Review: Tori Amos - American Doll Posse

Bug or feature? Tori Amos' latest album, American Doll Posse, supposedly to be released on April 30, can be downloaded at the (German) iTunes store already. Boldly I hit the "buy" button before I even listened to the songs - THEY might have noticed and pulled the plug before I have the songs on my HD (call me Mr. Paranoid).

This kind of "buy before listening" trust is actually nothing that I would normally grant Tori Amos. Not anymore. Yes, I loved all her albums, be it Little Earthquake, Under the Pink (brilliantly reduced to Tori and her Piano), be it Boys For Pele. I even liked most of Strange Little Girls. But the Beekeeper was BORING. Scarlet's Walk was BORING. Tori Amos was wasting my time with music that somehow had lost the magical ability of creeping into my brain and staying there. I listened to those albums several times, I tried to keep those memories, but they were just boring. BORING (your mileage may vary).

I consider myself brave hitting that "buy now" button in iTunes before listening closely to the songs. :-) And I was rewarded for my incredible bravery. :-) . The album has quite a number of simply great songs. Great Rock songs I might add.

Many of the songs, like Big Wheel, have an irresistable (Piano) rhythm and a kind of 70's flair to it (I was even reminded to Jethro Tull a couple of times, and to Elton John's piano style) but also feature some truly heavy rock guitars. Of course there are also slow songs with the kind of haunting melodies that you're used to if you know Tori Amos.

Unfortunately, the quality of music deteriorates later in the album. Code Red (track 15) and Roosterspur Bridge (track 16) are not the same kind of stuff as Secret Spell (track 10) or Big Wheel (track 2), and once I had arrived at Dark Side of the Sun the old feeling of tiredness of always the same "Great voice, but where's the melody?" feeling set in. Dark Side of the Sun is not a bad song itself, but it's cliché Tori without anything new and without much worth being remembered or actually listened to.

But, as I've written before, the first 13 tracks are well worth the price of the album. Great stuff!