Desire Avenue

I finally bought ADP on Saturday, the delux dvd edition for the bargain price of AUD$10, which is about 4 pounds.

This has to mark the longest I have waited to buy a Tori album after it,s initial release.

The DVD is rather pointless and reveals absolutely nothing about the ADP project other than a photoshoot and a very uninteresting song.

The album, for me is still disappointing, though I will admit there are some absolute gems amongst the filler. I adore Bouncing Off Clouds, Girl Disappearing, Teenage Hustling, Body And Soul, You Can Bring Your Dog, I think these are really up with her best work.

It's a shame that there are some really bad songs here too like Mr Bad Man and Secret Spell.

The artwork is really ugly but I think that may be the point to all of this. I'm still not 100% on the concept of the record, and I think I might have appreciated it more if I had seen her live on stage performing under the dolls identities, rather than having to imagine it whilst listening to the album.

What I do love are the moments on ADP where she gets bluesy and rocky, a welcome blast after The Beekeepers lush textures. I'm hoping that this is what Tori was referring to when she siad a change was coming with this particular record.

Now that she has parted ways with Sony/Epic, and going into self releasing, I'm hoping that the obvious polish the label wanted on her music wears off and the real doll gets a spin on the next album!

I've been listening a lot to the greatly misunderstood Strange Little Girls album, which has similar connections to ADP, and I really do love that album. Her subtle yet savage take on Eminem is one of the most brilliantly effective covers of a controversial and deeply offensive song. Hearing those words from the mouth of a woman, as it was never intended to be, is such a satisfying damnation of the man who wrote it. I've never been a big fan of cover albums, even PAS is not high on my list, but this album really is superb.

Just found this really rather cool remix on youtube - you wouldn't think Little Earthquakes could take a remix, but I thought I'd post it because I actually like it:


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3sQHrpoNe ... re=related

d.a.walker wrote:
It's a shame that there are some really bad songs here too like Mr Bad Man

Sacrilege!!

Mr. Bad Man is LOVE. It's so totally a try-out for the musical. Seriously Dan, can't you see the Busby Berkely dance routine in your head?

d a walker wrote:Now that she has parted ways with Sony/Epic, and going into self releasing, I'm hoping that the obvious polish the label wanted on her music wears off and the real doll gets a spin on the next album!

It's great that she's finally ditched the majors altogether, she really should have done that after she got out of her contract with Atlantic. 'Scarlet's Walk' was already in the works then and it's a great album, but I suspect the follow up albums would have been a lot more interesting if she'd been independent at that point.

It's interesting to review the Epic era now it's over. I'm more than ever convinced that The Beekeeper and ADP were made primarily to fulfil her contract, whilst keeping better material aside for later on. During the ADP tour, an @ regular reported a rather intriguing little incident at a meet and greet - a fan who was getting Tori to sign a copy of The Beekeeper cheekily asked her why she'd put all the b-sides on the album with that release (if you recall, all previous albums had b-sides released separately on CD singles or online). Apparently, Tori gave her a look and said 'they're all b-sides'. We now know that, after an initially good experience with Epic on Scarlet, the situation turned negative after Polly Anthony abruptly left the company - Tori has said as much herself in recent interviews. She was contracted to give Epic two more albums at that time, which she did, in quick succession - two long albums full of material that most fans and critics agree is below par by her previous standards. Things that make you go hmmmm .....

Anyway, we'll see what happens. Going independent does seem to have re-energised her if the latest interviews are anything to go by, and her live performance at the Dranouter Festival back in August was startling at times for the new energy and arrangements of some songs (Suede and the Body and Soul improv gave me chills). Recent projects like Comic Book Tatoo seem to have really inspired her also. The information so far about the new album coming next year is interesting - apparently it will be accompanied by a series of films? She's talking about it possibly being shown as a kind of multi-media piece in art galleries, so presumably it's not the kind of commercial pop she's put out on the last two records.

We can but hope.

d a walker wrote:I've been listening a lot to the greatly misunderstood Strange Little Girls album, which has similar connections to ADP, and I really do love that album. Her subtle yet savage take on Eminem is one of the most brilliantly effective covers of a controversial and deeply offensive song. Hearing those words from the mouth of a woman, as it was never intended to be, is such a satisfying damnation of the man who wrote it. I've never been a big fan of cover albums, even PAS is not high on my list, but this album really is superb.

*high fives*

It's been fascinating to see how the fan's perception of that album has been changing in the light of what came after. It was really the last time Tori was genuinely edgy and confrontational - the whole premise is challenging in itself, taking a bunch of songs written by men about women, ranging in tone from vaguely dismissive to downright misogynistic, and letting the perspective rotate. That was a very, very brave thing to do at the height of what the media loves to call 'post-feminism'. Her take on '97 Bonnie and Clyde, and her interpretation of Slayer's Raining Blood, are two of the best things she's ever done imo, absolute genius. I think what's so brilliant about the former is the way she re-creates the atmosphere of the narrative, so that anyone listening to it cannot escape the horror of what's happening in the story. One of the most offensive and vile things about Eminem's original is that it's done in an almost jaunty sing-song manner, as if the events he's relating are all perfectly normal and understandable. In T's much more subtle and powerful version, you cannot escape from the nightmare and how it impacts on the little girl in the story.

