Tori Amos - Under the Pink REACTION and REVIEW

[@almandragoran]

Based on your feeling that there’s sometimes something missing from the production, I think you’re going to love her 4th album, From the Choirgirl Hotel, which is very much a “band” album with a much bigger sound than the first 3 albums. On the other hand, I think there’s a chance you might struggle with the next album, Boys For Pele. It’s by far the most popular album among the fans, but it’s also her least accessible album with the “weirdest” production and singing.

[@sabrielmoon]

"cloud sleeping on my tongue" is Tori language. Interpret how you wish. We all do

[@RPMir]

My favorite Tori album. You should give it another listen and see if it invades you a bit more. It's minimal, surreal, and beautiful.

[@leosaidhi]

Loving your reviews. The depth of thought, the details, the whole reflexion. Congrats.

[@luggareviews]

Thank you for the kind words :) And also thank you for watching!

[@DavidMichaelCommer]

To appreciate Tori's music fully, you have to invest time absorbing and processing both the music and the lyrics. It's really the multilayered and occult meanings of her songs that draw in people who connect with her. She's been my favorite artist since 1996 and over all these years, I still hear new sounds and discover new interpretations of her lyrics from time to time that can be chilling. However, that began with the next album in your lineup, Boys for Pele, which is certain to be confounding and perhaps off putting the first time you listen to it. Many of us consider it her masterwork. It was the beginning, in my opinion, of Tori taking the record label bridles off and expressing herself authentically. You could love that album or could hate it the first dozen times you listen to it. I think you'd like From the Choirgirl Hotel with your first or second listen because you seem very partial to full-band orchestration with a lot of guitars, and that is her live-band-recording album. Scarlet's Walk is much subtler in every possible way, but it's lyrically extraordinary; however, it is entirely about the history of North America and its inhabitants current and past, as well as the spirit of the land itself, and so that may be a bit lost on someone from another country. You may like a lot of American Doll Posse because, again, guitars. Night of Hunters is greatly overlooked because of its genre (classical music-no guitars, no drums) and it is *brilliant.* Regarding your repeated questioning of the piano ('I don't know why every track is just piano...there could be more...'), that's Tori Amos. Tori began playing piano at age two and a half. She is a prodigy. She's the youngest person ever admitted into the Peabody Conservatory of Music-at age five-for piano. She fought with the conservatory's administrators throughout her time there because they told her she was training to play classical music written by men and that women cannot compose music. She played rock music on her own time, and that was condemned both at school and by her father, a Methodist minister, at home. Tori was part of a band called Y Kant Tori Read, dressed as a pirate wench, and the album flopped fantastically, with a critic calling her a bimbo. It devastated her, and Tori stripped back all the artifice from her music and then wrote music that is authentic to her. That is piano-based music, sometimes even solely piano music. The record label executives at Atlantic Records gave her a six-album deal because she is a gifted pianist and singer, and then they tried to force her to replace all of the piano and keyboards on all her songs on Little Earthquakes with electric guitars. She is not a guitar musician. She has written songs with lyrics about this push and pull, such as the line "I guess you go to far/when pianos try to be guitars," which represents trying to be someone you're not for the sake of satisfying what other people think you should be doing. As you know from her previous album, Tori was raped in her early 20s. That left her feeling powerless. Before that, she was brought up in a regimented and oppressive religious household and in a regimented and oppressive conservatory of music. Then she was 'bought' by a record label. All those entities tried to force her to be someone she is not. Since she has played piano since before she could carry on a conversation, piano is her first true language and it's a part of her being and primary to how she expresses herself. Some of us much prefer her piano-based music to most popular music, and we don't feel like music has to feature electric guitars to be complete. I understand that a lot of people do feel that way, and all things being subjective, that's fine, but Tori is undeniably an extraordinary, preternaturally gifted musician whose language is piano and it's ironic and nonsensical that she is known for that and at the same time, people have offered her millions of dollars specifically because of that and then tried to force her to replace the piano with guitars.

[@nikolanikolic1366]

What an amazing post!

[@sidhedanu]

Beautifully said.

[@CarbonEye]

Can’t believe you cut out the big crescendo in Pretty Good Year.

