Derivative....ok, fine, say she sounds like Kate Bush. Doesn't mean she's copying her. She's been singing the same way since she was a teenager. Her style is her own, even if she happens to sound similar to another female singer.
she sounds nothing like Kate Bush in my opinion, in fact, I would go further in saying Tori Amos is far more skilled vocally and as a keyboardist than Kate Bush. I believe the creator of this video is being reductive to compensate for the fact that he clearly is elitist and oddly enough doesn't have the knowledge he claims to have in regard to music. From the Choirgirl Hotel was mixed with the assistance of infamously genius audio engineers alongside Tori, so his complaints were nick picky- the mix is more perfect than anything released today.
In what alternate universe does Tori Amos sound like Kate Bush? Because they can reach high notes and play piano? In that case, Kate Bush sounds like Joni Mitchell.
Never understood the Kate bush drivel. Tori is undoubtedly head and shoulders above Bush on every level. The only album where Tori actually has a lot Kate things is Y Kant Tori Read.
The muddiness of the mix that you are talking about is a very intentional, live studio lo-fi production that they went for. Tori produced the album herself and I believe she didn't want it to sound too polished so that it would maintain that live band feel. Most of it was actually recorded live with Tori and the band playing together in the studio.
I think it's one of her most immersive albums, and definitely one of my favourites. There's something subterranean about the album, rich and dark. If Neil Gaiman had custody of any of her albums, it would definitely be 'Choirgirl'.
The comments about the mix confused me a bit tbh. I've always thought Choirgirl sounded lush and dynamic. Perhaps it comes off a bit different in an age when the standard is to overcompress and overproduce the crap out of everything?
Her first four albums are very elemental centered. Little Earthquakes; earth, Under the Pink; air, Boys for Pele; fire, From the Choirgirl Hotel; water.
Yesss another Tori album ! I'm so happy you liked this one more, again sorry for recommending Boys For Pele first it's not the best introduction to her music... if you liked this one, you'd probably also like "To Venus And Back", the following album. It dives deeper into the electronic sound.
Yes! I'm obsessed with i i e e e. It's a song that you don't just listen to, you experience. I interpret the lyrics (based on context and performance) as essentially a very personal version of pleading to heaven for an answer about why terrible things happen to good people... and then looking elsewhere when heaven doesn't answer.
Nice reaction, one of my favorite Tori albums! So many of my favorite songs are on it, Spark, Cruel, Black-Dove, Iieee, Liquid Diamonds. I just love the vibe of it and the production and yeah she's an amazing lyricist. I think you not liking Boys for Pele might just be because it's a strange introduction to her music, and it's a grower for sure. I'd love for you to react to her first two albums! I don't think Tori and Kate Bush sound that alike, I did more in the beginning since I was a Kate fan first, she does some similar things with her voice but I love that. Speaking of, please react to another Kate album!
Will you react to Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink at some point? I hope you do! You started out with Boys For Pele and From The Choirgirl Hotel so I think you will be pleasantly surprised and respond much better to her first two albums. Not to say that there is anything wrong with BFP and FTCH. I love both. There's just... something truly magical, perpetual and spellbinding about Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink. Of all Tori's works, those two albums have stayed with me the most. Give them a shot. ❤️
Choirgirl has held up very well after all these years. it was the current work at the time when I became a fan. the music video for Spark really pulled me in. the album right after this one, To Venus & Back, is similar to Choirgirl. it's my favorite of all of her albums.
Tori sneaks up on you. The songs I don’t like as much on first listen are the ones I end up loving the most. There’s something she does where the best songs seem to put you off at first.
@@ashleyrenee5387 Liquid Diamonds is one I used to skip and now I can’t believe I ever did that. I love all her music even the stuff I don’t like as much, I still love. She has this power to put these surreal images and scenes in my head and I just escape to her realm for a while.
@@dumbbunny9178 100% agreed, her music is the kind you have to both think about but also just let crash over you, it can take more than one listen to fully get it.
I'm glad you enjoyed this one more, it's more accessible and full sounding than BFP. However, the Kate Bush comparisons are so incredibly tired and quite frankly misogynistic at this point. Every woman with a piano that sings dramatically in her high soprano is not the same.
