Boys For Pele - Tori Amos > Reviews > A Dark, Difficult and Wonderful Album

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	It's brilliant !
Disadvantages:	Initially hard to get into it

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is my favourite Tori album - and probably my favourite album ever. Tori herself says it might take you a bottle of red wine to get into it - and she's probably right! It's hard to get into - it took me a few months but it's well worth the effort - because you will hear new things in it every time you listen to it. It's dense, multi-layered, complex, beautiful, dark, sensual, raw, haunting and - I hestitate to use the word, but I think it's justified - spiritual.

Of the songs, Caught a Lite Sneeze, with its haunting drum loop; the subtle piano-led Not The Red Baron, and the sweeping orchestration of Marianne are perennial favourites but I love them all, to be honest. Each song has been important to me at some point - and in that way, it's an album that just keeps on giving!

I think Tori was at a low point in her life when she wrote this - after the end of a long term relationship - and I think this album is her gathering her forces when she's at rock bottom. But it's not just a woe-is-me break-up album; she also explores ideas about female power (the 'Pele' of the title is not the footballer, but a female volcano goddess) and female archetypes - the most obvious example of this is the song Professional Widow (made famous as a dance-floor-filling remix). In this song, Tori takes on the stereotype of the woman who uses a man to gain power or influence. Rumour has it that Courtney Love was the inspiration, but you could equally apply it to fictional women like Lady Macbeth.

The lyrics are sometimes confusing - critics have complained that she verges on the nonsensical (the track Marianne begins "tuna, rubber, a little blubber in my igloo") but I think it's more that sometimes she uses words just because she likes the sound of them, like she's chanting. I've also read that Marianne was actually an improvisation, which may explain some of the curious child-like lyrics.

On other tracks the lyrics are direct and heart-breaking - like "You say you packed my things/ And divided what was mine/You're off to the mountain top/ I say her skinny legs could use sun" in the sorrowful Putting The Damage On or the whispered background vocals of "You told me it's over, it's over" on the wonderful Doughnut Song.

But it's not all misery - both In The Springtime of His Voodoo and Little Amsterdam are Southern-tinged, bluesey songs that roll along with some great left-hand walking bass lines and a certain sexy sass. "You've got to give something sometimes/ When you're the sweetest cherry/ In an apple pie" she purrs.

So get in a bottle of red and buy this. It's fabulous. Really.