One of Cerebus' all-time favorites. One he will also forever believe she never again equalled, although Under The Pink is a very close second.

The article that brought this to Cerebus' attention...

Jan 13th '12 by tom @ 2:11pm

http://stereogum.com/924522/little-earthquakes-turns-20/top-stories/

Last year, the eminently lovable hardcore pro-wrestling legend Mick Foley wrote a weirdly fascinating Slate article about how he came to become a Tori Amos superfan. In the piece, Foley writes how a wrestling colleague named Maxx Payne first played Little Earthquakes, Amos’s solo debut and watershed moment, for him in 1993. And he also goes on about how he’d psych himself up for excessively gory Japanese death matches, in which he and Terry Funk would tear each other to shreds with barbed wire and thumbtacks, by playing “Winter” over and over. It’s an indelible image: This gigantic scraggly-bearded motherfucker sitting in a fetal position in the locker room, rocking back and forth, getting ready to bleed buckets by losing himself in this quietly gorgeous confessional. And it also strikes somewhere near the heart of Little Earthquakes: These are, after all, absorbingly beautiful songs about wracked, devastated emotional states.

Foley might be one of the most interesting and famous Tori superfans, but she has many, and most of them were pulled in, in one way or another, by Little Earthquakes. The simple existence of the album is something of marvel. Her previous band, Y Kant Tori Read, existed on some cultural continuum between Richard Marx synth-sweep and Lita Ford poodle-metal, and their “The Big Picture” video, ridiculously entertaining though it may be, doesn’t exactly announce the arrival of a major talent. But three years after that band released its one album and a year after it dissolved for good, Amos reemerged with this stunningly still album, one that takes the melodic gifts she’s already displayed with Y Kant Tori Read (Iet’s be honest, “The Big Picture” is catchy as fuck) and marries it to a previously-undiscovered gift for translating trauma into poetry.

I can’t remember Little Earthquakes causing any cultural tidal-waves upon its release, which was 20 years ago today in the UK and about a month later over here. The first time I can remember hearing her name was when she lost a bunch of times to Nirvana at the 1992 VMAs. The album’s sharp, shivery piano-based pop was, after all, about a million miles removed from the grunge zeitgeist; she wouldn’t really integrate alt-rock clangor until her later albums. But for those who did hear it, Little Earthquakes sunk its hooks in deep. I bought my copy sometime in 1993; it was one of the six CDs I got for free by subscribing to the BMG Music Club, and I don’t remember being all that amped about it before listening. But when I did dig into it, I got lost. It was the first time I really pored over a lyric sheet.

God knows how I made sense of any of it. Amos was 28 when she released the album, twice my age, and the album has a whole lot to say about that particular stage of life, when you’ve been through absolute awfulness that you’re only then starting to piece together and understand. A lot of the album is about attempts to shake off the bullshit you grew up accepting as true, and more of it is about processing the horrible things that might’ve happened to you since then. A few of her lines — “Boy, you best pray that I bleed real soon” — only make sense once you’ve had your first pregnancy scare. On the album’s centerpiece, the harrowing a cappella story-song “Me And A Gun,” Amos describes a rape with a scarily dead-eyed calm that I’m sure I’ll never fully grasp. But the basic idea — heavy shit, rendered with quiet beauty — still resonated.

In the years after Little Earthquakes, Amos largely left behind the cruel concrete realities of her own personal experience to explore a larger sense of feminine mysticism. And she’s been good at that, too; Under The Pink and From The Choirgirl Hotel are powerful albums. But Little Earthquakes is, for my money, still Tori’s masterpiece, and we music critics should probably pay more attention to its impact on the music that would follow. It’s tough to imagine Fiona Apple having the impact that she did if Little Earthquakes hadn’t come first, and Sarah MacLachlan sure owes Amos a whole lot as well. And more recently, I’ve heard echoes in people like Florence And The Machine and Bat For Lashes.