Oh come on that is just not true. Tori has said time and time again that Kate was a big inspiration for her and it shows. Just because she takes inspiration from Kate doesn't mean she isn't an artist
Love your reactions. Top 4 Tori albums for me, number 3 is her latest album “Ocean To Ocean”, 2nd place is “Little Earthquakes” and my favourite is “Under The Pink”. Might check them out as well. Can’t wait for you to discover “Never For Ever” by Kate Bush and “Dance Fever” by Florence + The Machine. I really think your gonna love those two albums.
I think you should be listening to the first half of her entire catalogue; that is, before The Beekeeper. And even that is a good record imo, though it marks the beginning of her creativity downhill. One of my fav I'd always listen to these days is her Live at Montreux album. Might be a cringy comparison, but there she's on par with Alison Krauss and Lara Fabian, although I know these two top-notch voice experts are of different types and sing very differently. That live show just witnessed her incredible vocal finesse firing on all cylinders, as well as her otherworldly piano skill.
I think she’s your cocaine is a slap at Trent Reznor and Courtney Love….she’s your cocaine she’s got you shaving your legs….is it true devils end up like you something safe for the picture frame…you sign prince of darkness, try squire of dimness….she is calling Trent a poser.(the album came out in 97 or 98 I believe) Tori doesn’t play her piano like a guitar, she plays it like a virtuoso pianist…you don’t get that very much in modern music most modern musicians can’t play anything other than dull block chords on the piano, and have no coordination in their left hand. Pele is my favorite of hers but that is probably because I like baroque music and the harpsichord. But not everyone gets Pele, it’s definitely the red headed step child of her albums and is least like any of the others musically.
Also, I like that you listen to stuff more off the beaten path and keep an open mind. People don't often give Tori a chance so I love to see you doing it
I am so glad you like this one better. I'm a die hard Tori fan so she can do no wrong for me, but I know she is not for everyone. Every album is different from the next. They all have common threads, but she loves to play around with sound and genre. As far as her lyrics go, she often keeps the meaning of her lyrics vague because she prefers to leave them up to interpretation. It doesn't actually matter what her intention was, what matters is what you take from it. And while things like her miscarriage and rape are autobiographic, she takes the things that happen around her and incorporates other people's stories in with her own, sometimes all in one song. For Raspberry Swirl, it's supposed to be about a friend of her who is always getting used by men. This is Tori saying I am her friend, not yours, and you better take care of her, make her happy, and specifically to give and not just take in bed, hence the 'raspberry swirl' which is a reference to sex For Playboy Mommy, I always thought it was the story of a daughter who was ashamed of her mother because she was 'loose' or maybe a prostitute, but then finds herself in need of help from her mother or perhaps finds herself caught up in that world for some reason. I don't know, that's how I've always interpreted it, I could be wrong, she will often thread multiple stories into one song so there could be aspects of her singing to the child she lost, never thought of it that way. But not every song is autobiographical so it can be hard to tell. But that is what's great about Tori, her songs are whatever you need/want them to be in the moment, and they can change for you depending on where you are in your life and your mindset
Sorry to say it but Kate only came first... Tori is on her own league. Quit that... And when it comes to lyrics, take it easy; she's not manipulative just very layered...
Jackie in “Jackie’s Strenght” is Jackie Kennedy (Bouvier). In the song, she’s imagining running away on her wedding day (“I got lost on my wedding day”), and praying for the strength of Jackie O after JFK’s death. Every second verse is her remembering her childhood and teenage years (“Stickers licked on lunch boxes, worshipping David Cassidy”, “Sleepovers, Beene’s got some pot”), while the chorus is about her relationship with her fiancé. The connection to Jackie is stated in the first verse - “Shots rang out the police came, Mama laid me on the front lawn and prayed for Jackie’s strength”. Tori was born in 1963, and was just a few months old when JFK was assassinated. That Genius comment about critics criticizing her for playing the piano as if it’s a guitar is pretty off. According to Tori, it’s more about “never being enough”. Tori has said that she sometimes felt that way about the piano, and that she wanted to be Jimmy Page when she was younger (that’s from an interview in The Alternative Press in July 1998). The line might also be a reference to studio executives wanting to replace the piano on Little Earthquakes with guitars (which she refused to do).
