Tori Amos -Little Earthquakes

In the late eighties there were only two types of female artists; pop singers and R&B singers.  Then along came Tori Amos.  Record companies tried to make her fit into one of these categories, but she just didn’t fit.  She was different, she was an alternative artist with pre-grunge angst, pre-industrial lyrics wrapped up and disguised in piano melodies.  This past week, her first album Little Earthquakes got a deluxe edition make over twenty four years after it’s 1991 release.  So if the title of the article didn’t give it away, I have been enjoying the re-visitation of this groundbreaking set of songs.  Opening with an incredibly strong track, “Crucify,” a dark piano driven song about suffering for the love of someone else.  As is with most of her lyrics, there are many different ways the words can be interpreted.  With verses like “drive another nail in like God needs one more victim” and “where are those angels when you need them,” the listener learns real quick that this beauty isn’t singing happy love songs for the masses.  The piano acts as a tour guide guiding you through this cathartic release of self inflicted suffering that both sexes can relate to.  Musically, the next song “Girl,” isn’t as intense with it’s lounge-esque feel but lyrically it is just as strong.  Dark images of a girl that has been taken advantage with uncomfortable phrases “I’ve cuts on my knees falling down as the winter takes one more cherry tree.”  The music also builds to this coming together of piano, guitar, violins, and drums where the vocals get layered.  Musicians, much less females artists, didn’t write music this deep during the late eighties.  “Silent All These Years” has an eerie sort of winter holiday piano sound backed up by an orchestra that could lyrically be Amos singing her biography.  Beautiful and empowering.  One of my favorites numbers, “Precious Things,” really opens things up.  Fast tempo piano coupled with heavy breathing for an intro, this is dark lyrics accompanied by dark music.  Strong electric guitars punctuate some of the strongest lyrics.  “He said you’re really an ugly girl, but I like the way you play,” that is fucked up even by today’s standards.  Then acoustic piano and electric piano start to weave together over howls and intense words until you are spent.  Things come back down a bit in the same vein as “Silent All These Years” with “Winter”.  The orchestra really takes the spotlight on this number.  The music and metaphors capture the imagination of snow white scenes and the cold that accompanies it.  The “Happy Phantom” introduces a thirties burlesque sound of piano fun.  It has some of the strangest lyrics, but a very Beatle-esque experimental vibe that makes it standout from the other songs because of it’s uniqueness.  This song needs multiple listening’s just to hear all the stuff going on.  Next is the one song on the entire album that most closely resembles a “normal” ballad, “China.”  Longing strings and beautiful piano follow Amos’s voice as she compares the distance between two lovers matching that of various places like New York and China.  Maybe released a few years later, it would have been a much bigger single than what it was back then.  If you have heard the Dresden Dolls or Amanda Palmer, “Leather” would be the seed that nearly all their songs could be traced back to.  Flapper girls in a dank bar atmosphere is created by the piano as her voice has a sarcastic happy as can be tone to it.  Short and straight to the point, another example of something really dark going on under the words sang.  All piano and vocals, “Mother” starts off slow, then builds to faster tempo.  Lyrically, this song feels all about going off to became a woman and losing yourself along the way.  The changes in tempo match perfectly with the story being told.  As a male listener, you almost feel like a voyeur on some sacred female right of passage gone wrong.  Another favorite of mine, “Tear In Your Hand” as all the elements that would very soon be associated with many alternative songs.  The story of a break up with an “I Will Survive” attitude and a stronger presence of guitars and drums.  It also has one of my all time favorite Tori lyrics “I don’t believe you’re leaving cause me and Charles Manson like the same ice cream.”  Both sad and funny, it really does sound like some kind of bizarre guy logic.  Toward the end, just where one might expect a guitar solo, a piano solo steals the show, then right back to the song.  Nothing on this album or any other album prior to it could prepare the listener for the next song, “Me And A Gun.”  No music, just words. Haunting words.  A song about rape?  Maybe, regardless it is one of the most open and vulnerable songs I have ever heard.  Kurt Cobain may have sung with angst and conviction, but this is something on an entirely different level.  The less is more approach works in unforgettable ways.  After catching ones’ breath next comes the closer, another one of my favorites, “Little Earthquakes.”  A push-pull tempo with a toned down guitar pulls you back up from the last song, but not all the way up.  Building and building, the slow burn picks back up midway through only to pull you back down with overlapping vocals and harmonies.  Crying out “give me life, give me pain, give me myself again” fills this song with desperation that is palpable.  Then the music falls back down to piano and harmony as the music fades.  This is the perfect song to end on, establishing Tori Amos as a major player in the soon to be exploding scene of a0tlernative music.  The deluxe edition is also accompanied by a great collection of b-sides highlighted by “The Pool,” “Sugar,” and a one of a kind cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”   The re-mastered songs sound vibrant, even if you already have Little Earthquakes, it is worth the price to get them.  A beautiful release by a beautiful artist that paved the way for many female musician today, you owe it to yourself to check out “these little earthquakes!”