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Thoughts on American Doll Posse
May. 24th, 2007 01:08 pmSometimes I wonder what happened between 1999 and 2001 that rendered Tori Amos incapable of producing anything but concept albums. After much thought I have concluded that it's her kid's fault. All at hCG and HPL apparently warped her brain and now the only thing she can focus on is "The Big Picture." Mind you, she seems to be the only person who can see the Big Picture in her most recent albums, but that's only to be expected. True genius is often misunderstood.
I'm not saying I don't like any of Tori's concept albums. I think "Scarlet's Walk" is one of her best. But the overarching stories she attempts to tell with these albums are just so opaque and difficult to follow that listeners are best advised to ignore the "plot" all together.
"American Doll Posse" is different in that it doesn't attempt to tell a specific story, but to examine the issues brought up by each individual "doll." The only problem is that they are all lyrically similar and are pretty much exploring the same issues as a group that Tori has already spent most of her musical career exploring. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Fans love Tori precisely because they like what she sings about and the way she chooses to express herself. But part of me knid of wishes she would just do away with all the packaging and pageantry and just release an ALBUM like in the good old days. "American Doll Posse" is a really good album, WAY better than "The Beekeeper." It does not require wigs, costumes, and gimmicks to be given its due credit. Tori already has a solid fan base and the songs are all good enough to draw in new listeners so it's all a bit excessive.
Though the dolls are all lyrically similar, writing for five different personalities seems to have given Amos an excuse to play around, composing music that is still very Tori but not in the way fans have come to expect. Musically each and every doll is wildly different. Clyde's songs are poppy and ethereal, Santa's are playful and choppy, Pip's are rocking and guitar driven. After listening to the first five songs, each of which introduces one of the dolls, I spent the rest of the album guessing which songs belonged to which girl. Their musical signatures were so distinct I wound up guessing right about 90% of the time.
I read one reviewer state that Tori saved all the best sings for herself. I beg to differ. I think Clyde got all the best songs. All of hers are very pop, and we all know how much I love good pop music. On her website Tori describes Clyde as "based upon the Greek mythological queen of the underworld Persephone. She wears her emotional wounds on her sleeve, but remains idealistic. She is looking at the effects of not being a whole person. She is trying to figure out what she believes in and she is dealing with having been disappointed in her life." No wonder I like her so much. While I like Clyde's songs best on the whole, my single favorite track on the album is "Secret Spell" sung by Santa. I've also taken a shine to "Almost Rosey" in recent days.
That is all.
Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I really dug this MSN article about why rich colleges stay rich and poor colleges stay poor.
I'm not saying I don't like any of Tori's concept albums. I think "Scarlet's Walk" is one of her best. But the overarching stories she attempts to tell with these albums are just so opaque and difficult to follow that listeners are best advised to ignore the "plot" all together.
"American Doll Posse" is different in that it doesn't attempt to tell a specific story, but to examine the issues brought up by each individual "doll." The only problem is that they are all lyrically similar and are pretty much exploring the same issues as a group that Tori has already spent most of her musical career exploring. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Fans love Tori precisely because they like what she sings about and the way she chooses to express herself. But part of me knid of wishes she would just do away with all the packaging and pageantry and just release an ALBUM like in the good old days. "American Doll Posse" is a really good album, WAY better than "The Beekeeper." It does not require wigs, costumes, and gimmicks to be given its due credit. Tori already has a solid fan base and the songs are all good enough to draw in new listeners so it's all a bit excessive.
Though the dolls are all lyrically similar, writing for five different personalities seems to have given Amos an excuse to play around, composing music that is still very Tori but not in the way fans have come to expect. Musically each and every doll is wildly different. Clyde's songs are poppy and ethereal, Santa's are playful and choppy, Pip's are rocking and guitar driven. After listening to the first five songs, each of which introduces one of the dolls, I spent the rest of the album guessing which songs belonged to which girl. Their musical signatures were so distinct I wound up guessing right about 90% of the time.
I read one reviewer state that Tori saved all the best sings for herself. I beg to differ. I think Clyde got all the best songs. All of hers are very pop, and we all know how much I love good pop music. On her website Tori describes Clyde as "based upon the Greek mythological queen of the underworld Persephone. She wears her emotional wounds on her sleeve, but remains idealistic. She is looking at the effects of not being a whole person. She is trying to figure out what she believes in and she is dealing with having been disappointed in her life." No wonder I like her so much. While I like Clyde's songs best on the whole, my single favorite track on the album is "Secret Spell" sung by Santa. I've also taken a shine to "Almost Rosey" in recent days.
That is all.
Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I really dug this MSN article about why rich colleges stay rich and poor colleges stay poor.
