CD Project Thing #5 - Tori Amos, pt. 2

Tori Amos - "Boys For Pele"

Tori's third album, and it sounds pretty different than the first two. She plays harpsicord on some tracks instead of piano, and many of the tracks are much louder and denser with more of a full-band sound (and "Professional Widow" is downright scary played loud). Even the artwork is a little creepy (with stuff like "Tori with a gun" and "Tori breastfeeding a pig"). It's also far longer than the first two were. Unlike the first two albums, I don't think I knew any of these songs (Wikipedia says that despite possibly being her least well-known album, it's her best-selling, and I sort of see what they mean). In the end, though, my thoughts on it are the same as what my thoughts are ending up being on most Tori stuff - a few exceptional songs, and a bunch of songs I'm indifferent towards.

Tori Amos - "From The Choirgirl Hotel"

If the last album was starting to use a band a bit, this sounds flat out like a band album. Pretty much every song has a full band on it, and unlike her previous work it's rare for a song to have a really dominant piano. It sounds a lot like many other mid-to late-90s alternative bands, actually. Which I suppose is why I actually knew a few of these songs from the radio and MTV. (As an aside, I find that a large percentage of the time, the Tori songs I really like were singles. Am I just subconciously a poser who only likes what he's told to like, or is Tori just really good at picking the best songs as singles? The world may never know.)

Tori Amos - "Spark" CD Single

This is a 2-track CD Single, and the b-side isn't especially interesting. I asked Marisa why she bought it, in hopes of a good story for this spot, and she didn't even know. Into the sell pile it goes!