So, as Little Earthquakes turns 20, what memories does it conjure? What’s your favorite song from it, or your favorite memory that it conjures? Let us know in the comments section.

If you need me, me and Neil will be, hangin' out with the Dream King

B-sides for Silent All These Years

B-sides for Winter, or the Winter EP, depending on how you purchased it. Some of these ended up as b-sides for Crucify, as well.

She was looking pretty sexy and hot in the first two videos...

Cerebus said:

One of Cerebus' all-time favorites. One he will also forever believe she never again equalled, although Under The Pink is a very close second.

I agree 100%. Little Earthquakes is one of the top ten most significant records in my collection in that it radically altered my music tastes after hearing it. My love for Kate Bush, Laura Nyro, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor, Nellie McKay, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Suddenly, Tammy!, Feist, etc. can all be traced back to this one record.

I still remember the day it arrived in the mail from one of those music clubs that were all the rage back in 1992 along with Alison Moyet's Hoodoo and Sarah McLaclan's Solace. I listened to all three albums and after hearing Little Earthquakes immediately discarded the other two. To this day, Tori remains my third favorite artist ever behind Prince and the Banshees. She's awesome.

B-sides for Crucify not already posted.

[Edited 1/13/12 13:00pm]

B-sides for China.

12 tracks on the album - solid from front to back

15 b-sides - some of them as good (or better) than those on the album, and as good (or better) than anything she's released for the rest of her career (imo, of course)

I was introduced to this album through a girlfriend, and I fought it at first. I wasn't really listening to this kind of music at the time. It wasn't really my "thing".

Then, in a very short period of time I found out that Neil Gaiman and Trent Reznor both loved her, and that she was singing about the Sandman in the line I listed above (something she's done several times since).

That wasn't enough to make me a fan, but it was enough for me to give her a second chance. "Things" in the universe must have been lined up just right the next time I listened to the album, because I got it. Not only did I get it, but I fell in love with it.

At one time I owned every CD release and a good number of the 7 and 12" inch single releases, even if they had some overlapping songs, for Little Earthquakes, Under The Pink and Boys for Pele. I had become one of "those" Tori fans. But sometime during the cycle for Boys for Pele she kind of lost me. Her lyrics used to be very personal, slightly strange and often metaphorical, but when they ventured into surrealist territory they lost a lot of their emotional weight, for me, and I lost interest.

I'll go back from time to time and try to get into stuff I've skipped, or I'll check out a new album if its getting really great reviews. But for whatever reason, I just can't get into it. Her music just doesn't give me the same "feelings" I got from it back then.

Fortunately, I can still listen to anything from Little Earthquakes or Under The Pink and instantly recall times, places, people, feelings - VIVID memories associated with that part of my life.

I was a fanatic tracking down all the import singles for those b-sides--not an easy thing to do in the pre-internet early 90s. "Upside Down" is still my fave of all her non-album tracks.

Funny story...

I sold all that Tori stuff I mentioned above. It's something I almost NEVER do, since collecting music is a pretty hardcore hobby for me. But a few years after Boys for Pele, when I realized I was really done with her new stuff, I decided I wanted to clear out that space and buy something new in the process.

I walked into Amoeba in Berkeley with everything in a box and asked to see a buyer. When the guy started going through the box he gave me a " " and said, "really?" I was like, "yeah, its time". He ended up calling over a couple other buyers and if I recall correctly I got a pretty decent amount of trade for that collection.

sextonseven said:

I was a fanatic tracking down all the import singles for those b-sides--not an easy thing to do in the pre-internet early 90s. "Upside Down" is still my fave of all her non-album tracks.

Me too. See my last post.

"Upside Down" is great, so is "Here, In My Head" and "Take To The Sky", but "Sugar" is definitely my favorite. It's a personal thing.

sextonseven said:

Cerebus said:

One of Cerebus' all-time favorites. One he will also forever believe she never again equalled, although Under The Pink is a very close second.

