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Who do you like better and why?


4 Sassy

bjork, hands down.

i've never been a tori fan, though i respect her talent and creativity. i know this sets tori fans off, but my attitude is, "i liked tori amos back when her name was kate bush". there are a few tori songs i like - i think "god" is probably my favorite song of hers - but there's something about the victim/retribution theme of much of her music that turns me off, even though i really appreciate the fact that it's healing for a lot of people who "click" with it on that level. plus i've never been able to get with her whole kinda brittle, tinkly, high-register style, and i'm not big on the whole lilith fair scene, either. love the gals - just not into the ethereal singer/songwriter poet-goddess thing, unless it's patti smith reciting "piss factory" i guess.

meanwhile, i just consider bjork to be a conduit for art. she's visual, she's musical, she's comic, she's tragic, she's dadaist and surrealist while at the same time completely pragmatic and technically precise. she's about fantasy while at the same time, every fantastic image is connected to a very specific meaning. you can see her as completely insane, or perhaps a little TOO sane, depending on how deep you want to go. she's either cartoonish and pixie-ish, or she's a volcanic earth mother ready to blow. i don't think of bjork as an artist - i think of her as a musical sub-genre.

not that tori isn't all the things i listed bjork as. she's just none of those things to ME.

Bjork in a heartbeat.

She is the true artist with lasting depth of the two.

She is the innovator of the two.

Tori, I like, but she owes a large debt to Kate Bush...though she does have a lot of great songs herself.

But Bjork will be remembered as the genius of the two.

Tori.

Granted, without Kate Bush, we probably wouldn't have her...but her songwriting style supersedes Bush - and just about anyone else, in my view. Her writing is so cryptic, and yet the message is driven home via alternate routes - the imagery, abstractions, the beautiful piano playing. "Under the Pink" is genius, and I think her writing style is so original. She talks the way she writes -- she has her own language. Once you unlock her jewellery box you will never stop speculating and exploring her world..it's magical. It's frustrating, but so tempting...addictive.

I think Bjork's pretty special too, but her voice just doesn't do it for me. I'm also a huge piano fan, so I really dig Tori's instrumentation.

A longer answer will follow. But this is a toughy. I have to go with Bjork just because I stick with her longer each time out.

Anxiety said:

Oh no you didn't!

Tori.

I've loved Tori since Little Earthquakes, and have loved every album since then, her passion and creativity is what brings me back. She's simply just a favorite of mine.

I'm definitely a fan of Bjork, but I haven't really been heavily into her beyond Homogenic. I know I'm probably missing out, but for me Tori has held up more in repeated listens. I have Selmasongs though, and I enjoy it,

I've always just been more of a Tori fan.



(Anyone with any Bjork reccommendations after Homogenic is more than welcome to share.)

Kate Bush.

Cloudbuster said:

Easy. Björk.

Tori is so untalented it's bordering on criminal.

subhuman09 said:

You's playing with your electric penis again.

Cloudbuster said:

For the money I paid I'm damn sure gonna use it!

Tori.... far out a better singer than Bjork!!

Bjork.... far out a better A R T I S T than Tori!!

Hey Chico. Look what you've done

We have another war here:

Europeans will choose Bjork (and Kate Bush )...

...and Bush supporters will choose Tori.


By the way, I love Tori but if I have to choose Björk gets my vote

VAMPIRELLA said:

PANDURITO said:

Bush supporters?



(I support bush though.)

Anxiety said:

THANK YOU!

btw, if it wasn't clear already, I'm a Bjork supporter

Novabreaker said:

damn, chico, remind me to bust you in the lip when i finally meet you, lol! how can you pit me against these two perfect women?

anyway, of course i have to go with tori amos. i never know what either singer is speaking of (most of the time) in their lyrics but somehow i'm always affected by tori's songs. i enjoy bjork and love what she does but i wouldn't say i have a "connection" to it.

by the way, the whole kate bush thing......i listen to both and never think of the other while listening to one. it would be like thinking of joan armitrading everytime i listen to tracy chapman. are there similarities...sure, the same way there are similarities between prince and santana or prince and marvin gaye or prince and rick james. but, like prince, tori developed her very own unique sound that has gone far past any kate bush resemblances.

endorphin74 said:

Told you once. I'll tell you again:

Darin, you're so european

Cloudbuster said:

Bush is great too, don't get a girl wrong. She made very good videos.