Yeah, it's a little odd to watch people react to Tori's music as a first listen, inevitably totally lost by the lyrics and therefore dismissing them altogether. She's an extraordinary songwriter, but it does require a certain investment to understand her vantage points. Tori has spoken quite a bit and sung occasionally about the dichotomy between pianos and guitars according to her life's experience. She played piano before age three and was admitted to a conservatory for her piano playing at age five. The piano has been part of her being for as long as she has had memories. Almost none of us can relate to that directly. She's a gifted and extraordinary pianist, but that hasn't always been appreciated. At the conservatory as a child, she was made to play others' compositions and told she cannot compose because she is a woman. When she got her six-album record deal, it was because of her musicianship-that is why people wanted her-and then they tried to eradicate all piano from her albums and replace them with guitars. In Tori's personal symbology, pianos are associated with feminity and guitars with masculinity. When she sings "I guess you go too far/when pianos try to be guitars," I think that is a commentary on the sexual tensions on display in this album. In She's Your Cocaine, she sings of a man being humiliatingly emasculated by a woman. In Raspberry Swirl, she castigates a man for not being man enough to perform oral sex on her friend. In Spark, she sings of herself as a woman confident she can hold back a glacier-she is strong-but she fails to do the work of a woman in keeping a baby alive. So in this album, there's a lot of tension between masculine and feminine roles and living up to standards. In Northern Lad, she sings about a breakup with a man and sings I think the going too far by pianos trying to be guitars comment may signify her feeling like she may have been too assertive/aggressive/emasulating/stepping into a role that he perceived as being his. In a later album, Tori sings about "Cars and Guitars," both of which she fetishizes in the song as representative of male sensuality, and in it she juxtaposes again her piano to his guitars, her "alligator pears" to his "crocodile clip." Part of Tori's worldview is about balance, light and dark, masculine and feminine, piano and guitar, being necessary counterparts to one another, and frequently being out of balance because of people's natures. This is one thing that makes Tori and Kate Bush entirely different. For the most part, Kate is something of a short-fiction songwriter, telling stories about others, often alluding to other works of art that inspire her or ideas that inspire her. But she doesn't really have a coherent personal perspective that she has threaded throughout her music. She's an objectifying writer who describes and observes and thinks about third parties. Tori is a subjectifying songwriter who sings about her own personal experiences and worldviews, and she is opinionated and she philosophizes on her own behalf. She delivers empathy by looking inward and projecting outward. Kate delivers empathy by imagining how others feel and experience things and telling us about it.
the lyrics from Hotel were quoted by that guy who murdered that other guy. really chilling when he talked to authorities, after the fact, he was shocked at the amount blood and all he could think of was this song from Tori "exit 75, I'm still alive".
I find that if you take headphones, turn the music all the way up and absorb the energy & emotions Tori provides in her songs, you will know what the emotional ride the song is taking you on without the lyrics needing to be understood.
Tori Amos sounds like Tori Amos and Kate Bush sounds like Kate Bush. People compare them but I can honestly hear the difference. They’re both amazing and we’re all glad to have them and hear them
Davecher its okay for you to admit you have no context for comparison judging songs/acts that have a good decade on your birth. But dont sit there and pretend like you can compare an act that did one good song that got attention over an act that has accolades for days. You watched stranger things. Good for you.
Nothing personal, but gauntlet-style, on-the-spot reactions (opinions, often) to albums is highkey disrespectful to the entire medium of music. UA-cam's algorithm needs to stop sending me here
I love Tori but she really shines really bright in her live deliverances, while her albums are kinda… off. Except Little Earthquakes, that album is raw like it should be. That said, fandom part that found you here is really annoying, chill out people. Everybody that knows Tori also knows Kate Bush and there’s a reason.
If this is the reaction to Choirgirl (where Tori ventured into electronic territory, with good dividends might I say), imagine his reaction to PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire, where PJ ventures into the same territory. Both are good albums. ❤❤
Oddly enough Tori has never sounded as much like Kate Bush to me as on her latest albums. I've never associated her with her. I've always liked Toni much more precisely because she has a more versatile voice. Kate Bush has spent most of her career singing in falsetto, and of course Tori is a hundred times better pianist. But I give Kate Bush credit for being an impressive artist, that is undoubtedly true but even with her amazing voice tori´s one is so much superior.
"When pianos try to be guitars" - listen to her version of "If 6 was 9" where there is a HEAVY distortion effect on the piano. It's not a comfortable first listen.
