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Audio CD
Publisher: Atlantic / Wea
For Tori Amos, sex can be a weapon, a spiritual offering, or an act of protest. It's certainly been the singer-pianist's big subject since her 1989 debut Little Earthquakes. But while her earliest compositions tried to punch every emotional hot button at once and came off sounding turgid and overblown, her new album packs a greater punch by toning down mock-symphonic excess in favor of stark, haunting tracks that contain veiled mysteries. Love cuts both ways on Choirgirl. Songs such as "She's Your Cocaine" and "Cruel" view relationships as vicious power plays, while the protagonists in "Playboy Mommy" and "Northern Lad" desperately seek salvation via emotional connection. Hypnotic, affecting, and frequently gorgeous, From the Choirgirl Hotel is Amos's most accomplished album to date. --Marc Weingarten
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| A huge misstep |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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Before you start burning with anger, understand that I am, first and foremost, a Tori fan. I am not, however, a Toriphile who believes that the beloved artist can do no wrong. "From the Choirgirl Hotel" is such a weak record that it can be considered the beginning of Tori's creative death. My main problem with the record is that it does not manage to win the listener's interest often enough and it's short on strong, fully formed material. Tori's confessions are buried in all the sound textures and bad, cheesy beats ruin an already weak record. Her once powerful voice is drowning in most of the songs. "Spark" is decent enough, taking advantage of the new production style Tori adopted in 1997. The album continues with "Cruel" which thumps and struts around with not much to show. Things get worse in "Black Dove (January)" which only has one attractive part (the lovely sung "by the woods" lyric).
"Raspberry Swirl" is the only song where experimenting with dance beats pays off. The song can be considered a highlight, and followed by two great songs, makes for a weakly beating heart of the album. "Swirl" sounds like a mess, but at least it's a beautiful one. Things get clearer on "Jackie's Strength", the only of the three sole piano pieces that sounds good. The record continues strong with "I I E E E", a track that as "Spark" and "Raspberry Swirl" benefits from artificial beats. The problem with these songs is that you can barely hear Tori's instrument of choice--piano is completely subordinated. She tries to clear things up in "Liquid Diamonds", but the song fails to capture listener's interest. Half of the material sounds distasteful. "She's Your Cocaine" starts out as a promising track, but soon proves to be lacking melodic substance. And what the hell is she doing at the end of the song? It sounds like she's having obnoxious sex.
"Northern Lad" and "Pandora's Aquarium" is the kind of stuff Amos creates on a daily basis, but she didn't work enough on these songs and hardly put any emotions in them. There's no idiosyncrasy of "Little Earthquakes", no feminine touch of "Under the Pink", no harrowing piano playing of "Boys for Pele". This was obviously a transitional record for Amos, but she went from an insanely captivating woman to a woman who made a really bad choice. You'd expect from a level of personal tragedy she lived through that she would make a great record, but sadly, she simply used music as a safety net this time around. After the break up with Eric Rosse, she made an astonishing piece of work. This time, it appears as if she chose to hide in her music, doubting her womanhood and creativity. The result is an overproduced record that ranks among her worst. None of the things that made her early records so stunning can be found here.
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| Glad I bought it! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This an excellent album, and I don't only say that as a fan, I say it as a critical music listener and an artist myself. I didn't like some of the songs the first time, but on a hunch, I listened to them in the order of the lyrics in the insert and Voila! It all made sense! Lovely writing. Strange and beautiful!
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| A classic. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This was the first album I ever bought of Tori's and, to this day, remains my favorite in her catalogue. In my opinion it is a masterpiece and showcases the heights of her amazing abilities. Easily one of the best albums of the 1990s, its lyrics are Mensa-grade poetry, the sounds intriguing, and the mixing technique astounding from track to track. It's complicated and dark, which may not be for everyone, but if you want an album that never ceases to reveal parts of itself... year after year after year... this is it!
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| Certainly one of the best of her albums |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Tori is a very talented musician/songwriter, and I have to say that this is one awesome album. You know when you get an album of your favorite artist, there are usually only about 4 or 5 songs that usually stick with you? Well not on this one, every song is perfect, this is one of those rare cds where there is not a single boring moment. I recommend anyone who is listening to Tori for the first time to buy this CD first instead of her newer ones. I like all her albums, but this is the only one that isn't cluttered with "filler" songs. All songs are spectacular, I just wish all her albums would be re-issued with all their original b-sides too, "Purple People", "Bachelorette", "Beulah Land", and "Never Seen Blue" were the b-sides to this album, and they are all masterpieces as well. In my opinion, this album was her most flawless project.
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| She's my cocaine |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I still remember the day that I became a "toriphile"-I popped in FTCH ( a friend had recommended it) and I was gone. I'd never even heard of her before that day, but I spent the next year acquiring everything and anything I could about her and by her. FTCH was and still is an amazingly competitive album, not dated at all. Though she has managed to disappoint me with "beekeeper" I still believe in her because I know what she can do, Little Earthquakes, Pele, etc. I would encourage anyone to listen to this CD because it just might change your musical life.
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Spark
Cruel
Black-Dove (January)
Raspberry Swirl
Jackie's Strength
Iieee
Liquid Diamonds
She's Your Cocaine
Northern Lad
Hotel
Playboy Mommy
Pandora's Aquarium
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