starcollector's Full Review: Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos
(Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Album Overview" section. The section titled "Detailed Track Discussion" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and they do not constitute the essence of this review. Lastly and most importantly, this review is not necessarily written by the point of view of a Tori Amos fan.)
Introduction
I was reading a page about Kate Bush one day. I forgot where it was, but it said something that made me laugh. It listed among Bush's accomplishments that she invented Tori Amos. I laughed once and then realized that it's 100 percent true.
Track Listing
Best song: "China"
Crucify A-
Girl A
Silent All These Years B
Precious Things B+
Winter B-
Happy Phantom B
China A
Leather C+
Mother B-
Tear in Your Hand B
Me and a Gun C-
Little Earthquakes A-
Overall Score: 4/5
Review Body
So I guess the moral of the story is that if you are a Tori Amos fan who hasn't listened to Kate Bush, then you should correct that wrong immediately. If anything else, Tori Amos is a poor man's Kate Bush. Anybody who would be a Wings fan without ever hearing the Beatles would be committing a similar crime!
I could go through these tracks and point out which Kate Bush songs they resemble. There's: "Precious Things" vs. "Hounds of Love;" "Girl" and vs. "Cloudbusting;" "Silent All These Years" vs. "Wuthering Heights;" "Winter" vs. "The Man With the Child in His Eyes;" "Happy Phantom" vs. "There Goes a Tenner," etc. Naturally, all these comparisons are sometimes only subtle, and I haven't really been able to find a suitable comparison to "Crucify." The point is, however, it didn't take me much labor to come up with these. Sure, it's evident that I've listened to Kate Bush's albums way too much, but do you see what I mean?
Furthermore, in all these comparison's Amos can't hold a candle to Bush. Bush not only has a better, more emotionally resonant voice, but she is tons more creative and inspiring. I don't call her the grand pixie queen of pop music for no reason!! And, as you might imagine, achieving such a title isn't easy for anyone to receive. Amos doesn't come close.
Nonetheless, after taking awhile to put aside these feelings, I can really appreciate much of this music. After all, Bush only released ONE album in the 1990s and it wasn't even that good, so the world did need a replacement. And Amos is as good as I could have hoped for. After all, The Beatles needed a 1970s replacement, and I love Wings music!
First of all, I have to mention that "China" is a masterpiece. I cannot stop listening to that song!!!! Also, I really enjoy listening to "Girl," which was well orchestrated. The album closer "Little Earthquakes" is the closest thing she comes to a successful epic-type song. There are other songs, such as "Crucify" and "Precious Things" that were also extremely well conceived. ... You see, even though Tori Amos borrowed pretty much all of her ideas from Kate Bush, she utilizes them well. Even songs that didn't leave that much of an impression on me are good ones. "Mother" and "Winter" both are essentially Amos singing with a piano. Well, I like the piano, and Amos knows how to use that instrument!
The only truly boring song on here is the a cappella "Me and a Gun." She made the song a cappella obviously because she's singing about a rape and she wanted to keep the mood serious and tear inducing. So dang pretentious and serious! Kate Bush would never do something like that!!
...and Bush never did. The major difference between Kate Bush and Tori Amos are ultimately the lyrics. Bush liked singing about literary characters whereas Amos concentrates on herself. Hey! Maybe Tori Amos doesn't like to read that much! There's nothing inherently wrong about singing about yourself, but give me Bush's captivating takes on literature over Amos on herself any day.
Anyway, I don't dare count how many times I mention Kate Bush in this review, so I apologize for that. But I'm a mad Kate Bush fan who is reviewing a Tori Amos album. Can you expect anything less?
Detailed Track Reviews
It's not a particularly hooky song nor does Tori Amos have a particularly expressionate voice, which is a handicap that I'm sure frustrated her to no end. Nonetheless, "Crucify" is a solid pop song! It's a piano led pop song done with a moderate beat. An interesting sound effect is inserted in the chorus (that for some reason reminds me of the sound that water makes when you suck it through a straw). It's a good song that manages to get better the more you hear it. Well, Amos is smart enough to pull that one off. Nice job.
