I FINALLY got the Tori boxset for my birthday...it rocks...but this whole revised Little Earthquakes doesn't sit quite right. To hear it in a different order with extra songs and alternate mixes just feels...wrong. An album I've loved since I was 14...I dunno...strange choice on Tori/Rhino's part.
"Leather" makes a very bizarre opening track. I love that song but it doesn't belong as the opener. Being followed by "Precious Things" is awkward.
I can see why Atlantic left off every b side except "Take To The Sky." That is a classic but the only other tolerable one is "Flying Dutchman." The others blow.
The album as it stands in it's original form is so genius, every song fits exactly in its place and I just don't understand why they fucked with it. I think it's cool to hear it in better quality audio for SURE but couldn't they have just done a traditional remaster with bonus tracks and then kept the box set separate? That's another thing that irks me...Tales of a Librarian and now A Piano both kiss LE's ass as if it's Tori's DEFINITIVE and ONLY masterpiece. It's not. Choirgirl is better. Venus is almost a tie. I love love love Little Earthquakes but for my 2 cents her whole body of work tends to be overshadowed by her debut and this new collection, while awesome, only reinforces that.

I actually like the fact that they didn't go with it as an ordinary boxset of her previous projects but rather took the risk and played it creatively and threw that heavy weight on us.

It's like a snowball, it starts small and as it goes by it sweeps the hell outta you in it's way, i love it.

P.S. Come to think of it, they're probably planning future remastering of her debut

badujunkie said:

Okay,LE has way better b-sides than Take To The Sky.
Here In My Head,Upside Down,Ode To The Banana King,Humpty Dumpty are ALL BETTER than that Take To The Sky crap,she always does it in concert for some reason,I never wanna hear that song again.
[Edited 10/23/06 9:13am]

no she din't!

upside down, here. in my head, mary...all are great tracks. i won't say better but i will say AT LEAST equal. i agree with gypsyfire in regards to having seen take to the sky live too many times; there are so many great bsides from that record but she seems most dedicated to that one.

as for the different tracking, i think it works well. then again, other than the first few times i listen to a new cd, my music is almost always on random shuffle. but i quite like leather being used as the intro to the record. by using that song's opening line ("look i'm standing naked before you, don't you want more than my sex?") its like the very first thing she's saying to the listener is, "get ready, cuz i'm more than just some tits and ass." in today's music scene, its even more of a statement.

"Upside Down" is my favorite Tori b-side so to say that I disagree with the original post is an understatement.

I love Upside Down and Take to the Sky. Sweet Dreams is OK.

I've never liked Flying Dutchman. The vocals are just annoying in my opinion.

But I find the recreated LE very interesting... we don't normally get revisionist history like that, and it's fascinating to see how Tori recreated that album given hindsight.