Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos

.../> Boring stuff:
Title: Little Earthquakes
Artist: Tori Amos
Price: I got it for £10 from HMV
Genre: Alternative
Released: 1992

Tori Amos:
Now many of you, being a few years older than me, probably know more about this amazing lady than I do. But I shall try, and please don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong. Tori Amos has a wonderfully haunting soprano voice, and I have heard it said that ...
...snow seemed when you were little - the pure white of the snow seeming so precious, and also the image of a parent standing nearby protecting you. But as per usual the is a slightly darker undertone; 'skating around the truth who I am, but I know Dad, the ice is getting thin.' It says alot about how often we can't bring ourselves to love ourselves as much as others do.

6. Happy Phantom: This is a complete change of pace from the far ... more

I recently got shown Tori Amos' by a close friend and I have been hooked ever since...in fact for the past 2 weeks I don't think I have listened to anything else, and I have bought 4 of the albums in the same space of time. It's not often music has that sort of an effect on me and I will now try to explain why.

And if this review only shows up to 9. Mother for you not all 12 tracks please send me a message as it doesn;t seem to want to accept the last tracks. I am getting annoyed.

Boring stuff:
Title: Little Earthquakes
Artist: Tori Amos
Price: I got it for £10 from HMV
Genre: Alternative
Released: 1992

Tori Amos:
Now many of you, being a few years older than me, probably know more about this amazing lady than I do. But I shall try, and please don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong. Tori Amos has a wonderfully haunting soprano voice, and I have heard it said that she has a similar voice to Kate Bush. But she does more with her voice than would usually be expected of a soprano; naturally a second soprano she'll take her voice to the top most limits and then swoop down into what would normally be a second alto range. In most of the songs on this album she is also playing the piano, which she learned as a child, giving an amazing effect.

Who to recommend to:
Now personally I would recommend it to anyone and everyone as I have found it absolutely amazing. However I have to admit that she wouldn't be to everyone's taste, this album can easily be compared to riding a rollercoaster of emotions and that isn't something that attracts all people. I have never listened to a CD so deeply personal and emotional, yet still allowing individual interpretations. I found it haunting, striking, and sometimes like a bolt to the heart...I've just read by Stephen Rauch that 'you aren't allowed to listen to Tori unless you've had your life shattered in some way or other' and this is probably true. For this to be amazingly powerful there needs to be some sort of deep emotional need.

Cover/Inlay:
The cover itself is plain but striking, the image of a Tori trapped inside a box is quite freaky. It's not a front cover that jumps out to you from the store shelves, but it's also not one that screams 'PUT IT DOWN! PUT IT DOWN!'
The inlay is quite well presented. All the lyrics for the songs are there, which is highly important to me as I like to be able to sing along, and get highly annoyed if there are no included lyrics...but they are not well presented. The lyrics are all written as blocks of text, which makes it difficult to judge on early listening where the breaks are in the song, and harder to follow than the typical lyric format. Putting the key words in Capital letters however is quite clever as it draws your attention to the main focus of the song...although having the title of the song also in capital letters just at the beginning of the block is also a bit confusing to begin with as I was trying to work out where she was singing it!

Tracks:
1. Crucify: As a first song on the album this is an interesting one, and one that can be interpreted in many ways. It is chock a block full of references to Christianity, 'I've been raising up my hands, drive another nail in.' This has been taken to be a stand against religion, however it means more than this to me at any rate. It's a beautiful song on how we 'crucify ourselves' with guilt and self loathing. The lyrics are striking and beautiful, while the piano plays a wonderful melody and the drums make it that bit more powerful.

2. Girl: This starts with drum and a somber piano tune and then the lyrics come in: 'Everyone else's girl, maybe one day she'll be her own.' I see this as looking at the need to your own person, not the person that everyone else wants you to be. This is a nice piece, it's not the star piece on the album, but it could easily stand alone.

3. Silent All These Years: Now this is a masterpiece and one of the highlights of the album. It starts with a short, haunting introduction from the piano and then the lyrics kick in. It appears to be referring to domestic abuse and the silence this causes, how you can't talk to anyone. 'Years go by, will I still be waiting, for somebody else to understand. Years go by, will I choke on my tears till finally there is nothing left.' That 30 odd seconds of music is one of the most beautiful I have ever heard. This is an honest, touching song and one of those that really touches some nerves.

4. Precious Things: The first time I listened to this I didn't really like it, it has grown on me quite amazingly. The intro to this is wierd as heck though, it starts with an amost spacy kind of sound, which then moves into the piano and some form of hyperventilating breathing, which I suppose represents the running away. There is a lot of anger in this - ' I wanna smash the faces of those beautiful boys, those Christian boys.' This seems to be getting at childhood sweethearts and the pain of being rejected because you are not the prettiest girl on the playground. It suggests we have to forget those memories to move on in the world. Quite a good one to sing along to if you're angry, but actually has quite a serious undertone to the anger.

