Desire Avenue

sound world wrote:Jocelyn Pook
(and Stina Nordenstam )

yessaid.com member quietude wrote: Not really, I just find it sad to witness the decline of an artist I once very much respected.

I found this article by Bill that I thought was interesting, it's posted below.

"If this were a simple case of switching styles, you wouldn't see backlash like this. Any legitimate artist should be changing and trying new things. Otherwise, the work would become stagnant and forced. I know that when PJ Harvey says that when she starts a new album, her goal is for it to be the complete opposite of the previous one. I think everyone here agrees that this mentality is a good thing, so your point kind of goes unsaid. What we happen to be looking at today with TA is lack of integrity, and it's not something that has sprung up overnight.


Nobody can possibly convince me than when Tori sits down at the piano, her first instinct is to write cheesy pop songs and do Barney's shout-outs. As she's happy to tell you, the woman is a gifted musician with a classical background. Her music, while varying stylistically, has always been structurally unconventional, which fans probably enjoy about her. Listening to a song for the first time, one cannot necessarily guess where it is going to go, which is not true of ordinary four-chord rock/pop songs. This kind of started to not be the case around 2002. And around 1999 Tori kind of started to get a lot less famous. Does that sound like a big coincidence?

Tori is someone whose career has gotten fucked over by the world. Modern rock radio stations that would play Tori (and other women like Jewel, Liz Phair, Fiona Apple, Garbage, etc) in the 90's won't play women today. Or anything that is not of a very specific mold. She got knocked up and returned unplayable. This is on top of record sales that had been declining since 92. She could've accepted her place as a footnote in 90's music history and kept going where she was going (by that I mean making interesting music, not the same sound). She had a very loyal fan base that would follow her pretty much everywhere she would go. She could've enjoyed a career not unlike 90's icons Dave Matthews and Pearl Jam.

But here's the catch. The woman enjoys being famous. Go to The Dent and read some interviews from every year of her career. You'll find her in 92 saying things like, "Well to be honest, I've gotten more press than the queen this year!" You'll find lots of talk of the luxuries she enjoys. Answers like, "of course I have." to questions like, "have you met Elton John?" Go look! It's all there. And let's not forget that she turned what for other musicians is simply getting off the bus and signing things into a degrading freak show. Thusly a long career of respectablitly, relevance and integrity, minus the B-list celebrity status and the occasional Rolling Stone cover, is not an acceptable option to her. So, rather than go the way of Kate Bush, Tom Waits and the woman in my avatar, she's chosen to make a fool of herself. She had a fan base that was willing to follow her pretty much anywhere, and she still managed to alienate them. She and her crackerjack management team have decided to chase a market that does not exist. She has replaced the unconventional with the conventional. She has become what she claims to be the opposite of. She has opted out of aging gracefully. I have decided I'm not ok with it.

Not to get all Ayn Rand on you, but no creative person can create based on how their work will be recieved. It's stifling, and the results are not good. To me, that is obviously what's happened to her. And it's been going on for years! Failure after failure after failure. Being a Tori Amos fan has gone from mildly embarassing to completely humiliating. I feel like I'm in Abu Ghraib with Tori pointing at my dick for the camera.
This latest debacle is just the nail in the coffin for me. By saying that her music got softer because her daughter wouldn't understand, Tori was really trying to say, "I know you guys are starting to hate me, but I'm coming back!" We're not saying the Tori we haven't heard in a while is coming back; SHE did. And then she put on a hot dress and wig for a promo picture that's really a giant caricature of what she used to be. I thought she was really gonna do it this time. She knows she fucked up, and I thought this album would make for great backtracking. But thus far, not the case! I think she's just changing her strategy a bit by making her fan base think she's up to something while making bullshit music. Playing both sides. I realize I've only heard like five minutes off what is sure to be a fifteen hour opus, but I don't see this turning around.
So what's the real problem with me saying I won't buy this album? Or that I won't go out of my way to see her on tour? Or that I won't stand caged up in the excessive cold/heat to kiss her ass? If you're down with all this, great. Have fun. But you can't blame any conscious human being for not agreeing. "

chicken is the new piglet

Well I hope she doesn't get the same ideas, Somehow I think suckling a chicken is an accident waiting to happen . . .

She's trying too hard to make up for the fluffiness of TBK. Dark edginess can't be forced. If the music doesn't live up to these pictures (as it hasn't, and as I suspect it won't), this is just tacky. This art is stark, like the album should consist of just her wailing and pounding on a harpsichord. Instead, the clips are full of guitars and shit. I definitely agree that I'm tired of her playing dress-up.