urge to listen to the first ones to the point where I almost never listen to her any more.
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I don't think she ever topped Little Earthquakes. But Scarlet's Walk is a freakin AMAZING latter day album that is overlooked by many.
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Still haven't gotten as far as that one. It'll be the next studio album of hers I check out now.
(Scarlet's Walk, I mean).
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I actually like To Venus and Back quite a bit. Not AS good as Choirgirl, but with songs like Dātura, Spring Haze, Concertina and Bliss. I don't love all of Scarlet's Walk, but it has probably my favorite Tori-song in "I Can't See New York", so there's that.
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I'm not a fan of Venus.
I think her most recent album is her best since Scarlet.
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I liked her newest album but it wasn't better than Abnormally Attracted to Sin, and definitely not Night of Hunters IMO. I think the main problem nowadays (since Scarlet really) is that she still puts out really long albums with many songs, and there's always a fair chunk that feels like filler. With an album like Night of Hunters, it at least felt consistent to the idea and different sound, and the whole album was a nice homage to the more classic music that influenced her.
Overall I'd rate her albums:
From the Choirgirl Hotel
Under the Pink
Little Earthquakes
Boys For Pele
To Venus and Back
Scarlet's Walk
Night of Hunters
Abnormally Attracted to Sin
Unrepentant Geraldines
American Doll Posse
Strange Little Girls
The Beekeeper
Gold Dust
Midwinter Graces
LE and UtP are interchangable, but I'll give the slight edge to UtP. I might bump up LE if we were talking about the full extended version of it, that appears as CD1 on the "A Piano" collection. Funny enough, the best songs IMO were the ones that were cut from the album and only appeared on the full version of it, Upside Down & Flying Dutchman especially. I will say that as much as I like LE, I still think Crucify and Me and a Gun brings it down for me.
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Oh wow....Me and a Gun is one of the most amazing things ever. The only reason I don't listen to it very often is because it is simply *too* emotionally eviscerating.
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I might add that acapella is one of the cringiest things I know, so it's really not so much a problem with that song but the fact that there's no music behind it.
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Oh wow....Me and a Gun is one of the most amazing things ever. The only reason I don't listen to it very often is because it is simply *too* emotionally eviscerating.
Look at the OP... Turns out that was one of the last times she's performed it live, I think she only did it a few times in South Africa since then. And that was 9 years ago.
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I only like her first 3 albums. For years I would buy every album at release until I finally gave up. Is any of her newer music reminiscent of the old? Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink were masterpieces. Nothing after Boys for Pele caught me.
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I only like her first 3 albums. For years I would buy every album at release until I finally gave up. Is any of her newer music reminiscent of the old? Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink were masterpieces. Nothing after Boys for Pele caught me.
There are songs off of the newer albums that are very similar to the old, but there really isn't an album that sounds exactly like little earthquakes.
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I love Tori Amos.
I hold Under the Pink very close to my heart.
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For those of you who weren't aware, Kevin Moore made a remix version of "Song for Eric" back in the mid 1990s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzecazfc09M. It appeared on his Music Meant to Be Heard cassette.
Just wanted to share!
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Bump....
Been listening to Tori Amos since Little Earthquakes took me by storm when it was released.
Have not bought all recent albums (last one was beekeeper ).
Have tickets to see her live in Copenhagen in September for the first time.
Now bought Unrepentant geraldines and am listening for the first time.
Preordered the upcoming album. Going to be intdrresting seeing her.
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I wish I could see her live at some point but she never plays in Sweden and traveling abroad for concerts is something I haven't done yet, and can't really do before I make money. ;D Out of her newer albums, I would say Night of Hunters was a pleasant surprise and worth checking out. More classical in style but a good listen. I also have a weird fondness for Abnormally Attracted to Sin, which most people seem lukewarm on, but I would consider probably the best out of her post-Scarlet's Walk albums. (either that or Night of Hunters)
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Travelling from Stockholm to Copenhagen to see her. Been in Malmö a couple of times for concerts... twice this year, Neal Morse Band and Shattered Fortress...
Copenhagen is just Another 40 minutes by train... reminds me that I need to book the train and hotel for Tori Amos.