I agree 100%. Little Earthquakes is one of the top ten most significant records in my collection in that it radically altered my music tastes after hearing it. My love for Kate Bush, Laura Nyro, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor, Nellie McKay, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Suddenly, Tammy!, Feist, etc. can all be traced back to this one record.

I still remember the day it arrived in the mail from one of those music clubs that were all the rage back in 1992 along with Alison Moyet's Hoodoo and Sarah McLaclan's Solace. I listened to all three albums and after hearing Little Earthquakes immediately discarded the other two. To this day, Tori remains my third favorite artist ever behind Prince and the Banshees. She's awesome.

She definitely opened my ears to different styles, as well. Or maybe just taught me to be more open-minded when listening to music.

Never been into Alison Moyet, but I don't think Sarah McLachlan really hit her stride until she released Fumbling Towards Ecstasy a couple years later. I love that album, The Freedom Sessions and Surfacing.

sextonseven said:

Cerebus said:

One of Cerebus' all-time favorites. One he will also forever believe she never again equalled, although Under The Pink is a very close second.

Joanna Newsom

Holy shit I love her. I mean, seriously, she makes my insides go all aflutter. I would say she needs more exposure, or that more people should know about her... but nah! I like her this way, just slightly known, without too much backlash.

Cerebus said:

12 tracks on the album - solid from front to back

15 b-sides - some of them as good (or better) than those on the album, and as good (or better) than anything she's released for the rest of her career (imo, of course)

I was introduced to this album through a girlfriend, and I fought it at first. I wasn't really listening to this kind of music at the time. It wasn't really my "thing".

Then, in a very short period of time I found out that Neil Gaiman and Trent Reznor both loved her, and that she was singing about the Sandman in the line I listed above (something she's done several times since).

That wasn't enough to make me a fan, but it was enough for me to give her a second chance. "Things" in the universe must have been lined up just right the next time I listened to the album, because I got it. Not only did I get it, but I fell in love with it.

At one time I owned every CD release and a good number of the 7 and 12" inch single releases, even if they had some overlapping songs, for Little Earthquakes, Under The Pink and Boys for Pele. I had become one of "those" Tori fans. But sometime during the cycle for Boys for Pele she kind of lost me. Her lyrics used to be very personal, slightly strange and often metaphorical, but when they ventured into surrealist territory they lost a lot of their emotional weight, for me, and I lost interest.

I'll go back from time to time and try to get into stuff I've skipped, or I'll check out a new album if its getting really great reviews. But for whatever reason, I just can't get into it. Her music just doesn't give me the same "feelings" I got from it back then.

Fortunately, I can still listen to anything from Little Earthquakes or Under The Pink and instantly recall times, places, people, feelings - VIVID memories associated with that part of my life.

I will concede that with the exception of American Doll Posse, all of Tori's albums released since the turn of the century have ranked consistently low on my year-end lists. However, I've listened to her so much for so long and been to so many of her gigs (I've seen her live more than anyone else, even Prince) that the comfort I get from the icon that is Tori Amos overshadows any immediate disappointment I may feel from listening to a new album. Hearing her voice as her fingers somersault over piano keys just feels like home to me. That feeling will never go away bar some radical Lulu type release and even that won't turn me off to her--at least not to the past records anyway.

Cerebus said:

sextonseven said:

I agree 100%. Little Earthquakes is one of the top ten most significant records in my collection in that it radically altered my music tastes after hearing it. My love for Kate Bush, Laura Nyro, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor, Nellie McKay, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Suddenly, Tammy!, Feist, etc. can all be traced back to this one record.

I still remember the day it arrived in the mail from one of those music clubs that were all the rage back in 1992 along with Alison Moyet's Hoodoo and Sarah McLaclan's Solace. I listened to all three albums and after hearing Little Earthquakes immediately discarded the other two. To this day, Tori remains my third favorite artist ever behind Prince and the Banshees. She's awesome.

She definitely opened my ears to different styles, as well. Or maybe just taught me to be more open-minded when listening to music.