To me Tori Amos is more of an amalgamation of both Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. The song writing and vocals remind me of Kate while the production sound like Mitchell. Don’t know if you care to or already familiar with but Joni Mitchell would be a cool listen. She basically is the godmother of every “weird” sounding female artist from the 80’s onward (Bjork,Fiona Apple, Tori, Kate bush etc. ) Her 70’s album is the one of the best artist runs ever imo and you can clearly hear the inspiration that many female singer/songwriters in the experimental indie/pop category have replicated
I looooove this album. Although I agree with you that "She's Your Cocaine" is the weakest song. I always skip it. It sounds like Pele was your first Tori album? If so, that's a really hard place to start. It's not my favorite. I think this and her first two albums are her best. Under the Pink (her second album) is her "piano" album. I think "rock" critics just wanted her to rock out more at that time but she was just doing her thing. I would be curious to see what you think of Madonna's Ray Of Light album - that dropped around the same time as Choirgirl did, when the electronic thing was pretty big in pop/rock music. Based on your taste, I think you might dig it.
It's totally fine to admit that tori sounds like kate bush in my opinion. She uses her voice very similary to kate bush and they have similar tones. I think what makes tori sepreted from kate is more so the themes of her songwriting and the production. By the way loved your reaction. Just a suggestion and you dont have to listen to me lol but I have a strong feeling you would like some of joanna newsoms albums. She's one of the most critically acclaimed songwriter's of all time and she has these very lush production qualities, especially after her debut. If you are interested I recommend listening to her latest album divers just because I think it's one of her most easy to digest works before you are actually familiar with her work. If you are going to react to her just beware lol her voice is very unique and some people are turned off by it and it's fine if you will be.
It's so strange to me. I think there are a lot of superficial similarities between the two of them but their voices don't sound very much alike to me at all. The textures of their voices are quite different. Kate sounds very theatrical to me most of the time, showy, like Bernadette Peters or some other stage musical actress. Tori's voice has an altogether different quality and her vocalizations even when soft are strongly influenced by the styles of rock bands like Led Zeppelin. They both have high soprano voices and they do both use their voices as expressive instruments rather than just to 'sound pretty,' but aside from that, I could never confuse their voices at all.
Kate has used falsetto vocals for most of her career, something Tori has never done. She has simply used her voice in a very high pitched way but nothing to do with Kate.
I honestly think people are missing out on the "Tori Amos Experience" if you don't see her live performances. I like listening to a few of her studio songs, but I love watching the absolute pure passion she exudes while playing live. Definitely recommend watching the IIEEE live Sessions version from 1998.
in the theatral / intimate dichotomy, kate bush and tori amos are very different. nobody ever said something like "kate bush saved my life" but you will see that in every tori video on youtube. tori amos is kind of like sylvia plath of music. kate bush is more like i don't know sappho or something maybe. i feel like kate bush's theatral grandiose is full of hot air. she has a few songs i really like but i have never been a fan because she lacks the actual emotional intensity. i like to hear and read nicely tortured artists.
definitely enjoyed this a lot more than boys for pele
uncut reaction: www.patreon.com/DAVECHER
“I know I'm an acquired taste - I'm anchovies. And not everybody wants those hairy little things.”
― Tori Amos
It gives us so much more space.
Derivative....ok, fine, say she sounds like Kate Bush. Doesn't mean she's copying her. She's been singing the same way since she was a teenager. Her style is her own, even if she happens to sound similar to another female singer.
she sounds nothing like Kate Bush in my opinion, in fact, I would go further in saying Tori Amos is far more skilled vocally and as a keyboardist than Kate Bush. I believe the creator of this video is being reductive to compensate for the fact that he clearly is elitist and oddly enough doesn't have the knowledge he claims to have in regard to music. From the Choirgirl Hotel was mixed with the assistance of infamously genius audio engineers alongside Tori, so his complaints were nick picky- the mix is more perfect than anything released today.
I don't think they sound alike, either, but the repeated derivative comment was irritating.
@@jacqueline-delphine5160 I also remember Tori herself saying that BoysForPele was an album that had many mistakes. Choirgirl has high production.
Tori amos sounds nothing like one note kate bush. Lol... this is how you seperate the wool from the sheep. This clown exposed themself.
In what alternate universe does Tori Amos sound like Kate Bush? Because they can reach high notes and play piano? In that case, Kate Bush sounds like Joni Mitchell.
Seems a lot of people hear a female artist with piano do anything different and they just jump to "It's Kate Bush!".
Never understood the Kate bush drivel. Tori is undoubtedly head and shoulders above Bush on every level. The only album where Tori actually has a lot Kate things is Y Kant Tori Read.
