Monday, January 09, 2006

Tori Tuesday





Today on Tori Tuesday, I feature Tori Amos' 2002 release, Strange Little Girls.




This is Toris 2002 release which is an all cover album.





One of my favorite treats on Strange Little Girls is that we get to see Tori take on the personnas from her songs. Tori as a brunette? Uh huh. How about a blonde? Yes, please!




It's a strange beast, the covers album. Many talented artists, and Duran Duran, have attempted to fill an entire album with cover versions and the vast majority have come seriously unstuck. Even Elvis Costello and David Bowie didn't come away completely unscathed. So, it's with apprehension that one approaches the new album by Tori Amos, an album of songs "written by men about women and delivered from a female perspective". It comes as quite a shock therefore to discover on listening that this is Amos' best work since her landmark debut Little Earthquakes.
No stranger to the idiosyncratic cover version (a radical restructuring of Smells Like Teen Spirit was an early B-side), Amos has chosen a variety of artists to cover from the predictable (Tom Waits, Neil Young) to the frankly bizarre (Eminem, Slayer). For anybody who is familiar with her music, it comes as no surprise to learn that the vast majority of these songs are stripped down versions, with Amos' piano and voice dominating. What is truly impressive however, is how she has taken these twelve songs and made them truly her own.
Lou Reed's New Age kicks off proceedings and rolls along nicely, but nothing prepares you for the next track, a version of Eminem's notorious 97 Bonnie And Clyde. With just a piano and Amos' breathy vocals, she sings the song from the perspective of the doomed mother locked in the trunk, listening to her husband talking to the child. The result is utterly chilling, and surpasses the original by some distance. Another eerie experience is listening to Slayer's Raining Blood, especially in the light of the recent tragic events in America. Intense piano chords strike, while Amos sings of "awaiting reprisals.....raining blood from the lacerated sky". It's disturbingly prophetic, and sadly renders her remarkable version almost unlistenable.
Other triumphs include a starkly beautiful version of Tom Waits' classic Time, and a pretty faithful retelling of Joe Jackson's often overlooked Real Men. This isn't to say that every track on here is an unqualified success. Amos makes a real hash of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold, replacing the original's frail beauty with a cod-metallic backing that does the song no favours at all. Even worse, she completely ruins Happiness Is A Warm Gun. The Beatles' original had a real sense of menace and sardonic humour. Amos punctuates her version with well meaning, but clumsy, samples of news reports about John Lennon's shooting and apologists from the National Rifle Association. This may have been tolerated, but she manages to stretch it out for ten minutes. Enough already.
In general though, this is a real return to form from Tori Amos. Recent albums have seen her lose her way somewhat, with her increasingly bizarre lyrics failing to be tied to many memorable songs. This covers album was an inspired move, and in one move she seems to have got her career back on track. Maybe Simon Le Bon should have a word?
- John Murphy


11 comments:

Logophile said...

I did like her version of
Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Have I mentioned this really fabulous friend of mine got me hooked on some Tori, dang, I got me some excellent friends.

Happy Hiker said...

I have to agree that the Neil Young, 'Heart of Gold' was not her best work. I usually skip through that song when it comes on. I just have a soft spot for that song in general, and it's a bit over the edge. I do love the Duran Duran version though. When I got that alblum I had fun looking at all the pictures and trying to see what shot I related to the most.
Thanks again!

lime said...

sounds like an interesting compilation!

Stephanie said...

I love the different pictures of her - wow!!

Susie - will you make me a Tori cd???

Thomcat said...

i'll try to celebrate tori tuesday ... i better get drunk first though

Bsoholic said...

Yet another Tori album I need to check out. I liked the Smells like Teen Spirit cover.

Fig said...

I always cry when I hear her sing Angie... makes me think of my sister.

CyberWarlock said...

That is the only Tori song I just can not listen to. I have my computer set to lock out Bonnie and Clyde when I put that CD in so I don't have to listen to it. Being the father of a young girl, it just creeps me out/upsets me far too much to listen to it.

Rob said...

I have to say my fave on this CD...

is "Strange Little Girl"

I sing that to my eldest daughter when she is being...well strange!

QL

Sidewaysagain said...

If I carried on about, say, Don Henley, a great songwriter with a great voice (and a very handsome man), or David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Boz Scaggs, Rob Thomas, or Michael Stipe, the way you do about Tori Amos, I think you'd say I had some issues to work out. It just ain't fair!

She is hard to resist, though. Haven't heard this one, but I still play all the tapes of hers you sent me years ago.

Love Ya, Sweetie. SSS ;-)

The Zombieslayer said...

I love Slayer. And you know I love Tori. She's been one of my hot babes before.

I haven't heard this album though. If you say this is the best album since Little Earthquakes, I'll have to check it out.