musicmitigator's Full Review: The Beekeeper by Tori Amos
Part of a three-part series entitled "The Perfect Tori Record"
Again, I'm playing the mad scientist and mangling Tori's last three original albums, reordering them, leaving out roughly half the tracks that I don't like, and making a double CD that would get five stars from me. :)
Read more of my madness here (Faerie Universe), and here (Tori Invades America).
The BeeKeeper
I don't know about Tori Amos's concept albums. The concepts are always really random and don't add up to much. In The BeeKeeper, Tori splits up her songs into "gardens." So each song has its specific garden. Whatever Tori. I'm tossing the concept out the window, because it makes no difference. The songs are the same either. and I'm expecting an album with gems and duds alike. If this is a garden, I'm gonna weed it dammit! Let's explore together eh?
I haven't moved since the call came
Whatever "the call" was in Parasol, it has Tori frozen in hesitation, and perhaps fear. It's hard to tell, because the song doesn't sound fearful. It's all about solace, with our artist in question imagining she is a woman in a painting, safe in her frame. The music is simple, yet it's one of the good ones, trust me. There are moments with Tori doing her own vocal harmony, (one of my least favorite parts of recent Amos offerings) but it's tastefully, and well done. It stays. (Insert evil laughter here.)
Shake shake shake me sane
Therapy for the soul, Sweet the Sting sounds like one of Santana's recent songs, only more laid back, and ten times as good. Everything comes together so well. Organ, percussion, lush vocals, and a guitar that makes love to the song sweetly. Lyrics? I picture Tori in her career's infancy, playing for some guy in a bar: "He said 'I, I have heard / That you can play the way I like it to be played.'" Otherwise, I can't make sense of it. Tori's like that. At least she leaves you with a wonderful toasty feeling, listening to this track.
That sacred pipe of red stone could blow me out of this kiss.
Maybe you had to be there? I really don't know what the lyrics mean. Anyway, The Power of Orange Knickers (featuring Damien Rice) is a frustrating track! It's well written, perfect typically enigmatic lyrics and good melody. There's even a guest star. There are many different things that you could do with this song. The way it stands on The BeeKeeper though, it is begging for more musical variety, and maybe instruments to keep it interesting. So being THE MUSICMITIGATOR, and being that this is my fantasy, I will include this song, but only on the condition that it is completely revamped. You're Tori Amos. You can do better.
*Question* Why is this song "Featuring Damien Rice," when "Past the Mission," from Under the Pink didn't give Trent Reznor (who sang similar backup vocals) the same billing? Is that a record company thing?
The sexiest thing is trust
What a cheesy line, am I right? Jamaica Inn has too many of those famous "harmonizing Tories," and isn't interesting. This and the next track, Barons of Suburbia could just be left out of The BeeKeeper, quite easily. I'll take Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia" over my favorite artist's "Barons" any day.
I don't hold on to the tail of your kite Sleeps With Butterflies is like "A Sorta Fairytale 2," especially because it is her first single from The BeeKeeper. I liked "Fairytale" a little better, but this song is very pretty. It's about Tori rushing into a relationship, which she says she always does: "...I like rivers that rush in." This track is pretty good, and at least it features Tori's piano prominently. Just about all of her songs should.
I swear I've heard General Joy and Mother Revolution on some other album in the past. They didn't impress me then, either. Both vaguely dark, and boring, these will not be on my fantasy record.
A look in her eyes says the battle's beginning.
Awwwwwwwww, Natasha (my favorite artist's daughter) is growing up. Ribbons Undone is a tremblingly beautiful song when taken in the spirit that it was written: a tribute to a growing little girl, beginning to have her own ideas and battles with the world.
You left me burnin' in your petrol emotion. Cars and guitars seems to be a song about a man, told from the point of view of a car... or is it a guitar? Ok, I admit it, I'm confused again. But the "Keep on drivin'" chorus has Miss Amos's voice floating above everything "Hey Jupiter" style... and I'm won over. Which leads me into the sublime Witness. The organ in this song is perfect. After all, as the title suggests,("Can I get a witness?") the tune is reminiscent of a soulful church choir. And just as I think I could listen to Tori growl in her lower register forever, the bridge flies in. Like a piece of "1,000 Oceans" from To Venus and Back, this gorgeous minute of music puts you under its spell, just to throw you back into the funkiness of the beginning. So much fun.
