The Tori Thread

[blue]

Well you're not the most enthusiastic person anyway when it comes to Tori, I recall you saying you thought everything after TVAB was unnecessary! Oh, and if you don't like the melody you can blame Mendelssohn for that, not Tori - it's his Song Without Words Op.30 No.6 ('Venetian Gondola Song').

The arrangement might not be to your taste because it's a chamber ensemble Rob, I was actually expecting to see a lot more of that kind of reaction given that most people listening to this album will be largely pop/rock music fans.

I can't believe how good I'm being, reading all the rave reviews on the boards and still refraining from listening. Another track is out today, 'Shattering Sea', which seems to be causing even more raptures than the previous two. I really want to hear it as well because the lyric is amazing, but I shall wait. Gosh, am I finally learning the art of pleasure-delay in my old age?

There's a video floating about for 'Carry' which I did watch with the sound down, just to see Natashya who makes a rather Midsummer Night's Dream-type appearance - I can't believe how big she is now, she's taller than Tori!

[blue]

Here's the Mendelssohn piece:





'Carry' is a variation on Debussy's 'The Girl With The Flaxen Hair', from his Preludes Book 1.

[blue]

Tori's people did this rather clever thing on Facebook this morning, where if you share the video for 'Carry' you get to hear 'Shattering Sea' - apparently it's working because it's all over the 'net now, and during the course of the day the album has raced up the Amazon bestsellers charts on both sides of the Atlantic. At the moment it's 55 in the UK and 41 in the US, from nowhere. Obviously lots of people must have been pre-ordering it as they've heard the tracks today. Fantastic stuff!

Oddly enough the more I read, the more determined I am to hear it in full at home on the headphones, not via leaks or clips or previews on the 'net. The anticipation is lovely.

[RobB]

Well you're not the most enthusiastic person anyway when it comes to Tori, I recall you saying you thought everything after TVAB was unnecessary! Oh, and if you don't like the melody you can blame Mendelssohn for that, not Tori - it's his Song Without Words Op.30 No.6 ('Venetian Gondola Song').

I can't listen to any Tori album all the way through anymore. I can cherry pick maybe three or four tracks from each album but as albums go they are too inconsistant for my taste.

I didn't know the melody was written by someone else.Pity Tori didn't do what Manfred Mann did and pick a memorable one?

[blue]

I can't listen to any Tori album all the way through anymore. I can cherry pick maybe three or four tracks from each album but as albums go they are too inconsistant for my taste.

Yeah, I think you've just left Tori behind, similar to how I've left Kate behind - I can only listen to the odd Kate track now, and nothing she did after The Sensual World chimed with me at all, really. In fact the only stuff of hers I've liked in 20 years is the reworkings of those Sensual World tracks!

I didn't know the melody was written by someone else.Pity Tori didn't do what Manfred Mann did and pick a memorable one?

I think it's rather lovely myself, although as yet I don't know what Tori has done with it. I'm not a fan of Mendelssohn myself so I was surprised how much I liked this piano piece.

Just catching up on the forums this morning, I'm encouraged that the hugely positive reaction to the three tracks available so far, and the whole album by those who've heard it, is continuing strongly. If it was just faerywingers I'd be a little wary, but the most disaffected and negative group of fans seem to believe it's her best album since Scarlet, which is great.

[blue]

Some really wonderful reviews beginning to come in now, several music blogs have already posted in the past few days but also the new issue of Uncut gives the album 4/5, saying she 'out-bonkers Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush while still making a compelling album', and the new issue of Attitude also has a 4/5. Tori's not had this kind of enthusiastic response to an album for quite some years, it's great to see. General concensus seems to be really good.

I was surprised to read in a new interview that she was actually approached by Deutsche Grammophon to make this record - it was their idea, not hers. She was reluctant at first but their musicologists were confident she could handle it. Presumably they must have been impressed with what she did on Midwinter Graces, as this new project involves similar kind of work.

So this will be the second album in a row that's effectively been 'commissioned' by an outside source, and again the results appear to be great. Hmm. Perhaps what Tori needs is less self-determination and a little more interference from outside.

[blue]

Still holding out! I am amazed at my willpower.

Apparently the whole album is now streaming legally at some radio station called NPR, for anyone who might want to check it out. I think it has leaked as well though, judging from a quick catch-up on the boards this morning.

[RobB]

You can stop holding out now, Beth.

[blue]

Ha, got it yesterday! I decided to get the deluxe version this time with the DVD and I'm glad I did, there's a good interview and some footage from the artwork photoshoots featuring Natashya that I really loved. The packaging is beautiful and substantial, like a hardback book, and I'm pleased to say there are many pics in the booklet much better than the cover!

I was actually quite full of trepidation about listening to it, strangely. I got it in the morning and didn't finally listen to it until late evening. I don't recall being this apprehensive about the last few albums, but then they've all had such negative reaction from the fanbase. This time it's different.