"Girl" is a really good song though. I also can't say that I find the song's melody to be that catchy, so I'm not sure to what extent people would ever want to hum this song. At the same time, this is a good song to listen to intensely with headphones. When she brings in the violins, it's very smart! OK, Kate Bush did it better multiple times, but Amos is a worthy follower. I'm not a big fan of this ending though. It sounds forced. Check out how Kate Bush ends her songs, particuarly on The Dreaming.
"Silent All These Years" has less creative instrumentation and it's less interesting to me. The melody isn't bad though the hooks are kinda weak. It's supposed to be more of an intense, piano-led ballad. It succeeds for the most part, but it gets old by the time it's half over.
"Precious Things" is probably the most actually creative song on the album. OK she borrows that drum beat from Bush's "Hounds of Love," but whatever. The song starts out nice and creepy with an interesting breathing noise. The atmospherics are excellent! When Bush's drums pop in, they make the song edgy and unpredictable.
"Winter" isn't bad but I must say that it is one of the least compelling song on the album even though I do appreciate what Amos is doing here. The melody is moderately catchy and even memorable and I like her use of violins to help the song generate a sweeping quality. Amos could have cut this down to three minutes and not lost a thing. Repeat this to yourself, Tori Amos: What Would Kate Bush Do? "The Man With the Child in His Eyes" wasn't even three minutes long. Pay attention!
"Happy Phantom" is a music-hall song that's led by the piano with a nice vocal performance from Tori Amos. The melody is OK but not that memorable. Even better are the studio effects Amos adds to this, including a nice bit of wave from some trumpets. It's only modestly creative, but it works because Amos is quite intelligent.
"China" is easily my favorite song of the album. I love it!!! The melody is clearly superior to all the others on this album. The instrumentation is sweeping! Bush might have added more sound effects and more play acting , but Amos' sparser vision is effective. This is an excellent ballad. The only complaint I have about it is the thundering bit in the middle of it. She tries to layer her vocals like Bush frequently does. ... Well, Amos sounds sloppy. That's the only reason this song isn't getting an A+. (Oh, I didn't even catch this until I read George Starostin -- the most obvious Kate Bush comparison of them all -- "China" vs."Egypt.")
"Leather" makes me go "meh." I sit here listening to it without being able to come up with much to say about it. Apart from "Me and a Gun," this is the most uninvolving song of the album. The jazzy piano wasn't bad and I like the "Cloudbusting"-like choppy chords in theory. But it just didn't seem to come together to make an engaging song. I'm sorry; I'm just not interested in this. The smart thing is that Amos only kept this at three minutes.
"Mother" is a nice song with just Amos and her piano. I like what she does with the piano here, and it's true that I find her pretty engaging here. Unfortunately, she carries this thing over to seven minutes. I don't mind it being seven minutes long, but it didn't need to take that much time. For serious.
"Tear in Your Hand" is a nice, straight ahead pop-rock song. The squeaky vocals again emulate Kate Bush's famous singing style, but it doesn't work as well. Nonetheless, I like this song and I think it's a good adult contemporary song. It would have been nice if the melody were hookier, but this is good enough.
"Me and a Gun" is an a cappella song that didn't need to be a cappella. I guess she wanted the song to be extra touching and personal so she axed the instrumentals. It's a song about the time she was the unfortunate victim of a sexual assualt. I'm sorry that it happened, but this is an incredibly difficult to listen to! She comes off as too pretentious without the instrumentals, which is what I found so appealing about most of these songs. Well ... I suppose you could edit this out ...
"Little Earthquakes" is another song that's seven minutes long. But this is one of the better ones. You see, it actually appears to evolve and keep the listener better involved than "Mother" and the six-minute "Winter" as nice as they were. There's a manical bit in the middle of "Little Earthquakes" that worked really well and then she worked in some chants in the latter half of this (Um... Amos got the chanting idea from "The Dreaming," right? She'll never be able to fool me!) A Kate Bush copycat she might be, but at least the copy machine was state-of-the-art!
Concluding remarks
Kate Bush, Kate Bush, Kate Bush!!!! ... And Tori Amos, too.
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