@@the92projectI love Tori Amos but let’s not go nuts. Kate is a genius
LOL tori amos fans get so pissed off about this but the comparison is valid imo. Kate Bush walked so Amos could run.
THANK YOUUUUU. Tori is a child prodigy. That’s all!
The muddiness of the mix that you are talking about is a very intentional, live studio lo-fi production that they went for. Tori produced the album herself and I believe she didn't want it to sound too polished so that it would maintain that live band feel. Most of it was actually recorded live with Tori and the band playing together in the studio.
I think it's one of her most immersive albums, and definitely one of my favourites. There's something subterranean about the album, rich and dark. If Neil Gaiman had custody of any of her albums, it would definitely be 'Choirgirl'.
The comments about the mix confused me a bit tbh. I've always thought Choirgirl sounded lush and dynamic. Perhaps it comes off a bit different in an age when the standard is to overcompress and overproduce the crap out of everything?
All the sycophants having a tantrum because she clearly sounds like Kate bush, lol.
Her first four albums are very elemental centered. Little Earthquakes; earth, Under the Pink; air, Boys for Pele; fire, From the Choirgirl Hotel; water.
I would also say that To Venus and Back is Spirit/Aether!
Yesss another Tori album ! I'm so happy you liked this one more, again sorry for recommending Boys For Pele first it's not the best introduction to her music... if you liked this one, you'd probably also like "To Venus And Back", the following album. It dives deeper into the electronic sound.
Yes! I'm obsessed with i i e e e. It's a song that you don't just listen to, you experience. I interpret the lyrics (based on context and performance) as essentially a very personal version of pleading to heaven for an answer about why terrible things happen to good people... and then looking elsewhere when heaven doesn't answer.
Nice reaction, one of my favorite Tori albums! So many of my favorite songs are on it, Spark, Cruel, Black-Dove, Iieee, Liquid Diamonds. I just love the vibe of it and the production and yeah she's an amazing lyricist. I think you not liking Boys for Pele might just be because it's a strange introduction to her music, and it's a grower for sure. I'd love for you to react to her first two albums! I don't think Tori and Kate Bush sound that alike, I did more in the beginning since I was a Kate fan first, she does some similar things with her voice but I love that. Speaking of, please react to another Kate album!
I'm loving your reactions with Tori's work! Pls keep goingggg
Will you react to Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink at some point? I hope you do! You started out with Boys For Pele and From The Choirgirl Hotel so I think you will be pleasantly surprised and respond much better to her first two albums. Not to say that there is anything wrong with BFP and FTCH. I love both. There's just... something truly magical, perpetual and spellbinding about Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink. Of all Tori's works, those two albums have stayed with me the most. Give them a shot. ❤️
Choirgirl has held up very well after all these years. it was the current work at the time when I became a fan. the music video for Spark really pulled me in. the album right after this one, To Venus & Back, is similar to Choirgirl. it's my favorite of all of her albums.
Tori sneaks up on you. The songs I don’t like as much on first listen are the ones I end up loving the most. There’s something she does where the best songs seem to put you off at first.
Agreed! I never used to like Pandora's Aquarium but now it is one of my favorites.
@@ashleyrenee5387 Liquid Diamonds is one I used to skip and now I can’t believe I ever did that. I love all her music even the stuff I don’t like as much, I still love. She has this power to put these surreal images and scenes in my head and I just escape to her realm for a while.
@@dumbbunny9178 100% agreed, her music is the kind you have to both think about but also just let crash over you, it can take more than one listen to fully get it.
i love this album sm!!
Nice reaction, are you going to react to New quadeca album? It's hype now
This cd is amazing cover to cover. I can't really pick a favorite song at all. My favorite song is the one that's on at the time
I'm glad you enjoyed this one more, it's more accessible and full sounding than BFP. However, the Kate Bush comparisons are so incredibly tired and quite frankly misogynistic at this point. Every woman with a piano that sings dramatically in her high soprano is not the same.
Oh come on that is just not true. Tori has said time and time again that Kate was a big inspiration for her and it shows. Just because she takes inspiration from Kate doesn't mean she isn't an artist
Love your reactions. Top 4 Tori albums for me, number 3 is her latest album “Ocean To Ocean”, 2nd place is “Little Earthquakes” and my favourite is “Under The Pink”. Might check them out as well. Can’t wait for you to discover “Never For Ever” by Kate Bush and “Dance Fever” by Florence + The Machine. I really think your gonna love those two albums.