Never been into Alison Moyet, but I don't think Sarah McLachlan really hit her stride until she released Fumbling Towards Ecstasy a couple years later. I love that album, The Freedom Sessions and Surfacing.

Sarah McLachlan has gotten a bum rap from me because I know I would not dislike her so much if I had not played that first album right after Little Earthquakes. I find her to be extremely bland.

sextonseven said:

Cerebus said:

Stuff

I will concede that with the exception of American Doll Posse, all of Tori's albums released since the turn of the century have ranked consistently low on my year-end lists. However, I've listened to her so much for so long and been to so many of her gigs (I've seen her live more than anyone else, even Prince) that the comfort I get from the icon that is Tori Amos overshadows any immediate disappointment I may feel from listening to a new album. Hearing her voice as her fingers somersault over piano keys just feels like home to me. That feeling will never go away bar some radical Lulu type release and even that won't turn me off to her--at least not to the past records anyway.

I really dislike Lulu, but it did nothing in regards to my opinion of Metallica, past, present or future. The one thing a lot of people overlook about them, imo, is that they've always done whatever they wanted to do at the time. They've never stayed the same. A random left turn every now and then does nothing to take away from the brilliance of their greatest albums, and they're still a killer live show (even though Lars sometimes seems like he's forgotten how to play drums). I watched nearly every video on YouTube from their 30th Anniversay shows and it was just chills for days. They're clearly having a GREAT time.

-----------------------------------------

Now, Tori...

I agree with you about seeing her live - I still really enjoy that. She always plays a good mix of new, old and rare songs, and she knows how to interact with her audience (HER audience, in particular). I actually saw her live not that long ago - a year or two (OK, I lied - looks like it was Summer 2009).

Can't say I particularly agree about the newer albums, though. She clearly has an audience that is still buying her them, because major labels keep releasing them (fairly quickly, even). But the disappointment is too much for me. I want the magic. I want the songs that give me chills and make me smile. Everything I've listened to for well over the last decade just leaves me going

Have you checked out Nigh of Hunters, yet? I've actually heard REALLY good things about it, but I can't bring myself to try it for fear of the hatred it might bring.

[Edited 1/13/12 13:56pm]

Cerebus said:

sextonseven said:

Joanna Newsom

Holy shit I love her. I mean, seriously, she makes my insides go all aflutter. I would say she needs more exposure, or that more people should know about her... but nah! I like her this way, just slightly known, without too much backlash.

Ys and Have One On Me are incredible. Joanna is one of the few artists I know that is really expanding the parameters of pop music. Have you ever seen her live? I never knew I would enjoy what is basically a harp recital that much.

Cerebus said:

I really dislike Lulu, but it did nothing in regards to my opinion of Metallica, past, present or future. The one thing a lot of people overlook about them, imo, is that they've always done whatever they wanted to do at the time. They've never stayed the same. A random left turn every now and then does nothing to take away from the brilliance of their greatest albums, and they're still a killer live show (even though Lars sometimes seems like he's forgotten how to play drums). I watched nearly every video on YouTube from their 30th Anniversay shows and it was just chills for days. They're clearly having a GREAT time.

-----------------------------------------

Now, Tori...

I agree with you about seeing her live - I still really enjoy that. She always plays a good mix of new, old and rare songs, and she knows how to interact with her audience (HER audience, in particular). I actually saw her live not that long ago - a year or two (OK, I lied - looks like it was Summer 2009).

Can't say I particularly agree about the newer albums, though. She clearly has an audience that is still buying her them, because major labels keep releasing them (fairly quickly, even). But the disappointment is too much for me. I want the magic. I want the songs that give me chills and make me smile. Everything I've listened to for well over the last decade just leaves me going

Have you checked out Nigh of Hunters, yet? I've actually heard REALLY good things about it, but I can't bring myself to try it for fear of the hatred it might bring.