Original sin... No I don't think so, original sinsuality.
Perfect piano, like rain, ushers in this variation on a biblical tale telling of the origin of sin... no, sexuality. Original Sinsuality is just the right length. It leaves you quickly, to think back on how wonderful the song you just heard was. You could probably tack this song onto the end of Little Earthquakes and no one would notice.
I have come for the beekeeper
After an utterly forgettable happy track, Ireland we come to the wonderful The BeeKeeper. This song about death starts with electronic beats and quiet accompaniment. It is creepy, and you just know that Tori's talking about the Grim Reaper, or the angel of death. Near the end she adds, "One day I'll be coming for you." Nice touch. Far from the "Happy Phantom" of Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos seems to seriously consider death in this song.
Take a walk down Memory Lane with me
Hold on.... "Take a walk down Memory Lane??" Whatever happened to opening lines like, "She's your cocaine, she's got you shaving your legs," or "Tuna, Rubber, a little blubber in my igloo.." ?!!? Tory seems to be getting tame sometimes. Martha's Foolish Ginger certainly is. Nothing extraordinary.
She has needs... you can find them on Barney's, fourth floor
Hooray for Hoochie Woman!! It's one of the few hilarious Tori Amos tracks. At the same time it is empowering to women. It reminds me of the opposite of that song "Hit'em Up Style," from a few years back. Tori tells the man who's cheating on her, "keep the money." After all, "I bring home the bacon now.." Wonderful song that always makes me laugh.
From where I stand, you're in my sky.
After something pleasant, (yawn) called Goodbye Pisces, comes a track with quite an opening. Marys of the Sea has piano rolling like thunder, and a spectacular melody. The dynamics rise and fall like the tide, and it leaves you with a warm feeling.
You always loved the smell of the wood burning.
In the tradition of "Twinkle," on the end of Boys for Pele, Toast seems like a soft throwaway at first. You know as well as I do though, that soft is not always bad when it comes to Tori. This tune is a perfect closer to the album, and just might close my own fictional album called......
No, you'll have to wait a second longer. I have to wrap up. The BeeKeeper does indeed have some duds, but Tori seems to be entering a new phase in her songwriting career where she's more comfortable in her own skin as a mother and a wife. This comes out in her latest album, and that would be why there were more "keepers" in it. I always respect Tori as an artist. Her lyrics interweave the Bible, classic rock lines, and her own life seamlessly. Usually Tori's albums are predominantly strange or beautiful. This one occupies both in the same space.
:)
Okay, I'd be wrecking my form if I did not tell you which tracks made it from The BeeKeeper:
1. Parasol
2. Sweet the Sting
3. The Power of Orange Knickers (modified as stated above)
4. Sleeps With Butterflies
5. Ribbons Undone
6. Cars and Guitars
7. Witness
8. Original Sinsuality
9. The BeeKeeper
10. Hoochie Woman
11. Marys of the Sea
12. Toast
From the beginning review, I have told you I am rearranging Tori's last three original albums, leaving out the tracks I don't like, and reassembling it to make a double album that I would be more likely to listen to. The final outcome of my little experiment is:
Scarlet: The BeeKeeper
Disc one: To Venus
1. Don't Make Me Come to Vegas
2. Original Sinsuality
3. Amber Waves
4. Sweet The Sting
5. Bliss
6. Spring Haze
7. Carbon
8. Wednesday
9. HoochieWoman
10. The BeeKeeper
11. I Can't See New York
12. Scarlet's Walk
13. Glory of the 80's
Disc 2 ...and back.
1. Virginia
2. The Power of Orange Knickers
3. Sleeps with Butterflies
4. Parasol
5. Witness
6. Toast
7. A Sorta Fairytale
8. Suede
9. Concertina
10. 1,000 Oceans
11. Marys of the Sea
12. Cars and Guitars
13. Ribbons Undone
14. Gold Dust
Now that's an album that would (and will) never leave my CD player. Tori Amos is a musical genius, but she could leave out some of those extra pieces of fluff from her albums.
America s queen of avant-garde adult pop follows up 2003 s Tales Of A Librarian best-of collection with this, her seventh studio album. On this self-p...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.