Anyway, listened through to it once only, just for an initial impression - LOVE the chamber ensemble, as I knew I would. Some genuinely beautiful lyrics and some that are a bit overly-poetic for my taste. Her vocals are sounding better than for a long while, and indeed at some points I found myself thinking 'oh, that's Tori!', as opposed to Fori.

Around half the songs got immediate 4/5 star rating from me, and it's been a LONG time since that happened. The tracks featuring Natashya on guest vocals I'm not sure how I feel about as part of the whole thing, I hear some people are listening to the album without them and saying it flows better, which I can understand. That said, 'Job's Coffin' taken as a separate entity is great, absolutely amazing vocal by Natashya and in fact I think it's one of the best things on the album.

There are some really stunningly lovely moments on this record. 'Shattering Sea' is hands down her best opening track since 'Spark', for me. It's up there with her 90s work. 'Fearlessness', 'Edge of the Moon', 'Star Whisperer', 'Battle of Trees' are among the immediate stand-outs, but there's so much to absorb on the album that I knew straight away it's going to take repeated listens to fully get to grips with it all. Rather the way Tori Amos albums used to be, in fact.

One little potential stumbling block for me as a classical music fan is being somewhat distracted by knowing several of the original pieces extremely well. 'Battle of Trees' is based on Satie's Gnossienne no. 1 and although Tori has only used a small section of it, it's one of my favourite pieces of music ever and I wonder if I'll ever be able to separate her creation from the original sufficiently. Similarly with 'Carry', which is based on Debussy's 'The Girl With The Flaxen Hair' - the melody is very recognisable if you already know the piece. I wouldn't call what she's done 'variations' in either of these cases, at least not in the traditional classical sense. So it'll be interesting to see if further listening helps to put some distance between the original pieces and Tori's creations.

There are quite a few video interviews floating about at the moment and I must say she's looking better than she has for a while, mostly because she's gained some weight I think. She's also being pretty straightforward and down to earth in them which is nice to see, even some of her humour coming back!

[d.a.walker]

I love it, after three mediocre albums (though I have a guilty pleasure for ADP), it's a return to form and what i want from Tori, THE PIANO!!!!!

Shattering Sea is just stunning, and totally agree as an album opener it's up with her best! Which was my problem with AATS, Give was so promising and the rest of the album failed by comparison. NOH doesn't falter, and I am thrilled!!!

And I love her daughter's voice, can now see why Tori included her

I shall report back once I have absorbed even more of it!!!

[blue]

OK - further listening over the weekend has begun to really open the album up to me and although I knew immediately it was the best thing she's done since Scarlet's Walk, I'm finding myself quite stunned by how beautiful much of it actually is, and how clever. It really does repay repeated listening, like all the best Tori albums.

My concerns about being able to put a distance between Tori's creations and the original pieces have totally evaporated, it's clear now that 'Battle Of Trees' for instance really is a bona fide variation on Satie's original Gnossienne, I think I was just very distracted by the straight quoting of the section she does use. Further listening has revealed a wonderful song that weaves it's way around the quote and develops the source material in a rather haunting way. This track is shaping up to be one of my all-time favourite Tori songs, especially as I've begun to get to grips with the lyric, which revolves around an ancient Welsh 'tree alphabet' used by poets in times of war. This is used as a metaphor for how the contemporary lovers in the story wound each other with words, and it ends with a lyric I just find fabulous (and meaningful for me in a personal context, unfortunately); 'I've dodged bullets and even poisoned arrows, only to be felled by the blade of a vowel.' Amazing.

Gosh, there's just so much to take in and discuss on this album, almost too much, in that deliciously exhausting way of Tori's early records. I can't listen to this one too frequently right now because as soon as it starts it demands every bit of my attention the whole way through, which is exactly the effect that Boys For Pele had on me.

Dan, so glad you're loving it too, and hopefully when we've had more time with it we can actually have some discussion!

[blue]

So the tour with the string quartet has begun, and wow - I think these young men are rather inspiring Ms. Amos, to put it mildly! Here's the opening Shattering Sea from Moscow:






Incredible, you can see the difference that getting out of her comfortable rut with 'the band' has made to her musicianship and committment and energy. I think she must have had vocal coaching as well, knowing she wouldn't be able to stretch and slide around notes the way she's been doing the past few years, not playing with a string quartet. Strict tempo is your friend, Tori!

[RobB]

I really enjoyed the string quartet.

[blue]

I really enjoyed the string quartet.

They're great, and obviously very into it! They composed a piece based on Tori's songs that they're playing as an encore at the shows. I'm very impressed with the energy of their performances.

[blue]

Just popped in today to have a look back through this thread for a post I made around the release of ADP in '07, where I was very concerned that she might have an eating disorder:

http://desireavenue.free.fr/phpbb3/view ... &start=375


She's just done an interview for the Guardian talking about her favourite foods, in which she's pretty much admitted her eating was disordered in '07, leading her to become her thinnest weight ever. She doesn't say why, other than 'stress', but damn, I knew there was something really wrong then.

She looks so much better now she's a normal size, it's funny how putting that bit of weight back on even seems to have made her look facially more like her 'real' self.