5. Winter: This is a lovely melody, the piano playing is superb shown by the slightly longer than usual intro and it complements the singing perfectly. It's a song of childhood, of innocence, allowing you to imagine how snow seemed when you were little - the pure white of the snow seeming so precious, and also the image of a parent standing nearby protecting you. But as per usual the is a slightly darker undertone; 'skating around the truth who I am, but I know Dad, the ice is getting thin.' It says alot about how often we can't bring ourselves to love ourselves as much as others do.

6. Happy Phantom: This is a complete change of pace from the far gentler 'Winter'. It's a very upbeat rhythm and the tune and beat seem to lift the album. However this is a piece of very clever contrasts, the tune and melody are upbeat and cheery and yet the lyrics: 'And if I die today I'll be the happy phantom...and I'll run naked through the street without my mask on...and the atrocities of school I can forgive, the happy phantom has no right to bitch.' It seems light hearted, but personally I almost saw this as a disguise for the thoughts going on behind.

7. China: This is a smooth, flowing song, all the notes seem to run into each other; it's probably what would be called 'easy listening'. This isn't one of my personal favourites, but I wouldn't turn it off, and it has quite poignant meaning. She's remarking on lovers becoming distant and how people grow apart over time, 'Sometimes I think you want me to touch you, but how can I when you build a wall around you.'

8. Leather: This is another wierd one. I got quite a shock when I first heard it as it seemed almost out of place with the rest of the album, after a few seconds of the piano playing the same low note Tori jumps in with 'Look I'm standing naked before you, don't you want more than my sex, I can scream as loud as your last one, but I can't claim innocence.' It's so much more blunt than the ones so far on the album...it even made my brother sit up and take notice and thats saying something...although thats because the word 'naked' to a 15 year old boy seems to have some form of magnetic head pulling up instrument attached to it! It definitely has a magnetic quality.

9. Mother: This song is one in which the only accompaniment is the piano, and is another strikingly haunting song. The introduction is the longest on the disk and is complex, the first words from Tori that you hear are 'Go, go, go, go now, out of the nest you fly.' This leads to an anticipation of what is going to come next. Lyric wise this is another wierd one, on the one hand it gives the image of a caring mother sending her child out of the nest to build its own life, but on the other hand there is a deep theme of loneliness and the desperate hope to have a home to come back to if need be...

10. Tear in your hand: This is a lovely piece, although not for me a favourite on the album, it sounds too much like a pop song in music, and I've never really been that much into pop. The piano melodies are brilliant, but as you have probably already guessed, for me the lyrics make a song. This is an interesting one lyrically, it's a message both of despair and of hope. The basic theme behind it is that the man is leaving her for someone else and making up some awful excuse (how many of those have you heard). It's despair and she feels that he holds her happiness in his hand and she is as fragile as a single tear: 'All I am/The black of the the blackest ocean/And that tear in your hand.' But at the same time it is a message of hope, as she realsies that she is worth more than he can ever see, 'And I think there're pieces of me you've never seen/Maybe she's just pieces of me you've never seen well.' A good one to listen to when you've just split up with your boyfriend...

11. Me and a Gun: This is the most beautiful, shocking and haunting track on the whole album. Sung a capella about the horrors of a rape she had to go through this is a moving and disturbing piece. The amount of emotion just held in her voice alone is unbelievable, and the slight crack in her voice on 'And I know' just adds to the tension. It conveys the pain, fear and utter despair of such an attack perfectly. However, it's some of her offhand comments that really make the track, 'You can laugh/It's kind of funny things you think/at times like these/Like I haven't seen Barbados/So I must get out of this', along with the reference to the sweet and soft biscuits of Corolina and the fact that the car it took place in wasn't a classic model. It would be fair to assume that this takes away from the horror and tension, but it doesn't, if anything it adds to it...and by God is she right that it's kind of funny the things you think of at times like those. This is an amazingly powerful track, and one you are not likely to forget in a hurry.
It is also very blunt, in America some radio stations refused to play the song because it is 'too feministic' and 'too realistic'. This probably comes from the line 'Yes, I wore a slinky red thing. Does that mean I should spread for you?' She doesn't pull her punches at all, and this can make people very uncomfortable on occasions. But it is true - that is the way it is 'But, Sir, she was hitchhiking in a mini-skirt!' Should it make a difference - No. Does it - Yes.

11. Little Earthquakes: Now, most people seemed to have loved this track, but I felt very let down by it for some reason. Possibly because it followed such a hauntingly amazing performance of 'Me and a Gun'...It does grow on you, but it will never be a favourite for me...It's an affirmation of life and pain; 'Oh these little earthquakes/Here we go again/Oh these little earthquakes/Doesnt take much to rip us into pieces.' That shows the pain; possibly caused by a break up with a lover, but then you have the lines 'Give me life, give me pain/Give me myself again.' She recognises that to have life you must have pain...

Personally, I loved this album; the gorgeous melodies, and sweet vocals but also the land mines of pain, guilt and obsessive love. The fact that the music seems so pure and unmessed with in comparison to more recent music also helps, I feel like I'm actually listening to a real person sing, rather than computer enhancers 'improving' the sound. This is a stunning CD, and one that I have listened to repeatedly again and again...but perhaps one only suitable for certain people...
 

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