Pros: If you're a fan of "techno" music, and Tori, you'll be in Heaven.
Cons: All 7 tracks are Professional Widow
The Bottom Line: This is straight electronic dance music. Don't buy it expecting anything else. If that's your cup of tea, you are going to love this maxi single.
klzabawa's Full Review: Professional Widow [Maxi Single] by Tori Amos
Welcome back to the Epinions tutorial on Tori Amos. Today we will be discussing the CD5 Maxi Single Professional Widow. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and are ready to begin our lesson.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I'm doing a little series on the different Tori singles I own. I apologize for the cheese factor involved in these Epinions--but I've decided it's nearly impossible to write about an artist who is close to your heart without coming off as the hugest human-velveeta-tube around. And I've also come to accept that being cheesy is a big part of who I am, so I hope you all can stomach it. But I've got to get it done before Six Feet Under comes on, so I'll get moving here.
WARNING This review contains adult content and language. If easily offended, you may want to quit reading now.
As with all the other Tori singles that are listed on Epinions, I seem to have strange other versions of them, and in this case, it is vinyl. I acquired a record of this maxi single somehow, and consider it one of the prizes of my Tori collection. Now if only I had some turntables. The record is exactly the same as the cd, consisting of 7 versions of the song.
The songs are:
Tracks 2, 4 & 6 were remixed by Armand Van Helden for X-Mix Productions, while tracks 3, 5 & 7 were mixed by MK for Area 10 Productions (according to the back of the cd).
The front of the cd is a close up of Tori's face. She's wearing a white shirt, with a white background, so her hair and lips really come out of the picture. Her hair is all mop-top curly and she's wearing a dark red lipstick. The inside sleeve contains no information, and is just a little picture of a couple butterflies.
This is an interesting cd. It really amazed me when I first heard techno dance versions of Tori songs. She was such a piano-folky type artist to me on her first two cds. But this is in a whole different vein. This is the wild child side of Tori, all grown up and ready to step out. This is a song that is a bit of a leap from previous songs she'd written--and it caused quite a bit of a stir.
The lyrics to Professional Widow are almost shocking. The music itself is jarring. It is an intense listening experience. The original album version starts and we are immediately greeted with pounding harpsichord--angry pounding--and the beat drops. That hammer striking iron and that famous electronic bellows blowing out, creating a powerful backdrop to what's about to come.
"Slag pit
Stag sh*t
Honey bring it close to my lips yes"
Did these words just come out of Tori's pretty pouty mouth? Oh hell yeah, they did.
Professional Widow tells us the tale of a woman trying to convince her man to commit suicide. Who is obsessed with fame and fortune and is ruthless in her attempts to get it. A take-charge black widow with a need for a "hard c*ck". This ain't your parent's Tori Amos.
The Controversy
When the album was first released there were countless rumors to the meaning of these lyrics. I don't know how it started, but some began to say that Tori is referring to rocker Courtney Love in the song. Especially after all the rumors of Courtney's possible involvement in husband Kurt Cobain's death. I have no opinion on any of that, since I obviously will never know the true circumstances surrounding such things, but Tori has been quoted commenting on the song, and the allegation.
“Let’s put it this way, Courtney [Love] and I have never spoken. We’ve never spoken about it and I think it’s best kept that way. We have mutual friends. I don’t want to put them in a bad position.”
From “Ready, Steady, Kook”, Q magazine, May 1998, by Tom Doyle.
In another interview, “Shock and bull TORI”, in the Herald Sun newspaper (Australia), July 9, 1998 by Cameron Adams, the conversation went as follows:
Do you realize you’re seen as good copy by journalists?
“Courtney Love gives good copy.”
Seeing as you um, mentioned Courtney Love, there’s talk that you wrote Professional Widow about her. Is that true?
“There’s a lot of talk about her. One of my best friends is close with her. I would never dishonor that.”
And the lyrics themselves:
“…don’t blow those brains yet
we gotta be big boy
we gotta be big
Starf*cker just like my Daddy
Just like my Daddy selling his baby
Gonna strike a deal
Make him feel like a Congressman…
Mother Mary
China white
Brown may be sweeter
She will supply…
Give me peace, love and a hard c*ck…”
Interesting. I don’t know what all of this means, and I don’t pretend to. I’m just letting the reading public know the scoop about this song.
This song is a power thing. And man does she pull it off. It is a powerful song. If ever anyone doubted the lungs on little Tori Amos, they never would again after a listen to this song. She is wailing. The other versions of this song are all interesting as well. They are more controlled than the free-flowing madness that is the original version.
The Remixes
Track two, Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix, is really fun and catchy. It starts with this building alarm-type sound that releases into a dance beat and other airy electronic noises. Then the bass line starts. This funky, fun Bootsy Collins sounding bass line. And then we get Tori.
Snippets of "honey bring it close to my...
honey bring it close to my lips yeah...
it's gotta be big
it's gotta be big..."
It's an extremely danceable song. All of the anger and power stuff has been removed.
MK took a slightly different approach to his remix. Track three does no building up--it hits you with the beat right away, with only Tori's distorted word "supply" repeated over and over. There are other phrases thrown in here and there, but overall the beat changes very little. The parts of Tori we here are more like the original version, but just taken apart. It doesn't sound as much like a totally different song like Armand Van Helden's version.
Tracks four and six basically sound the same as track 2, only four is condensed, and six is instrumental.
I like the fifth track, MK Vampire Dub, better than the first attempt by MK. This one starts with some pretty tight spinning of Tori's voice, causing this opera-like sound to emerge. The beat is a little more energetic than his first mix, though he uses a lot of the same sound elements. Ultimately it is not TOO different from his first attempt.
The last track, Bonus Beats, is pretty interesting too. MK combines the sounds he used on his previous remixes with a more danceable beat. There is less recognizable Tori making some kind of noise here and there.
Overall
For it's time, this is a great dance mix cd. Unfortunately, electronic music is a bit like computers--anything more than a year old sounds ancient at this point. So, this being about 5 years old doesn't help it any. DJs can do anything at this point. Electronic music fills your imagination like few things can. But this sounds a bit tired, commonplace, and well, done, with the possible exception of track two, Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix. Like I said, if you're a Toriphile who likes dance music, you will more than likely love this cd. If you are a dj--buy it so you can make it better. For everyone else, maybe you'd be better off buying a Tori cd that has a better variety of songs.
Thanks for reading--more to come!
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
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