Honestly, I find Tori's audience at gigs to be a little annoying. They have morphed over the years into some kind of cult. Which I suppose you could say the same for most artists with a larger, very loyal fanbase, but still, sometimes they turn me off.

Night of Hunters is a little different in the way she incorporates classical elements into the songs, but I don't think it's anything so unique that it will bring you back into the fold now that you've left. Out of the 40 or so new albums I bought last year, I ranked it 33.

The last time I felt the magic was on her 2007 glam rock record, American Doll Posse. It still isn't as good as some of the 90s stuff, but it comes close. I'd rank her albums like this:

Little Earthquakes

To Venus And Back

Under The Pink

Boys For Pele

American Doll Posse

from the choirgirl hotel

Midwinter Graces

Scarlet's Walk

Abnormally Attracted To Sin

Night Of Hunters

The Beekeeper

Strange Little Girls

You know, I'm absolutely convinced that this album was initially released late in 1991 (certainly in the UK) and then re-released early in '92.

I bought the Me and A Gun EP on hearing Silent All These Years on a local radio station and Little Earthquakes followed not long after. Certainly, my CD version of the album has (c) 1991 on the back and I'm absolutely sure when it suddenly appeared again Jan '92 I remember thinking 'It's good that they're promoting it once more'.

TheGhostlyNun said:

You know, I'm absolutely convinced that this album was initially released late in 1991 (certainly in the UK) and then re-released early in '92.

I bought the Me and A Gun EP on hearing Silent All These Years on a local radio station and Little Earthquakes followed not long after. Certainly, my CD version of the album has (c) 1991 on the back and I'm absolutely sure when it suddenly appeared again Jan '92 I remember thinking 'It's good that they're promoting it once more'.

Discogs has the catalogue number and release date for every version of Little Earthquakes around the world. All of them are in 1992. But it's very possible that an album released in early 1992 could have a 1991 copyright (might have been pressed and then pushed back), and that there was promo copies around the year before.

The Silent All These Years/Me And A Gun singles WERE released in 1991. In fact, Me And A Gun was only a single in Germany and the UK.

Recording

Following the dissolution of her synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, Amos came back to Atlantic Records in 1990 with a 10-track demo tape. The track listing consisted of "Russia" (later to become "Take to the Sky") / "Mary" / "Crucify" / "Happy Phantom" / "Leather" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Song for Eric" / "Learn to Fly"" / Flying Dutchman".

The album was then recorded in three phases. The first batch of tracks ("Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "Winter", "Happy Phantom", "Leather", "Mother", "Sweet Dreams", "Russia/Take To The Sky", "Upside Down" and "Flying Dutchman") were recorded at Capitol Records in Los Angeles with Davitt Sigerson producing. After hearing the first group of songs, the record company was unhappy. Tori and her then boyfriend Eric Rosse recorded the second group of songs ("Girl", "Precious Things", "Tear In Your Hand" and "Little Earthquakes", plus "Take Me with You", which would not be completed until 2006 and finally released on A Piano: The Collection). This phase was recorded on a limited budget in Eric's home studio, using his old 3M 24-track analog machine and a Yamaha CP-80 piano. They also went outside to Stag Studios to use a Yamaha grand piano. During these sessions, Amos recalled the origins of the B-side "Thoughts":

"[The song] Girl was being recorded and I couldn't get a take. I was freaking out. Eric was in the booth playing air ball encouraging me to take a ten minute. Glued on the bench, I started this thing coming from nowhere singing nonsense into the mic. When I finished, Eric said, 'It's a take.' I said, 'What?' - he had left the machine running."^[2][3]

These two phases resulted in the original "final" 13-track version of the album, submitted in January 1991, as revealed in the liner notes for the A Piano: The Collection box set. The tracklist is very similar to the released version: "Crucify" / "Girl" / "Silent All These Years" / "Precious Things" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Little Earthquakes" / "Leather" / "Russia" / "Mother" / "Tear In Your Hand" / "Upside Down" / "Flying Dutchman". Of all 14 tracks recorded, only "Happy Phantom" was omitted at this point, but it would later appear on the released tracklist.

