What I've heard of Tori so far hasnt really impressedme greatly, but I want ot give her another chance

So any recommendations please?

What all have you heard?

AnckSuNamun said:

Only to Venus and Back

what types of music are you into. i mean, if she's not your cuppa than it may never happen for you.

sermwanderer said:

start with Little Earthquakes and work forward. personally Boys for Pele is my favorite albulm, but it's not universally liked.

SassyBritches said:

well, i love Kate Bush. Take from that what you will

I'll listen to anything basically

sermwanderer said:

that's not a good one to start with, imo. If you like Kate, I'd go with Little Earthquakes My personal favorite is Boys For Pele though....solely for Blood Roses.

ok, so i took the initiative and checked out your profile.

check out boys for pele, the beekeeper, and/or under the pink. see what you think of that stuff. venus and back as well as choirgirl hotel can't offer a complete impression of her career because that was sort of a phase she went through. as much as i love ol' girl, i only recently started getting into choirgirl (though venus was an instant classic for me).

byronic said:

we're on the same page....cool

You know a lot of Tori fans didn't like the direction she was going with Scarlett's Walk, but I love it. Whenever I'm driving, I always go for this one out of all of her albums. It just makes me wanna take a long drive through the country alone. For some reason, I feel warmer inside when I hear this one. I guess because she's less angry and more "motherly", which is weird since I love her angry music.

add on
[Edited 7/6/05 11:58am]

Cheers guys, I'll try another couple of her albums.

Feel free to post some tracks that I can sample before buying any albums

anyone?

sermwanderer said:

Well, she's gone through some different phases.

Her first couple albums are confessional and probably her best recieved.

Boys For Pele is an impressionistic masterpiece. Very confrontational, pained and intense. Probably her best.

Then she got a band and her next few found her trying out some new styles like trip hop, electronica and alt. rock.

Her 2 newest are probably the most highly arranged and accomplished musically. There's a lot going on in the mix. But they're also her most accessible I'd say in terms of the sound. Her sound and subject matter has matured.

If you want the extremes of what she does I'd say get Boys For Pele, From the Choirgirl Hotel and The Beekeeper. Those are probably my 3 favorites as well.

Though I'm familiar with most her albums, I recently purchased Choirgirl Hotel and I literally can't stay away from that one. I've been listening to it for a few weeks and it seems like every few days I'm tripping on a new song. The discovery just goes on and on.

heartbeatocean said:

That's the one that I keep going back to too. There's real magic on that album.

GangstaFam said:

It defies explanation.

sermwanderer said:

there's too many to list
you just gotta buy sumpthin

heartbeatocean said:

I started to type out a list and then I realized I'd be including like half of her songs.

Yeah, just buy anything. Venus is probably the most dissimilar to the style that she's known for. So it's a misleading first purchase.

GangstaFam said:

Yeah, it's a pretty ridiculous endeavor. Now if we were asked to list the rotten apples, that would be really easy. Because there aren't any.

heartbeatocean said:

That's true. There aren't any Tori songs that I think suck. There are a few I have trouble listening to, but none that I hate.

GangstaFam said:

"Ireland"?

hi serm.....dont listen to the tori brigade.....the best album to start with is her first and best one "little earthquakes"...it is a classic and i think you will like it if you like kate bush....."under the pink" her second album is also very good but i would give "boys for pele" a miss to start off with....some good songs on it but overall very self indulgent and this is when she started disappearing up her own arse and forgot how to write decent melodys

i love it when someone tells an artist that they are too self indulgent. um, i don't know but the last time i checked, an artist makes art that involves him or herself. its kind of odd to tell the creator of a work - a work that is, in essence, about the artist - that it is too self indulgent.

if you want work that isn't about tori amos, don't by a tori amos cd.

AnckSuNamun said:

I actually love that song. Is that weird?

GangstaFam said:

Hate is a strong word, but there are a few tracks I really don't like.

Happy Worker
Humpty Dumpty
Home On The Range
Way Down
Alamo
Suede
Enjoy The Silence

And about half of 'from the choirgirl hotel':
Iieee
Liquid Diamonds
She's Your Cocaine
Hotel
Playboy Mommy
Pandora's Aquarium

sextonseven said:

I still actively dislike The Power of Orange Knickers. But I think that's the only one.

SassyBritches said:

After years of serving on film festival juries, I conclude that using the phrase "self-indulgent" as criticism is completely unhelpful and amateurish criticism. Basically, it means nothing. It's a way to put down someone's work without really describing why it doesn't work for you, and it's fairly mean-spirited, a way of shutting down an artist whose work you don't like.

When people use the phrase "self-indulgent", often they mean hermetic, esoteric, raw or unbaked. What blackbob probably means with Tori Amos is a heavy use of personal symbology, which may not be your cup of tea. However, I disagree with you, I don't find Scarlet's Walk or The Beekeeper,in particular, to be "self-indulgent" at all. Little Earthquakes is probably much more so in some respects about herself. And even in Boys For Pele, her songs point to much more than herself. They are multi-dimensional.

sextonseven said:

those are pretty much my favorites.

GangstaFam said:

no, I just think I'm in the minority on this one.

heartbeatocean said:

...
..
i think that when you are as "weird" as tori amos and i mean that in the nicest way....it can detract from her music if it is not controlled...her first two albums are her most commericial when she tried a bit more to make her music appeal to general music lovers without losing her artistic vision...i think that it is always important to remember that you should not make an album solely for your self (i know lots of artists have done it "the rainbow children" being a prime example but almost always , they dont really work...certainly saleswise they dont work) and i feel that tori has lost sight of what was great about her first album.....dont get me wrong....i love tori amos and i know she still makes good music but she could be so much better