listening to
tori's latest album over the past week, i've had a roller coaster of extreme reactions. some days, i think it's on par with "from the choirgirl hotel", my favorite of tori's works exclusively with a band. other times, i find it hard to believe that this was released with straight faces from the responsible parties.
my favorite song is the wacky "police me". everything i love about tori happens in 3 minutes and 55 seconds: thunderous grooves, massive hooks, and superior musicianship. the chorus contains a dizzying array of meter changes (3-4-3-5-2-3-2) that scream "datura" or "carbon". that they breeze through such nasty trickeration without ever forcing the issue is one of the many, MANY reasons that tori roolz. "strong black vine" is another champion. the "kashmir" intro (i wasn't alone in
picking this out) is in your face and the guitar sounds like a snake. it's clearly the nasty bitch in tori's catalog. lyrically, a pair of lines quickly caught my eye: "whose god then is god? they all want jurisdiction", from "flavor". also, this line from "curtain call" hints at any number of things: "by the time you're 35, i must confide, you will have
blown them all".
of note is how much she sounds like other artists on certain tracks. more than ever, different names come to mind. the opener "give", with its lazy tempo, sounds like a portishead b-side. tori dives deeply into electronica-era madonna on "flavor" and the title track. there's even hints of peter gabriel in "fire in your plain" and "500 miles". love it or hate it, be warned.
speaking of hate, the middle pickup of the strat-tone (sacrilege!) and psuedo-world groove of "not dying today" was something i really regretted. it has a david byrne vibe that doesn't belong. "maybe california" is an updated rehashing of the proven formula that spawned "1000 oceans" and "jackie's strength", 2 songs that make me
froth at the mouth.
"maybe california" also highlights an interesting shift in tori's songwriting. the same artist who chilled and thrilled her early audiences with "silent all these years" and "me and a gun" has essentially turned into a reporter. there's a personal touch that's seemingly lacking. in 2009, tori's tackling issues that
may or may not be her own, and that feels weird and uncomfortable. i can't expect autobiographies on every song nor do i want spoon fed answers, but this cold extreme isn't much better. tori's life experience- and its attendant trials and tribulations- resonated fully with scores of fans who may have felt and lived similarly. this honesty and integrity that tori once forged makes lyrics like "i don't know when i stopped making him smile" hollow and impersonal. tori's seems content to walk a dangerous tightrope exploring conceptual relationships (e.g., religion, power, etc.) that may have nothing to do with her. how this translates remains to be seen.
also alarming is how little piano there is on the album. there's tons of synth action, but i don't remember the piano itself ever having such a limited role. what relatively little blobs of chords remain has no dexterity and she uses more right pedal than should ever be allowed. it's ironic that i'm complaining because i've always preferred band-tori over "girl and her piano" tori. i just never expected to question the purity of her sound. here the guitar gets some serious face time. there's pounding rock (aforementioned "strong black vine"), brian may harmonies ("welcome to england"), and all sorts of textures ("starling"). it's not y kant tori read- except for the overblown "lady in blue"- but mac aladdin's guitar is an interesting development, at the least.
all this guitar work makes me wonder what status it will have on her next tour. since the departure of steve caton, tori hasn't been all that committed to the guitar. she's toured as a trio (which i found tears-boring), had her husband make random appearances, and then added
dan phelps midway through her 2007 tour. if there's no permanent guitar chair on this tour, many of tori's newest songs will sound amputated. listen to "welcome to england", and then check out how lame it sounds on her
most recent jay leno appaearance, and perhaps you'll see what i mean.
(and yes, that leno clip is lame lame lame. if that's what tori's going to sound like on tour, ho man.)
i think some of the EWFs from my yesterdays will cry "botox!", if they even bought this. more recent discoverers of the redheaded piano girl might be more tolerant of the curious journeys on this album. i will probably write a post later next month about how awful this album really is, and then come back a week later with a post in which i declare it album of the year.
Labels: tori amos