Search - Tori Amos :: American Doll Posse (Bonus Dvd) (Spec)

A Fatted Calf for the Prodigal Tori Fan

shaxper | Lakewood, OH | 03/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're at all like me, then you were there toward the beginning when Tori was the girl with the piano, baring her soul through her music, dazzling our hearts and tugging at our tear ducts with her unique brand of phonic madness and enigmatic poetry. If you're at all like me, you also had that moment when things changed for you. Maybe it was when the woman who once sang "You're only popular with anorexia" started losing a ton of weight, wearing layers of make-up, and donning priceless designer dresses, the shift away from autobiographical songs, lyrics, and album concepts into subjects that felt easier and even effortless, or maybe it was the simple fact that her songs lost the ability to make you scream and cry. Whatever the case, somewhere along the line Tori lost you, and now it's finally time to come home.



American Doll Posse isn't a return to the "Good Old Days" in most respects. Instead, it's the pinnacle of what she's been trying to do since. Few of the tracks on this album are boldly autobiographical, emotionally overpowering, nor lyrically meaningful. Instead, each song simply sores as something beautiful and ingeniously arranged -- compositional masterpieces that don't strive to be anything more than they are (simple political commentaries aside). Even with 23 tracks, nearly each one shines in its own respect, and, though I have no intention of attempting to keep track of the five different persona that are supposedly singing on this album, one can't deny a tremendously varied sound and style in each song. The album never grows tiring nor monotonous, and no two tracks blend together. This could easily have been a greatest hits compilation for a lesser artist, and while I've noted earlier that this album is neither as meaningful nor emotionally potent as Tori's early work, I'd still rate it amongst my favorites because nearly each song truly is a hit in and of itself.



My personal favorites on this album include the groovy southern attitude of "Big Wheel," the dreamy kinetic energy of "Bouncing Off Clouds," the haunting yearning of "Digital Ghost," the celebratory beauty of "Secret Spell," the creepy evocation of "Father's Son," the playful naivety of "Programmable Soda," the sweet, exhausted relief of overcoming in "Almost Rosey," and the delicate threading of sweet harmony and maddening cacophony in "Dragon," the most evocative song of the album which almost feels like a throwback to Boys for Pele.



However, I believe it's possible for nearly any song on this album to be someone's favorite. The only songs on this album that I'm not particularly attached to are Fat Slut, Velvet Revolution, Posse Bonus, and Dark Side of the Sun. Even the first three of those aren't unlikable; they just lack exceptional qualities. Dark Side of the Sun is the only song on the entire album that I honestly don't like. The lyrics and the music fight each other constantly, and the whole fusion feels uncomfortable and forced. That entry aside, there isn't a track on this album that isn't worth getting to know.



So, if you've been away from Tori for a while, this is definitely the album to welcome you home, and if you're new to Tori, it's not a bad starting point either. American Doll Posse may not be the most moving album Tori ever put together, but it certainly shines with its own style of radiance.

"

Great!

Daniel Rodrigues | 01/13/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A great rock dense political and intense album! I would excpect nothing less from Tori! US government hated this record at the time it was released and it is a good thing of course! lol"

Muses from the wrong side of the tracks are muses yet

Lisa Anne Flowers | Virginia, USA | 08/03/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When does originality's freshness mellow into the unchallenged comfort of a long married couple rocking on their porch....or, at the other end of the spectrum, an unconditional parental love? This is a question worth asking of both Tori Amos and a sizable section of her fan base, no small part of which this writer makes up.



When asked why he didn't include a descriptive section on his female protagonist in the appendix to "The Sound And The Fury", Faulkner replied: "Remember, all Tolstoy said about Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat....it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree." Amos might have applied the same standard to her latest personas, just as she did so compellingly in the "Boys For Pele" days. But she's pulled these muses out of the mist (or miasma, as circumstances dictate) and painted them all up for the ogling Sunday company. Her eccentricity is one of her most enduringly wonderful qualities, but the fact is that she's gotten increasingly careless about letting it be exploited in the name of marketing.



Fans hoping for a reprise of the "Little Earthquakes" through "To Venus And Back" golden era will remain disappointed, but "American Doll Posse" is an impressive album on its own terms, and certainly better than anything Amos has done since 2001's "Scarlet's Walk". Highlights include the sinister "Smokey Joe," which seems to materialize in a long white shift at the stroke of midnight and lead the listener into its dark labyrinths with a candle. The Billie Holiday drenched "Dragon" has fingers and a hot-oil carbonated spine. "Girl Disappearing" flits in and out of "The White Album" like a firefly. "Body And Soul" and "Big Wheel" rock, as does "You Can Bring Your Dog," which could have been written by the Wilson sisters in their "Little Queen" era. "Father's Son"...a marvelously calming and steadying song...is just plain easy listening; & "Bouncing Off Clouds," in spite of its bubblegum lyrics, is arguably the best number on the album.





Like Randy Newman, Amos has a strong strain of Broadway in her blood. "Velvet Revolution" and the driving, exhilarating "Teenage Hustling" run the gamut from "The Pajama Game" to "Rent".



Duds? "Secret Spell"...the album's only true "no no".... sounds like something that should be playing as the camera pans to an exterior shot of the high school in an Olson twins Hollywood blockbuster. And anyone who says "Beauty Of Speed" doesn't sound exactly like Kate Bush is simply kidding themselves. The track is hard not to like....but it doesn't belong to Amos. Numbers like "Dark Side Of The Sun," though melodically lovely, feature garden-variety, hippie-dippy protest lyrics that are miles beneath Amos' keen sense of poetry and the way it can be used, paradoxically, to communicate linear ideas more effectively via non-linear methods.



Amos has been cheating on her genius with unworthy muses from the wrong side of the tracks ever since 2005's "The Beekeeper". That said, the early nuptial glow of her 90s work may have temporarily gone the way all epic romances eventually seem to, but where there is potential like hers, there is hope, and her muses still cut a palely desirable, distinctly un-Havishamian figure in their faded wedding finery."