One of her finest albums, for sure. Maybe my favourite.
I think you should be listening to the first half of her entire catalogue; that is, before The Beekeeper. And even that is a good record imo, though it marks the beginning of her creativity downhill. One of my fav I'd always listen to these days is her Live at Montreux album. Might be a cringy comparison, but there she's on par with Alison Krauss and Lara Fabian, although I know these two top-notch voice experts are of different types and sing very differently. That live show just witnessed her incredible vocal finesse firing on all cylinders, as well as her otherworldly piano skill.
It sounds *exactly* like it’s meant to.
The ones who get Tori Amos get it, you just ain't esoteric enough to grasp what her words mean.
How do you not know who Jackie Kennedy was?
About Jackie O when the president was assasinated. People were praying for Jackie’s strength.
I think she’s your cocaine is a slap at Trent Reznor and Courtney Love….she’s your cocaine she’s got you shaving your legs….is it true devils end up like you something safe for the picture frame…you sign prince of darkness, try squire of dimness….she is calling Trent a poser.(the album came out in 97 or 98 I believe)
Tori doesn’t play her piano like a guitar, she plays it like a virtuoso pianist…you don’t get that very much in modern music most modern musicians can’t play anything other than dull block chords on the piano, and have no coordination in their left hand.
Pele is my favorite of hers but that is probably because I like baroque music and the harpsichord.
But not everyone gets Pele, it’s definitely the red headed step child of her albums and is least like any of the others musically.
React to "Be The Cowboy" by Mitski!!!
Who is this sullen child with zero charisma who thinks he can critique Tori?
Her best friend “bean” was there when men weren’t.
more bjork pleasee
I guess you just have to have a little more life experience to truly get "Northern Lad"... sorry for you lol
Please listen to Rainbow Bridge 3 by Sematary
boring reaction
Also, I like that you listen to stuff more off the beaten path and keep an open mind. People don't often give Tori a chance so I love to see you doing it
Omg Kate Bush Kate Bush Kate Bush DO BETTER
I am so glad you like this one better. I'm a die hard Tori fan so she can do no wrong for me, but I know she is not for everyone. Every album is different from the next. They all have common threads, but she loves to play around with sound and genre.
As far as her lyrics go, she often keeps the meaning of her lyrics vague because she prefers to leave them up to interpretation. It doesn't actually matter what her intention was, what matters is what you take from it. And while things like her miscarriage and rape are autobiographic, she takes the things that happen around her and incorporates other people's stories in with her own, sometimes all in one song.
For Raspberry Swirl, it's supposed to be about a friend of her who is always getting used by men. This is Tori saying I am her friend, not yours, and you better take care of her, make her happy, and specifically to give and not just take in bed, hence the 'raspberry swirl' which is a reference to sex
For Playboy Mommy, I always thought it was the story of a daughter who was ashamed of her mother because she was 'loose' or maybe a prostitute, but then finds herself in need of help from her mother or perhaps finds herself caught up in that world for some reason. I don't know, that's how I've always interpreted it, I could be wrong, she will often thread multiple stories into one song so there could be aspects of her singing to the child she lost, never thought of it that way. But not every song is autobiographical so it can be hard to tell.
But that is what's great about Tori, her songs are whatever you need/want them to be in the moment, and they can change for you depending on where you are in your life and your mindset
Sorry to say it but Kate only came first... Tori is on her own league. Quit that... And when it comes to lyrics, take it easy; she's not manipulative just very layered...
You guys, quit asking him to react to our gal lol
Jackie in “Jackie’s Strenght” is Jackie Kennedy (Bouvier). In the song, she’s imagining running away on her wedding day (“I got lost on my wedding day”), and praying for the strength of Jackie O after JFK’s death. Every second verse is her remembering her childhood and teenage years (“Stickers licked on lunch boxes, worshipping David Cassidy”, “Sleepovers, Beene’s got some pot”), while the chorus is about her relationship with her fiancé. The connection to Jackie is stated in the first verse - “Shots rang out the police came, Mama laid me on the front lawn and prayed for Jackie’s strength”. Tori was born in 1963, and was just a few months old when JFK was assassinated.