For phase three, Amos traveled to England to work with Ian Stanley. Here she recorded what would become two of her early singles. "Me And A Gun" was the last song written for the album, while "China" was an early track, originally titled "Distance", that she wrote in 1987 along with some of the songs that appeared on Y Kant Tori Read.^[4] During those sessions, she also recorded several B-sides.^[2]

The second final version of the album was accepted by the record company. However, this was still revised before the final release; a 13-track promo cassette shows that "Little Earthquakes" was to appear after "Happy Phantom" on side one, with side two closing with "Flying Dutchman".^[1] The latter track was presumably dropped due to the physical restraints of the vinyl LP format. The four songs recorded with Davitt Sigerson that did not make it to the final version of the album were included as B-sides on the singles released from Little Earthquakes: "Upside Down on "Silent All These Years" in the UK and on "Winter" in the US, "Flying Dutchman" on "China", and "Sweet Dreams" and "Take to the Sky" on "Winter".

The record label relocated Amos to London, where they thought she would have an easier time of breaking into success, due to the country's renown for eccentric performers. Atlantic's European counterpart, East West, promoted the record extensively. Amos spent much of 1991 performing in small bars and clubs in London and playing for music executives and journalists, often in her own apartment. The "Me and a Gun" EP containing four tracks was released in October 1991, receiving considerable critical attention. The single was re-issued the following month with "Silent All These Years" as the lead composition, and it became her first chart entry at UK #51 following Single of the Week support from BBC Radio 1 and a TV debut on the high-rated chat show of Jonathan Ross on the BBC. The back cover of the album contains pictures of phallus mushrooms, also known as stinkhorns.

Critical reception

When the album was finally released in the UK in January 1992, it reached #14 and remained on the Top 75 charts (UK Albums Chart) for 23 weeks. A month later, it was released in the USA to breakthrough critical success and also announced itself as a chart mainstay, despite peaking outside the Top 50 on the Billboard 200. The accompanying singles (along with "Me and a Gun" and "Silent All These Years") were "China" (January 1992 UK), "Winter" (March 1992 UK/November 1992 US) and "Crucify" (May 1992 US/June 1992 UK), the US EP version of which featured covers of songs by artists including The Rolling Stones and Nirvana.

In 1998, the UK's Q magazine readers voted Little Earthquakes the 66th greatest album of all time, and in 2002 the same magazine named it the fourth Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist.^[12]

sextonseven said:

Cerebus said:

Stuff

The last time I felt the magic was on her 2007 glam rock record, American Doll Posse. It still isn't as good as some of the 90s stuff, but it comes close. I'd rank her albums like this:

Little Earthquakes

To Venus And Back

Under The Pink

Boys For Pele

American Doll Posse

from the choirgirl hotel

Midwinter Graces

Scarlet's Walk

Abnormally Attracted To Sin

Night Of Hunters

The Beekeeper

Strange Little Girls

It would be unfair for me to make a similar list as I haven't given most of them enough listening time. But for me, personally, I'd list the first five albums in the order of their release. Everything felt very downhill to me once my like of Boys For Pele started to wear off.

I realize I should give a few of them another chance. But there's so much to listen to otherwise, and I hold the first two in such high regard, that I just can't make myself do it.

sextonseven said:

Cerebus said:

I really dislike Lulu, but it did nothing in regards to my opinion of Metallica, past, present or future. The one thing a lot of people overlook about them, imo, is that they've always done whatever they wanted to do at the time. They've never stayed the same. A random left turn every now and then does nothing to take away from the brilliance of their greatest albums, and they're still a killer live show (even though Lars sometimes seems like he's forgotten how to play drums). I watched nearly every video on YouTube from their 30th Anniversay shows and it was just chills for days. They're clearly having a GREAT time.

-----------------------------------------

Now, Tori...

