Byzantine

Weekly Album Review: Tori Amos – American Doll Posse (2007)

Artist: Tori Amos
Album: American Doll Posse
Release Year: 2007
Label: Epic
Genre: Alternative Rock/Singer-Songwriter
Length: 78:54

Rating:

It has become almost a cliché for diehard Tori fans to instantly dismiss her newer albums. It all started with 2002’s Scarlet Walk, which started out as a concept album; an interesting concept album, granted, with wonderful songwriting and intricate arrangements, but nevertheless there seemed to be something missing. Suddenly, it became apparent that the old Tori was gone. No more Father Lucifer. No more Cornflake Girl. No more Raspberry Swirl. So Tori began to worry her fanbase, because it seemed that her new music was, well, crap. It didn’t help that her next album, The Beekeeper , totally sucked. I think the whole problem lies in the fact that Tori has, in recent years, come to rely too much on the concept album to sell her music. So basically when the concept fails, the record flops. That is precisely the problem with American Doll Posse.

First off, kudos to Tori for the great album title. The ‘posse’ in the title refers to 5 different girls – Isabel, Clyde, Pip, Santa and Tori – each of them a different aspect of Tori’s personality. Each song in the album is therefore sung from the perspective of one of these characters (except for “Body and Soul”, which is a duet between Pip and Santa). The 5 characters allow Tori to explore a wide variety of themes in the album, therefore explaining why there are 20 tracks in the record. On the other hand, this makes American Doll Posse a very lengthy album. There are several very good songs around; I particularly love “Big Wheel”, “Body and Soul”, “Velvet Revolution” and “Smokey Joe”, just to name a few tracks. Tori’s attempts at experimenting with rock and roll influences are, for the most part, successful. However, most of the songs on the album are just mediocre. Tracks 14-18 hardly left an impression on me. At times, Tori’s attempts at being cryptic are just plain embarrassing. In “Code Red”, Tori proclaims “Victory is an elusive whore”; that’s just about as much as I can stand.

That said, American Doll Posse isn’t a bad album. In fact, this is probably Tori’s strongest record since 1998’s From the Choirgirl Hotel. The rock and roll influences in this album make the music a hundred times more bearable than the watered-down contemporary adult blandness that is ubiquitous on Beekeeper. Besides, American Doll Posse is a very good album compared to most of the junk released this year. It’s just that if Tori had considered cutting down the album to let’s say, 10 or 12 tracks, it would have made a more satisfying listen.

Add comment November 29th, 2007

On Kylie Minogue and ’2 Hearts’

This be the first entry, so hello to all.

Am I one of the small few out there who seriously thinks that Kylie Minogue’s comeback single is actually great? Written and produced by Kish Mauve, ’2 Hearts’ is eerily reminiscent of Goldfrapp, which may be a reason for some to dislike the song. I’ve seen people on YouTube commenting that ’2 Hearts’ is nothing but a cheap Goldfrapp rip-off and, well, they’re not entirely wrong on that. But seriously, hardly anything on mainstream radio nowadays is truly original – so what else were you expecting? While ’2 Hearts’ isn’t as immediate or catchy as ‘Come Into My World’ or ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’, it’s strangely addictive after a few listens. And it won’t get out of my head either.

Don’t even get me started on the people who are complaining that the song’s style is too ‘experimental’. If it can be played on radio – if those executives at EMI allowed the song to be released – then how experimental can it be anyway?

Frankly, as a comeback single, ’2 Hearts’ doesn’t fare too badly. And if it’s heaps better than Britney Spears’ ‘Gimme More’, whatever goes. And what the hell, you can judge the song for yourself too:

Add comment November 6th, 2007