That Genius comment about critics criticizing her for playing the piano as if it’s a guitar is pretty off. According to Tori, it’s more about “never being enough”. Tori has said that she sometimes felt that way about the piano, and that she wanted to be Jimmy Page when she was younger (that’s from an interview in The Alternative Press in July 1998). The line might also be a reference to studio executives wanting to replace the piano on Little Earthquakes with guitars (which she refused to do).
Yeah, it's a little odd to watch people react to Tori's music as a first listen, inevitably totally lost by the lyrics and therefore dismissing them altogether. She's an extraordinary songwriter, but it does require a certain investment to understand her vantage points.
Tori has spoken quite a bit and sung occasionally about the dichotomy between pianos and guitars according to her life's experience.
She played piano before age three and was admitted to a conservatory for her piano playing at age five. The piano has been part of her being for as long as she has had memories. Almost none of us can relate to that directly.
She's a gifted and extraordinary pianist, but that hasn't always been appreciated. At the conservatory as a child, she was made to play others' compositions and told she cannot compose because she is a woman. When she got her six-album record deal, it was because of her musicianship-that is why people wanted her-and then they tried to eradicate all piano from her albums and replace them with guitars.
In Tori's personal symbology, pianos are associated with feminity and guitars with masculinity. When she sings "I guess you go too far/when pianos try to be guitars," I think that is a commentary on the sexual tensions on display in this album. In She's Your Cocaine, she sings of a man being humiliatingly emasculated by a woman. In Raspberry Swirl, she castigates a man for not being man enough to perform oral sex on her friend. In Spark, she sings of herself as a woman confident she can hold back a glacier-she is strong-but she fails to do the work of a woman in keeping a baby alive. So in this album, there's a lot of tension between masculine and feminine roles and living up to standards. In Northern Lad, she sings about a breakup with a man and sings I think the going too far by pianos trying to be guitars comment may signify her feeling like she may have been too assertive/aggressive/emasulating/stepping into a role that he perceived as being his.
In a later album, Tori sings about "Cars and Guitars," both of which she fetishizes in the song as representative of male sensuality, and in it she juxtaposes again her piano to his guitars, her "alligator pears" to his "crocodile clip." Part of Tori's worldview is about balance, light and dark, masculine and feminine, piano and guitar, being necessary counterparts to one another, and frequently being out of balance because of people's natures.
This is one thing that makes Tori and Kate Bush entirely different. For the most part, Kate is something of a short-fiction songwriter, telling stories about others, often alluding to other works of art that inspire her or ideas that inspire her. But she doesn't really have a coherent personal perspective that she has threaded throughout her music. She's an objectifying writer who describes and observes and thinks about third parties. Tori is a subjectifying songwriter who sings about her own personal experiences and worldviews, and she is opinionated and she philosophizes on her own behalf. She delivers empathy by looking inward and projecting outward. Kate delivers empathy by imagining how others feel and experience things and telling us about it.
the lyrics from Hotel were quoted by that guy who murdered that other guy. really chilling when he talked to authorities, after the fact, he was shocked at the amount blood and all he could think of was this song from Tori "exit 75, I'm still alive".
@@RecoveringChristian What guy who murdered what guy?
I find that if you take headphones, turn the music all the way up and absorb the energy & emotions Tori provides in her songs, you will know what the emotional ride the song is taking you on without the lyrics needing to be understood.
Tori Amos sounds like Tori Amos and Kate Bush sounds like Kate Bush. People compare them but I can honestly hear the difference. They’re both amazing and we’re all glad to have them and hear them
Yeeesss another Tori reaction, if u r still interested, u can check "To Venus and Back", it's pretty great too
Davecher its okay for you to admit you have no context for comparison judging songs/acts that have a good decade on your birth. But dont sit there and pretend like you can compare an act that did one good song that got attention over an act that has accolades for days. You watched stranger things. Good for you.
Nothing personal, but gauntlet-style, on-the-spot reactions (opinions, often) to albums is highkey disrespectful to the entire medium of music. UA-cam's algorithm needs to stop sending me here
I love Tori but she really shines really bright in her live deliverances, while her albums are kinda… off. Except Little Earthquakes, that album is raw like it should be. That said, fandom part that found you here is really annoying, chill out people. Everybody that knows Tori also knows Kate Bush and there’s a reason.
