CD Project Thing #4 - Alice In Chains, The Allman Brothers Band, Tori Amos pt. 1

Alice In Chains - "Nothing Safe: The Best Of The Box"

Alice In Chains are a band with lots of comps. There's the 10-track "Best Of", a 2 disc "Essential" and a 4 (I think) Box Set. And then there's this, a single 16-track disc that's technically "the best of the box", but is also essentially a greatest hits of the band itself, and it's just about all the Alice In Chains I need. Why do I say "just about"? Well, the damn thing doesn't have "Heaven Beside You", which is possibly my favorite Alice In Chains song. Thing is, the "Best Of" DOES have it, but it also drops a few songs from this, including "Get Born Again", which I like. I'm sure I don't need 2 discs, so I guess I'll just stick with what I have.

Something else interesting: I didn't realize until reading the liner notes that Jerry Cantrall wrote all the songs (many of them solo). I guess that makes the fact that the band is going on tour with a new singer somewhat less lame.

The Allman Brothers Band - "A Decade Of Hits 1969-1979"

And we reach the first of Marisa's cds ("Moon Safari" might have been hers first, but I officially adopted it and love it as I would one of my own cds). Guess you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South(ern rocK) out of the girl. Anyway, to the album. Sort of a misleading title, since a total of one song is from 1979 and the other 15 are from 1969-1973. Also, these might have been hits at the time, but only about half of them are things I know from my classic rock radio. I've got to say, I was scared of this cd - I tend not to be a fan of stuff from the 70s (especially early 70s, especially American), and I had the idea in my head that there would be lots of guitar jamming, which I really sort of hate. Well, it was better than I expected - like I said, I knew about half of it, and most of the songs weren't superlong, and many didn't have any big guitar solos at all. So, while I don't really have any desire to listen to more, I now consider the Allman
Brothers Band to be decent.

Tori Amos - "Little Earthquakes"

Another artist that's Marisa's. One of Marisa's favorites, in fact. Me, I've never had anything against Tori, but I just never really considered getting into her, mainly because of all the effort it seemed to require to be a Tori fan (and the
implications of what being a male Tori fan would make people think). It just wasn't worth it.

To the album itself - I must have heard Marisa play this in the car a bunch, because most of it actually sounded familiar, and most of it was actually pretty good. Not "OMG I would die for you Tori!" good, but good. Even now, it sounds pretty unique and different, it must have blown people's minds in 1991. There are some moments where she's a little TOO emotional and her voice brushes against "annoying", but overall it's a solid debut. Can she keep it up? I don't know myself, we'll find out together!

Tori Amos - "Crucify" (CD Single)

In addition to a (superior) remix version of the title track, the key thing here are solo piano covers of "Angie" (Rolling Stones), "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana) and "Thank You" (Led Zepplin). As you might expect, none of them sounds anything like the original, especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which might as well be a completly different song.

Tori Amos - "Under The Pink"

Tori's second album, it's a lot like "Little Earthquakes" except a little more adventurous and not as good. It's got a few good songs at the beginning of the album, but by the end I was sort of bored by it.