I agree with you about seeing her live - I still really enjoy that. She always plays a good mix of new, old and rare songs, and she knows how to interact with her audience (HER audience, in particular). I actually saw her live not that long ago - a year or two (OK, I lied - looks like it was Summer 2009).

Can't say I particularly agree about the newer albums, though. She clearly has an audience that is still buying her them, because major labels keep releasing them (fairly quickly, even). But the disappointment is too much for me. I want the magic. I want the songs that give me chills and make me smile. Everything I've listened to for well over the last decade just leaves me going

Have you checked out Nigh of Hunters, yet? I've actually heard REALLY good things about it, but I can't bring myself to try it for fear of the hatred it might bring.

Honestly, I find Tori's audience at gigs to be a little annoying. They have morphed over the years into some kind of cult. Which I suppose you could say the same for most artists with a larger, very loyal fanbase, but still, sometimes they turn me off.

Night of Hunters is a little different in the way she incorporates classical elements into the songs, but I don't think it's anything so unique that it will bring you back into the fold now that you've left. Out of the 40 or so new albums I bought last year, I ranked it 33.

The last time I felt the magic was on her 2007 glam rock record, American Doll Posse. It still isn't as good as some of the 90s stuff, but it comes close. I'd rank her albums like this:

Little Earthquakes

To Venus And Back

Under The Pink

Boys For Pele

American Doll Posse

from the choirgirl hotel

Midwinter Graces

Scarlet's Walk

Abnormally Attracted To Sin

Night Of Hunters

The Beekeeper

Strange Little Girls

v. interesting...

midwinter beats AATS and beekeeper?!?! NOOOOOOO

tbh i havent been able to sit through NOH so i can't include...even though i bought it and burned it for my friends...i can't get through the first 20 min

choirgirl

earthquakes

venus (good call on ranking that shit so high! most don't 'get' it i feel?)

aats

beekeeper

pink

...all others about tied

badujunkie said:

sextonseven said:

Honestly, I find Tori's audience at gigs to be a little annoying. They have morphed over the years into some kind of cult. Which I suppose you could say the same for most artists with a larger, very loyal fanbase, but still, sometimes they turn me off.

Night of Hunters is a little different in the way she incorporates classical elements into the songs, but I don't think it's anything so unique that it will bring you back into the fold now that you've left. Out of the 40 or so new albums I bought last year, I ranked it 33.

The last time I felt the magic was on her 2007 glam rock record, American Doll Posse. It still isn't as good as some of the 90s stuff, but it comes close. I'd rank her albums like this:

Little Earthquakes

To Venus And Back

Under The Pink

Boys For Pele

American Doll Posse

from the choirgirl hotel

Midwinter Graces

Scarlet's Walk

Abnormally Attracted To Sin

Night Of Hunters

The Beekeeper

Strange Little Girls

v. interesting...

midwinter beats AATS and beekeeper?!?! NOOOOOOO

tbh i havent been able to sit through NOH so i can't include...even though i bought it and burned it for my friends...i can't get through the first 20 min

choirgirl

earthquakes

venus (good call on ranking that shit so high! most don't 'get' it i feel?)

aats

beekeeper

pink

...all others about tied

i'll never understand the hate for beekeeper! including from the Artist herself...

it's an instant classic (always has been , always will be - minus 3 tracks!)

Cerebus said:

One of Cerebus' all-time favorites. One he will also forever believe she never again equalled, although Under The Pink is a very close second.

These three are in my Top Five Tori favorites.

Perez mentioned her on Twitter for the past couple of days.

I had heard about it because of the Kate Bush comparisons, saw the cover and went "yeah... seen this before *L*" but then put it on and it was completely a whole other animal.

Little bit of trivia - she sang backup on Sandra Bernhard's cover of "Little Red Corvette".

RAINN was born out of this album too. Tori wound up meeting a lot of victims of sexual assault that it wound up being created as a means to help some of those people out.

[Edited 1/13/12 20:13pm]