I love the production on this record too, the spare, dark tone of some tracks, the fantastic band contributions on others. Adrian Belew's guitar work is so great. Really a brilliant album, and one that finally seems to be getting its due.

Re mentioning the Dranouter Festival performance above, here's the reworked/improv version of Body and Soul for anyone who hasn't heard it yet:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1zdJvM7Sg ... re=related


Now don't get me wrong, I love the glam-rock stomp of the studio version, but this solo arrangement is a really good example of why a lot of fans feel T is better off without the band in live performance. Sometimes they can bring something extra to a song (for example, the Plugged version of The Waitress), but more often it results in bland MOR arrangements that are nowhere near as interesting and intense as what she comes up with on her own with her keyboards.


The live band version of the same track from the ADP tour, for comparison:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wVBaD3w_2 ... re=related

Two things strike me right away - you can barely hear her piano arrangement over the noise of the band, and she's struggling with her vocal for the same reason.

Actually Mr. Bad Man is one of the few tracks on ADP I do like, surprisingly.

I agree about her being better solo as well.

During the ADP tour, an @ regular reported a rather intriguing little incident at a meet and greet - a fan who was getting Tori to sign a copy of The Beekeeper cheekily asked her why she'd put all the b-sides on the album with that release (if you recall, all previous albums had b-sides released separately on CD singles or online). Apparently, Tori gave her a look and said 'they're all b-sides'.

JUICY!

Looks like a new album is going to be released within the next three months or so. This is the one that will be accompanied by the short films, though we still don't know if it's the ADP tour album with The Road Chronicles documentary, or a completely separate project that may have been inspired by Comic Book Tatoo.

I wish she'd put the brakes on for a while and just go off and do something non-musical, then come back in about five years or so with a new record that might actually be worth hearing. I used to admire her work ethic, when she was still producing worthwhile music, but it's getting ridiculous now. *sigh*

Oh Tori.

I have heard that Tori's new album is called 'Quantity Over Quality'

I believe it's actually called 'If I Put Out Three Albums A Year Till I'm 70 They'll HAVE To Include Me In The Rock 'n Roll Hall Of Fame!!'.

Just a rumour, you understand.

I can confirm it is a brand new studio album and her first since signing with Universal (another major, though it is a distribution deal).

I hope it has 12 tracks.......

It's definitely a new studio album? Right, so presumably it's the Comic Book Tatoo project. I had high hopes for this, particularly when news broke that she'd 'gone independent', but since she signed with Universal I'm fearing the worst. I know she's saying it's just a distribution deal, but ....

Talking about this album in two recent interviews, she's mentioned 17 songs. And apparently she's written 20 for the musical in the same period. Can't be good. She's not giving herself enough time and space to be inspired. She's become a journeyman, where she used to be a free spirit.

Oh well. I'll look forward to the two or three tracks that I'll actually love, and never mind about the rest. It's becoming standard procedure with Tori albums. [b)]

Press release has gone out from Universal Records this evening, confirming that T is keeping up her fine tradition of giving her albums names that suck donkey balls: this one's called 'Abnormally Attracted To Sin'.

Beekeeper Part Deux, anyone? [l)]

blue wrote:Press release has gone out from Universal Records this evening, confirming that T is keeping up her fine tradition of giving her albums names that suck donkey balls: this one's called 'Abnormally Attracted To Sin'.

It could have been worse and been a misprint!
'Abnormally Attracted To Sink' anyone?

I'm hoping it might change a bit, before the official release. It's happened before - remember when From The Choirgirl Hotel was 'Confessionings of a Choirgirl'?

There's some talk on the boards that the title is actually a line from the musical 'Guys and Dolls', apparently it's spoken by a character who is a Christian attracted to a bad guy, or something? I dunno, not into musicals. But it does sound very Tori, good Christian girl wants to shag Lucifer, sort of thing. Could explain that Body and Soul improv from Dranouter .... 'I've been a bad, bad girl. Is it my destiny to need him, body and soul?'

She's done this theme to death, though, really. How many different ways are there to tell the world that she grew up in a Christian household where she was made to feel guilty about sexual thoughts? She's already looked at how this affects her relationships with men, that's what Boys For Pele was about, and she's never going to produce something as good as that now.

I think she really needs to get over being a Christian.

Oh my god, someone on @ posted a really, really bad photoshop 'album cover' as a joke, and Perez Hilton has picked it up! He's put it up as the real thing.

http://perezhilton.com/2009-02-18-your-first-look-26

blue wrote:I think she really needs to get over being a Christian.

Yes,history tells us that religion has caused millions to lose their lives in wars............and at least half a dozen boring Tori albums. [b)]

Pity that cover was a fake....its one of the better ones.