In terms of creative output over their entire careers, Bjork.

Bjork, Bjork, Bjork.


Tori always seems like she's chasing something. From Y Kant Tori read, through her God/victim phase, to her superb mid-career Songs from the Choirgirl Hotel and the two-disc Venus set, to her disappointing, bordering-on-self-parody Strange Little Girls, and back to the commercial side of things on Whatever That Boring Last Album Was Called, she's always looking for more acceptance. When it was victimization, she rode that until she wanted to expand her fan base, but with Strange Little Girls, it was clear that rather than trying to just make a good album, she was trying to make a Tori-sounding album. That's just so Aerosmith.

Bjork seems more led by music than anything. Rather than trying to create an image, or build a following, she seems to release albums with an air of "here's what music gave me this year." Her albums are so ballsy that I can't help but respect them.

I think people compare the two mostly due to their voices, though, and while Bjork sounds more a conduit for weirdness, like she can't help it, Tori seems to dial up the histrionics when she thinks it'll sell, or sell her point. Not to mention that while Bjork has an authentic accent when she sings in English, Tori fakes emotion with slurs and weird pronunciations. She also seems to be not so much mellowing out as losing the weird drive. I can't attribute that to age, as Bjork (or Michael Stipe, or even Prince) has gotten weirder with age.

Both are engaging and write entertaining music. I suppose that as a guy, I don't have that connection with Tori's earlier work, where she build her solid fan base. Bjork doesn't preach to me, and I appreciate that as well. So for all these reasons, she wins. Her trophy will arive shortly, along with press releases to the L.A. and New York Times.

P.S. Kate Bush is boring, and I have to say that Jawbox's version of "Cornflake Girl" leaves the original in the dust, videos notwithstanding.

Thunderbird said:

LMAO! Kate is by far the least boring artist I've ever had the honour of hearing. Have you heard The Dreaming? If that's boring music then I dread to think what music you consider bold, inventive and challenging.

Cloudbuster said:

Diamanda Galas?

EDIT: "Boring" doesn't mean "unoriginal." It means it's not engaging. Big difference.
[Edited 9/24/04 9:13am]

Cloudbuster said:

The Dreaming is one of my fav. cd's of all time. I agree.....very ahead of it's time. One of the most original cds I own to be honest.

PANDURITO said:

heh heh heh

A few months ago I would have said Tori all the way. For years I have been an avid Tori fan and a casual Bjork fan but that has all changed. Now, since I have discovered more about Bjork through her dvds and live box set--- there is no comparison. She really is a consummate artist. Everything she does is creative. She is a channel for primal, creative energy. Her voice is incredible.

I think Bono said something about the ecstacy in her voice, and for that reason I now love Bjork more than Tori. I have no idea how or why I slept on Bjork all these years. Well, I kinda do. Tori is good for release of negative energy. Her performance of Professional Widow when I saw her in August 2003 was orgasmic. Bjork is good for joy and total abandon. She just covers a lot more ground than Tori. With Medulla, she has taken music to it's purest form: the voice, yet she has explored technology and everything in between. Right now I'm in love with b-sides like Sod Off, Scary and So Broken. Tori is good for purging and healing, but Bjork is good for creating Joy once you've cleared the chaos away.

Anxiety said:

Again. You hit it on the head. Um all of what he said.

I would never dis tori for anything. I think she has a great voice and lyricist (in some ways better than Bjork). I applaud her for hanging in there and beating out all of the newcomers who don't have half the talent. I will always have good memories with her songs esp little earthquakews which still gives me shivas! However, I don't find her style too far reaching. It's mostly piano based, which doesn't float my boat too far. Also I find her songs to be downers at points.

Bjork for me as pointed out is just art personified. I never know what to expect. She also gravitates toward the electronic side of things, which is where I am musically. Not too crazy about all of her lyrics...sometimes they are really bizarre. Or her voice...as I have no idea what she's singing...but she does use it for musical effect...as on Pluto. She has the ability to take you places that you have never been before. And maybe places she hasn't even been before or created just for you. And the range of emotions each person gets from listening to her is entirely different for each person. WHereas a tear jerker from Tori...pretty much has the same effect on most everyone.

I like them both but Bjork really does it for me. Although it could be that Tori played 5 encores during the tour for her 2nd album and played a song twice. I was like shoo girl...get off the stage already!