...god it fucking RULES!

I always consider "Choirgirl" to be the superior...but maybe now I'm thinking otherwise. I don't dig "1000 Oceans" as it sounds like Tori's attempt at a Dawson's Creek theme hit on Top 40...but tracks 1 thru 10 are all stellar. I especially love "Datura"! Amazing head trip. "Bliss" is catchy as hell, I thought for sure when it came out in 99 it would be a radio hit. "Lust...." god I remember making out to that song in college and it was hot shit. "Suede" is unlike any song she (or anyone) has ever done. And then she kicks in with "Josephine" which is classic Tori. I can't believe this album wasn't a bigger commercial hit.

I remember my girlfriend in college gave me an article from ELLE (or maybe Mademoiselle?) that had a short interview with Tori where she said that she and her engineers would sit around and "do some blow" while recording this album. I was a little shocked then but now I definitely hear the cocaine-laced vibe.

P.S. A Piano's mix of "Concertina" with the double vocal sends chills.

"Concertina" is my favorite song on that album--which is my second favorite Tori LP after 'Little Earthquakes'.

This is a great dbl album. The live stuff is awesome. Nowadays, I listen to the studio stuff more than anything though. I happen to love 1000 Oceans. Its a great song, very real to me. Its not corny at all to me. I adore Josephine and Spring Haze. This is an awesome record. I love it so much that I still listen to it these days.

sextonseven said:

where do you rank "choirgirl?"

badujunkie said:

My Top 5 Tori albums:

1.Boys For Pele
2.From The Choirgirl Hotel
3.Scarlet's Walk
4.Under The Pink
5.To Venus and Back

dreamfactory313 said:

You rank Scarlet above Pink and Venus?!?!?!?!?!?!

venus and back is the key to what eventually helped me appreciate choirgirl a whole lot more. i didn't much like choirgirl when it came out and that was a huge disappoinment after she had just released my favorite, boys for pele. venus and back, though, i absolutely loved. its been one of my faves for years.

now i think of venus and choirgirl as sisters and i love both discs. but i had to wrap me head around choirgirl and it took a looooong time.

just to throw in the fun:

1.boys for pele
2.beekeeper
3.venus and back
4.under the pink
5.choirgirl
6.scarlet's walk
7.little earthquakes
8.strange little girls

i lost interest in Tori after Venus.

i discovered her with Under the Pink and Loved Pele and Choirgirl and the only time i saw her was on the Dew Drop Inn Tour.

i've in the past year i've picked up Strange Little Girls, Scarlet's Walk thanks to hearing to hear some of the tracks from Beekeeper.

sallysassalot said:

god our tastes are different. little earthquakes second to the BOTTOM?

1. choirgirl
2. earthquakes
3. venus
4. pink
5. beekeeper
6. pele
7. scarlet
8. girls

I especially don't like "girls" and to be completely honest..I don't know if I've ever hear "scarlet" the whole way through. it was such a SNOOZEfest when it came out in 2002 and I was such a stoner...I love it up to track 4 then I can't stomach anything after except "taxi ride," which is ironically a true classic.

badujunkie said:

scarlet and i have had a timultuous, on and off again affair. when it first came out, i loved it. i loved the bold post-9/11 statements; the whole "america is not such an innocent victim" thing was desperately needed in a world full of rally 'round the flag chants. but that eventually wore off and, not unlike a new relationship that's not so new anymore, the excitement over the record...the butterflies, if you will...disappeared. i actually lost interest in the record for a while. since i've moved and subsequently been re-shaping how i see the world, i've gone back to scarlet and she's there, ready to provide some comfort and, yes, excitement.

she's definitely not an everyday kinda lady, that scarlet. she's the know it all friend you love but can only take in small doses. maybe because she's smarter than you; maybe just because she thinks she's smarter than you. either way, sometimes she's most certainly right. its during those times i find myself crawling back to her.

Tori's first 4 albums are amazing but after "Choirgirl" she became average musically.

Cheek said:

average? no way.

i can understand (though disagree with) saying she became distant or mellow. but there's nothing average on venus and back. datura, riot puff, bliss, glory of the 80s, suede, juarez...nope, no way venus and back us musically average. the arrangements and instrumentation is anything but. strange little girls was not your average covers disc, either. scarlet's walk might have been more mellow but the music itself is intricate and detailed, not lazy or average at all. the beekeeper has some very cool, new stuff (for her, at least)...and again, songs like the title track, witness, hoochie woman, barons of suburbia...anything but average.

its just not a word you can use in reference to her musical style.

sallysassalot said:

agreed but...maybe he just means the actual songwriting became average. it's around the time her career cooled off he's referencing...though i love the beekeeper. it even has some R&B influence.

"Venus" sounds like to me like a collection of unreleased tracks form the "Choirgirl" era, and "The Beekeper" is a pastiche of her own previous albums like "Scarlet's Walk" and "Little Earthquakes".

I meant she didn't show anything new after "Choirgirl" but that doesn't mean I don't like "Scarlet" or "Venus"...

.
[Edited 11/2/06 23:56pm]

I see some of you posted your own Tori Top 5 so here's mine:

#1 Boys For Pele
#2 Little Earthqukes
#3 From The Choirgirl Hotel
#4 Under The Pink
#5 Scarlet's Walk

Zero Point should've been on that album instead of Datura.

Zero Point fucking rocks and is exactly the kind of song Venus lacked IMO.

badujunkie said:

At this point in my life, yes. I dont listen to Under The Pink too much these days even though its a classic record. Scarlet's Walk, I still listen to and still love. I love all of her albums. This list could change at some point. It always does.
[Edited 11/3/06 7:00am]

Venus is the only album of hers I haven't heard.

#1 Under the Pink
#2 Boys For Pele
#3 Choirgirl
#4 Scarlet's Walk
#5 Little Earthquakes
#6 Beekeeper

These lists are dumb. It should really be

#1 Under the Pink/ Boys For Pele / Choirgirl / Scarlet's Walk / Little Earthquakes
#2 Beekeeper



Then tomorrow it will be

#1 Choirgirl / Boys For Pele / Scarlet's Walk / Under the Pink
#2 Little Earthquakes / Beekeeper