Boys For Pele by Tori Amos

Pros: a harpsichord and intriguing lyrics
Cons: you gotta listen to it at least 3 times to adjust to the new sound

You have to give Tori Amos credit. She composes for herself and won't be confined to any particular genre. This is what makes her my favorite artist. Every time she releases a new album, the critics have a field day-"she's weird! She doesn't make...

Pros: Abstraction on a new level
Cons: None

Tori Amos wrote this album about the men in her life, not necessarily all in a sexual sense. The album's title contains the word Pele, which is the name of the Hawaiian volcano god. This is a metaphor for the album, and sets it up nicely. The album is...

Pros: Half the songs are incredible
Cons: Half the songs are unnoticible

Let's start with the obvious here. Tori, darling, what the hell were you thinking with those pictures? They certainly were ... different ... and people talk about Madonna!?

All that aside, Boys For Pele is your in the middle album. You...

Pros: even at her least accessible, Tori is still hypnotically beguiling
Cons: at times, almost too stripped and intimate

A certain reserve of blind faith and bravery proves indispensable when delving into this schizophrenically scattershot song-cycle. If Little Earthquakes stripped Amos to the skin – and Under the Pink to the bone – then 1996’s Boys For Pele slashes...

Pros: Beautifully done
Cons: none ... honestly

Yes, know I have written three pieces on Tori but with a voice like hers its not hard to fall under her spell. Her music in entrancing, and once you think you have figured her out she hits you with another album just as real , just as beautiful....

Pros: Wonderful arrangement, complete.
Cons: Sometimes silly lyrics, "Not The Red Baron"

Tori has had four major peaks of her career. First there was the "Little Earthquakes" peak. Then there was the "Under the Pink" peak. Then the "Pele" peak, and after that "Choirgirl". Then something happened:...

Pros: gorgeous, risk-taking, inventive, moving
Cons: obscure, highly personal, prickly

Boys for Pele is by far the least accessible of Tori Amos's albums. Personally, I listened to it for months before I really began to enjoy it. But after such a long courtship I found this album to be highly rewarding, complex, and beautiful.
...

Pros: A Sorbet for your eardrums
Cons: A really grody picture of Tori breastfeeding a piglet

Now be honest, Tori fans,...have you ever tried to wail and shriek and hit the high note in "Professional Widow" when she says "running in the family"?...Liar.

What a superb album! I bought this album...

Pros: a great selection of songs that show her flexibility and beauty
Cons: some short songs that are pointless

Tori is a goddess, a truly talented musician and writer. This album is by far my favorite. Perhaps it's because I am a sucker for albums that deal with heartache, but this album cannot be described as anything less than wonderful.

I am a big...

Pros: Deep yet easily related to.
Cons: Average listeners might not grasp or enjoy her music.

If you thought Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink were amazing you are in for a treat! Boys For Pele is one of her best works to date. Her music is enchanting and haunting and her lyrics are powerful and so filled emotions not yet named that I find...

Pros: Worth the trouble of getting to know her.
Cons: Inaccessible at first, and even then, some of the songs remain unmountable.

I've had a variety of Tori fans comment to me that Boys for Pele is the most difficult of Tori's albums to "get into". While there are some standard straight-forward songs on this album such as "Caught a Lite Sneeze", many of the...

Pros: makes me proud to be a woman
Cons: Tori had to suffer so much for this brilliant record

Every bad breakup I have had has seemed to revolve around the songs on Boys for Pele. Each soul-bearing, heart- swelling song throws itself upon the alter of the great volcano goddess, Pele. Every human emotion possible is represented on this Tori...

Pros: The songs are honest, even if very mystical sometimes
Cons: not for everybody, takes time

I recall Tori saying that after track 2, 'Blood Roses' that this is the descent into madness for this album.

I seemed to relate to this album (and still do) more than any of the other albums, the genuine pain, in all its raw form is a...

Pros: interesting sounds, very different from other Tori Amos albums
Cons: graphic lyrics

Tori Amos' album, Boys For Pele is very straight-forward, and does not candy coat any of the feelings that Tori Amos has. This album has more curse words than her other albums and seems to have been written with rage. I love this album, however, i...

Pros: The Tori Experience
Cons: None at all

First and foremost, I am a dedicated Tori fan. I suppose, in a way that this makes me biased, but I also listen to her music as though she were speaking directly to me, as if every note from her Bosendorfer & every shrill in her voice is carrying an...