[@luggareviews]

When I cut my vids I sometimes miss some good parts so sry bout that 😅

[@sabrielmoon]

I noticed that too 😭

[@jedrzej1090]

GURL I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED 👹👹

[@openyourchakras918]

I discovered Tori from the “God” music video, so this album “Under the Pink” was my first Tori album. I immediately fell in love & bought “Little Earthquakes” and every album thereafter

[@sabrielmoon]

The face when the strings come in on Yes, Anastasia 💀

[@joshuaharrison6513]

I'm thinking you will like her more full-band albums, which really begins with her 4th - From the Choirgirl Hotel

[@sabrielmoon]

That's what I requested! Cannot wait

[@atonshonra]

I really think you should do her 5th album, Scarlet’s Walk, too. It is a highlight of her early career.

[@nikolanikolic1366]

Isnt Scarlet her 6th one? To Venus counts as an album. After Scarlet is when things get stale imo

[@atonshonra]

@@nikolanikolic1366 I guess 7th, if you want to include Strange Little Girls too. Lol

[@CarbonEye]

@@atonshonra I always wonder why people do not count SLG as a stand alone regular album. Though it’s covers, it’s so ambitious in concept and execution that I really see it as a regular Tori album though obviously very different from the rest.

[@openyourchakras918]

It is going to be interesting what you think of “Boys For Pele”, it will be a wild ride 😉

[@Thomas.deNorth]

This album does not contain my favorite Tori Amos songs, but it still is my favorite album from her. Maybe it´s nostalgia for me. I do like the quirkiness of the album.

[@sabrielmoon]

Wonder how he'll feel about Boys for Pele 🤭🙃

[@nikolanikolic1366]

Im curious too, its such a lyrically dense record and sonically abrassive.

[@DavidMichaelCommer]

"Nice harpsichords and horns, but needs more guitars!" 😂

[@viviandarkbloom4339]

@@DavidMichaelCommer Sounds like something Mac Aladdin would say 😂 thank goodness he stayed away from Night of Hunters

[@DavidMichaelCommer]

@@viviandarkbloom4339 Don't you think "Battle of Trees" would be vastly improved by a wah-wah pedal? 🙈🙉🙊

[@stephanerobert6137]

Your face when the first time the strings came up in Anastasia. 🤣

[@r.j4449]

this album is an impressionistic painting and has just what it needs to have. That beauty that is a palette of colors. It doesn't need anything else. More production would ruin it. And here she has the most beautiful and versatile voice ever.

[@sidhedanu]

Pretty Good Year is a favorite of mine. It's wistful & also a bit fed up with dumb boys. 🤣 Bells for Her is also a favorite. It was an improvisation as Tori sat down to play an upright prepared piano. Prepared meaning the engineers hung objects inside to get that odd sound. She refers to these songs as gifts from the Muses, just downloaded straight into her head & fingers. This is why the production sounds the way it does - Eric just pressed record while she sat down to play around with the new sound. She always records herself playing to listen back later & pick out something interesting. The beginning of Icicle is one of those improvs, & Marianne from Boys for Pele. I also think the story behind Bells for Her is interesting. Tori and her best friend, "Beanie", hadn't spoken in awhile, which we later learn is because Beanie was trying to disentangle herself from a controlling man. He was a shaman, and is the man who thinks he knows so much in Cornflake Girl. Beanie is mentioned or alluded to in many of Tori's best songs. She died a few years ago, within days of Tori's mother. So, no surprise that the last album explored death & grief. Moving on. Interesting tidbit - Past the Mission's background vocals are sung by Trent Reznor. The Wrong Band, again, has an interesting story. Tori was friends with Heidi Fleiss during the prostitution scandal in Hollywood. The Waitress really shines live. I HIGHLY recommend looking for the 1998 Sessions at West 54th concert. Just watch the whole thing after you get through the 4th album. Her performance of The Waitress during that concert was riveting and literally ALWAYS takes my breath away. I just leave my body & stop breathing. Cornflake Girl was partially inspired by Alice Walker's The Secret of Joy, the story of an African woman whose mother took her to be painfully circumcised with sonething like a rusty aluminum can lid when she was a small child. The scene is also mentioned in her song Blood Roses - "when chickens get a taste of your meat". I truly believe Icicle has a darker story than just adolescent masturbation. There is the shame of a victim of child abuse hidden in the background. She's spoken of it exactly once, in a German publication if I remember correctly. A family friend. The monster is her father's mother. Tori said her grandmother was her enemy. Her soul was to belong to God & her body to her husband, & Tori was like "what's left for me?" I was so happy that you loved Yes, Anastasia. It is such a rich experience & it doesn't seem as long as it actually is.

