Dear Tori Amos:<\/p>\n
Your album Little Earthquakes<\/i> is great. No, it’s not just great. It’s beyond great. I bought it the summer it came out – and I bought the cassette – and promptly listened to it so much over the next year, that it eventually wore out, and I had to buy the same tape a couple more times, to replace the first one. That album never ended for me. I KEPT needing to hear it. Similar situation to Color and the Shape<\/i> by Foo Fighters later on in the decade. Just want to give you some background, Tori, on my response to that album. I saw you play at Park West in Chicago, before Little Earthquakes<\/i> came out. I hadn’t even heard the album, but Interview<\/i> mag had done a little promo about you that made you sound interesting. So off I went, by myself, and you gave one of the most incredible live shows – you and your grand piano – that I have ever seen.<\/p>\n
Enough.<\/p>\n
Here’s the deal. The power of little Earthquakes<\/i> is enough for me to keep buying your stuff. Okay? I bought Under the Pink<\/i>. Your lyrics got more obscure and personal – like, I was unable to get in there with you in whatever obscure experience you were having – and your accent began to morph into something unbearably unintelligible. I mean, how on earth do you make the words “club sandwich” sound like ancient Celtic Solstice chants? I don’t know, but you do. There was some good stuff on Under the Pink<\/i>. Not Little Earthquakes<\/i>, certainly, but that’s okay. How could anything ever compare to THAT album?<\/p>\n
On the power of that one album, released in 1992, Tori – I have bought every one of your lame-ass weirdo records. The only one I even mildly enjoyed was the Choirgirl Hotel<\/i>. Now this may just be my taste in music. I like loud, aggressive, exciting stuff. You can do it, Little Earthquakes<\/i> has a lot of that on there. But a lot of girls like your songs because some of them are drippy-introspective-emotional-constantly-PMSing-and-communing-with-the-moon girl. They listen to those songs and know that Tori understands, Tori understands the goddess in them, Tori “gets it”. I don’t care about those songs, and always skip over them. I don’t need you to understand my inner goddess. I need you to rock the house. I like the loud Tori, I like the angry Tori (In Waitress<\/i>, when you suddenly start screaming: “And I believe in peace – bitch …” AWESOME). Little Earthquakes<\/i> was full of that stuff … but maybe your hardcore fans, the whiny wymyn’s festival contingent, prefer the melancholy mopey stuff? Or … I don’t know. I can’t guess. But Choirgirl Hotel<\/i> with some of its rockin’ churning beats … was closer to my type of music, closer to the loud sudden mood-change stuff that you did on Little Earthquakes<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But since then?<\/p>\n
YAWN.<\/p>\n
I just bought Beekeeper<\/i>. I was filled with hope. I ALWAYS approach your stuff with hope … which just goes to show you the lasting impact of that first album. I will follow you anywhere, Tori. I may not like it, but I will follow you.<\/p>\n
I have to tell you that I am losing my patience, though. I don’t like one song on Beekeeper<\/i>. It’s all your moany obscure wymyn-in-the-forest shite, there’s none of that rage and sex and startlingly weird lyrics (Buddha doing crossword with a pen?? GREAT SONG, girl!!) … and I’m pretty close to giving up on you.<\/p>\n
But I’ll tell ya: you’ve put out a lot of albums since that first one. And I’m still here, despite the fact that you haven’t satisfied me ONCE since then.<\/p>\n
I mean, whatever, create, express yourself, moan like a Druid and write opaque lyrics and sing in some hybrid accent. This is where you’re at now.<\/p>\n
Just want to tell you that I miss you. I’m bummed out. I’ll never listen to Beekeeper<\/i> again. It feckin’ sucks. Yawn. Do you have PMS every day, or …<\/p>\n
Waiting for the next one now. Battered, beaten, disappointed … but still hopeful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Tori Amos: Your album Little Earthquakes is great. No, it’s not just great. It’s beyond great. I bought it the summer it came out – and I bought the cassette – and promptly listened to it so much over … Continue reading