The Tori Thread

[RobB]

Still it's just all too much songs that I find myself skipping time and time again.

I think several of Tori's albums are simply too long or contain too many songs.
Forty-five minutes and ten songs would be ideal but Tori tries to give 'value for money" and ends up cramming a whole lot of sub-standard material on which in the end only detracts attention away from the stronger stuff.

[paul-pgss]

I totally agree Rob. I guess that Tori should have made a 10 song disc out of the beekeeper. That would become more interesting indeed. So which 10 songs should have been included, I ask myself.

[sound world]

I think it's a problem endemic to CDs.Lps were perfect,45 minutes with a coffee break after 20 or so is ideal
MOST CDs are far too long IMHO

[blue]

For me, The Beekeeper is the first time I felt that Tori had made a long album full of substandard material. With her previous two long albums - Boys For Pele and Scarlet's Walk - all the songs seem to me very much part of the journey, the story the character is telling. Her other four albums are of course 11 or 12 track ones, which is standard length.

BTW, there is now a rumour of a small tour in January next year, possibly to promote/road test material from the new album. *starts saving*

[blue]

OK, so here it is - 'A Piano: The Collection':


http://everythingtori.com/go/coming_soon/


Five disc box set which, from the look of it, is a kind of Rhino Records overview of her whole career rather than the purely b-sides collection that was rumoured.

I need time to really digest the whole tracklist, but initially I'm amazed at some of the great b-sides that are missing (Garlands, Ode To The Banana King and Humpty Dumpty among them, three of my particular favourites), while stuff like 'Hungarian Wedding Song', a very minor b-side from the Pele era, makes the cut. In the same vein, very early live tracks from the first singles which can only be obtained at high prices on ebay now are left off in favour of live tracks on readily available singles like 'Hey Jupiter'. Several tracks are also duplicated in different versions. Seems a bit of a waste, to me. Also puzzled by the inclusion of so many album tracks, unless they've been remastered?

Good things about this box - NEW SONGS! That is, new/old songs, things we've heard about but not heard as yet. Also these 'alternate versions' of familiar tracks, and demo versions. Could be interesting.

[kuhn]

RE. "'A Piano: The Collection':


With a suggesteed retail price of 75 USD and containing a lot of alternative versions of already released songs you have to be a hardcore fan to buy this set.

Sure, there are some gems on there, but speaking for myself - it's overpriced...

[paul-pgss]

I have one thing to say: sell out. Again.
If she wanted to do her fans a pleasure than this would be a complete b-side compilation without all the alternate takes.

Why do all the Tori's and Bj?rk's in this world do this?

[RobB]

Why do all the Tori's and Bj?rk's in this world do this?

I think its called 'boosting the pension fund'

[blue]

To be fair, it was Rhino Records who approached Tori to do this, not the other way round. RR have a great reputation within the music business for compiling retrospectives that are done with a lot of love and care, resulting in a pretty fab item at the end of the day. Their box sets for The Cure and David Bowie especially were fabulous.

I highly doubt that Tori is going to be raking in the profits from a venture like this. The hardcore fanbase got really excited when the news leaked that Rhino Records had approached her, and I think she genuinely wanted to take the opportunity to produce something special. It's not something she's going to gain much from financially.

I just wish they'd included ALL the b-sides in it, that should have been the priority. Those would have taken up probably 3 discs, then they'd have had the other two for the alternate versions/demos/remastered album tracks.

It may be that RR are still planning to remaster all the albums individually and release them with their respective b-sides included, and if so I'd probably wait and buy those rather than this box set.

[sound world]

Rhino do some great things.
This kind of thing happens with jazz a lot-old music repackaged with a few new titbits to coax you to part with your hard-earned ackers.
Golden opportunity to either-do some filesharing (illegal) or wait for it to get to iTunes and buy the tracks you need.
DL the artwork from the net and Hey presto!!

[blue]

Matty Chamberlain posted on his website a couple of days ago that he's already finished his tracking for the new Tori album. It seems to have taken only about three weeks in total. He mentioned having to work with new drum software for this record, so it sounds as if it might have an electronica element.

Some speculation also as to whether the short amount of time it's taken for the drums to be done completely indicates some tracks with no drums on this record. One of the biggest complaints in the ever-whining world of Tori fandom the past few years has been Matty and Jon's presence on almost every track, I think a lot of people are ready to hear Tori more on her own again.

[paul-pgss]

I would love to hear Tori on her own again, then again, I would love to hear Tori doing more with electronica. I liked what I heard on To Venus And Back and certainly would like to see where she'd end up if she would be taking that road.

[blue]

I agree Paul, for me the only track on the whole of The Beekeeper I really love is the title track, which is basically a very subtle kind of electronica - different to the soundworld she created on TVAB, but interesting in its own right.

As for Tori-on-her-own, I hope that song she played in Paris last year makes the new album. The more I listen to it (even with Friedrich and Rolf talking all over it) the more I love it. A call to arms to the daughters of Jerusalem. That's my girl. [akiss]

[paul-pgss]

On AOL the following quote of Tori was posted on the new album:
"It's a real challenge, allowing myself to not have any kind of subject limits [this time] because I was trying to protect my child," she said of her new album. "But that's not the only reason I've written what I've written and done what I've done the last five years. Now that I've addressed things coming from the mother, the minister's daughter and a sexual creature, it's time to do something else energetically. I'm not quite sure how to put it in words yet and I think it's better to let the music speak for itself."

[blue]

The quote in my signature is taken from similar comments made by Tori recently, about how her 'mellow' sound in the last few years has been influenced partly by a need to not frighten her daughter.

I'm not sure I buy it, you know. I think she's rationalising her decision to try to go mainstream pop on The Beekeeper because she now recognises it was a ghastly mistake.

Still, good to know she's trying not to limit herself this time. Her creativity is like a river, a natural force, always moving and tumbling and overflowing its banks. Trying to put reins on that simply does not work, as we saw on The Beekeeper.