[@viviandarkbloom4339]

Thanks for reacting to this! Yes, Anastasia is such a wonderful way to end the album. I think I prefer this album over Little Earthquakes because the piano feels much more prominent.

[@luggareviews]

I see what you mean with the pianos, makes a lot of sense, I liked them a lot more on this album too :)

[@solfar88]

if you actually feel like continuing to listen Tori Amos and go into BOYS FOR PELE ( which is next to this one ) i believe you will encounter a lot more variation and fleshing of a concept on Tori's music . one of my favorite albuns of all time , actually . Grateful for your consideration on the artist and work , enjoying your reactions 🙏

[@827shunbun]

Those people that said that they felt that Tori Amos's first/debut album "Little Earthquakes" sounds dated should "NOT" be critiquing music. I know that's their opinion, but that like saying Harry Potter is dated. Potter & Tori's debut are timeless!

[@nikolanikolic1366]

Icicle is about self pleasure, not suited for Frozen :P

[@DavidMichaelCommer]

It's funny that you compare 'Icicle' to the Disney movie 'Frozen.' Once you realize what the song is about, the comparison becomes rather awkward... HOWEVER, that said, I did hear someone from thr Frozen production team-I don't recall whether it was the 'Let It Go' composer or one of the movie's producers-say that they wanted the song to open 'with piano like a Tori Amos song,' so...good ear. Update: I found the comment from an NPR article: Context: "Has 'Let It Go,' the showstopper from Disney's Frozen, been stuck in your head all winter? You're probably humming it right now. It's a big-sounding song with a strong emotional core, written by husband-and-wife songwriters Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. If Queen Elsa, once destined to be the story's villain, is Frozen's superhero, then the Lopezes view "Let It Go" as her origin story moment." Quote: "I wrote all the drag-queen-ish lines," Bobby says of "Let It Go." Kristen adds, "I was listening to a lot of Tori Amos at the time. A lot of things we didn't realize we needed to express went into this song." [Source: www.npr.org/2014/04/24/306171894/let-it-go-a-hit-song-spawned-from-partnership] Also, from a PrideSource.com interview with Tori: PrideSource: And sometimes the muses serve other people. According to Gregory E. Miller, who interviewed Kristen Anderson-Lopez for the New York Post, you were the inspiration behind the “Frozen” megahit she co-wrote with her husband, “Let It Go.” They had you in mind when they wrote it. Tori Amos: Oh, really? That’s so great. How wonderful is that type of exchange? You don’t even realize that that’s happening, and I think that’s when art is really working - when the muses are working. I get inspired by something that I’m hearing or seeing, and then it’s that baton passing like you and I talked about. We’re tapping into this force that’s creation - the muse creative force - and it gets passed around, so the well never gets dry. You see, the well keeps getting filled up because people keep giving back to it and energizing each other. It’s really great to be a part of that type of process. Thanks for telling me that. That’s a great feeling.

[@TeraLee..]

Past the mission had Trent Reznor singing backup on the chorus.

[@NoCreamedCorn]

I can’t believe you didn’t show the partbwhen Pretty Good Year really let’s loose.

[@commentputter5283]

she sings "i think it's perfectly clear, we're in the wrong band" and i'm like "what band?"

[@backpackmatt]

1:30 Don't mumble, it's unbecoming of you.

[@TeraLee..]

You do not spend enough time on each track. Not accurate

[@luggareviews]

I listened to this album about 3 times, sry if you think it's not accurate, but if one of my opinions change, I will adress it at the end... Also I want to release my reations a little bit earlier than normal because this is a Ko-Fi request by a supporter: which means that I don't want them to wait to long for my reaction.