So, Tori Amos has a new album coming out. It's called Gold Dust. I do not like it. It's a retrospective of some of the songs that span her twenty year career, including things like Precious Things, Marianne, Winter - the classics. In fact, yeah, the classics. This entire album is her, her piano, and a whole fucking classical orchestra. She says her relationship to the songs has changed and she wanted to re-work them for this reason. You can hear a difference - but it's minimal. On many occasions I reckon the orchestration damages the initial power of the song.
She's recently been going mad for the classical stuff. Her last album, 2011's Night Of Hunters was similarly inclined - reworking many famous compositions from Satie to Chopin. I also considered it so so. I'm not a massive classical fan, but I do have some favourites (Britten, Satie, some Stravinsky, Mozart's Requiem, Chopin's cello sonatas). I am a pretty massive fan of Tori Amos. I love her imagery and open ended abstract lyrics that still seem intensely personal, although you can't quite pin down exactly what they're about, hence the ability for you to project or interpret more independently, I think. I am a big fan of her constantly shifting interests and experimentation. That's what makes an artist exciting. But I'm just not into this.
Boys For Pele is a personal favourite. I really think it is her masterpiece. I still think it's one of the most original albums I've ever heard. Here's my own brief retrospective.
First, the song after which the collection is named. You can see why - it's super beautiful.
Gotta love a bit of Adrien Brody.
And a couple from the bat shit crazy era (my favourite):
This one was filmed in Battersea Power Station. Occasionally, I miss the 90's.
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