If this is the reaction to Choirgirl (where Tori ventured into electronic territory, with good dividends might I say), imagine his reaction to PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire, where PJ ventures into the same territory. Both are good albums. ❤❤
Oddly enough Tori has never sounded as much like Kate Bush to me as on her latest albums. I've never associated her with her. I've always liked Toni much more precisely because she has a more versatile voice. Kate Bush has spent most of her career singing in falsetto, and of course Tori is a hundred times better pianist. But I give Kate Bush credit for being an impressive artist, that is undoubtedly true but even with her amazing voice tori´s one is so much superior.
"When pianos try to be guitars" - listen to her version of "If 6 was 9" where there is a HEAVY distortion effect on the piano. It's not a comfortable first listen.
To me Tori Amos is more of an amalgamation of both Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. The song writing and vocals remind me of Kate while the production sound like Mitchell. Don’t know if you care to or already familiar with but Joni Mitchell would be a cool listen. She basically is the godmother of every “weird” sounding female artist from the 80’s onward (Bjork,Fiona Apple, Tori, Kate bush etc. ) Her 70’s album is the one of the best artist runs ever imo and you can clearly hear the inspiration that many female singer/songwriters in the experimental indie/pop category have replicated
I looooove this album. Although I agree with you that "She's Your Cocaine" is the weakest song. I always skip it. It sounds like Pele was your first Tori album? If so, that's a really hard place to start. It's not my favorite. I think this and her first two albums are her best. Under the Pink (her second album) is her "piano" album. I think "rock" critics just wanted her to rock out more at that time but she was just doing her thing.
I would be curious to see what you think of Madonna's Ray Of Light album - that dropped around the same time as Choirgirl did, when the electronic thing was pretty big in pop/rock music. Based on your taste, I think you might dig it.
exactly!madonna ray of light worth for rwaction!
It's totally fine to admit that tori sounds like kate bush in my opinion. She uses her voice very similary to kate bush and they have similar tones. I think what makes tori sepreted from kate is more so the themes of her songwriting and the production. By the way loved your reaction. Just a suggestion and you dont have to listen to me lol but I have a strong feeling you would like some of joanna newsoms albums. She's one of the most critically acclaimed songwriter's of all time and she has these very lush production qualities, especially after her debut. If you are interested I recommend listening to her latest album divers just because I think it's one of her most easy to digest works before you are actually familiar with her work. If you are going to react to her just beware lol her voice is very unique and some people are turned off by it and it's fine if you will be.
It's so strange to me. I think there are a lot of superficial similarities between the two of them but their voices don't sound very much alike to me at all. The textures of their voices are quite different. Kate sounds very theatrical to me most of the time, showy, like Bernadette Peters or some other stage musical actress. Tori's voice has an altogether different quality and her vocalizations even when soft are strongly influenced by the styles of rock bands like Led Zeppelin. They both have high soprano voices and they do both use their voices as expressive instruments rather than just to 'sound pretty,' but aside from that, I could never confuse their voices at all.
Kate has used falsetto vocals for most of her career, something Tori has never done. She has simply used her voice in a very high pitched way but nothing to do with Kate.
That moment when you find out who Jackie was… Great videos by the way!
I honestly think people are missing out on the "Tori Amos Experience" if you don't see her live performances. I like listening to a few of her studio songs, but I love watching the absolute pure passion she exudes while playing live. Definitely recommend watching the IIEEE live Sessions version from 1998.
tori live is transcendent
lieee from the sessions from the 54th is so so good
You don't seem to be into the piano stuff as much I'd tell you to listen to little earthquakes but you probably wouldn't like it as much
theater performance in space............i dig than man.....very crazy phrasing
Spark is about the loss of her pregnancy. If you watch the video you will see “skeeter” carved into a tree.
Pandora's Aquarium is one of my favorite songs of hers to play.
can you react to the album Stargazer by Stella Luna it's a cool shoegaze/blackgaze album
Tori is a legend!!!!! I love her!
we NEED the pop 2 reaction
when is the Ghais 👀
If you didn't love Boys for Pele, that's kind of all I need to know about you and you musical tastes. With that, I bid you good day.
What you say is nonsense, that album was not liked by many Tori fans at first and then it became a favorite.
in the theatral / intimate dichotomy, kate bush and tori amos are very different. nobody ever said something like "kate bush saved my life" but you will see that in every tori video on youtube. tori amos is kind of like sylvia plath of music. kate bush is more like i don't know sappho or something maybe.
i feel like kate bush's theatral grandiose is full of hot air. she has a few songs i really like but i have never been a fan because she lacks the actual emotional intensity. i like to hear and read nicely tortured artists.