After
\nStrange Little Girls<\/i>, it seemed that Tori Amos had jumped
\noff the deep end and there was no way we were going to get her
\nback. She had been abstract before in
\nBoys For Pele<\/i> and
\nTo Venus and Back<\/i>, and her lyrics have typically gotten more
\nabstract since
\nLittle Earthquakes<\/i> and
\nUnder the Pink<\/i>. But
\nStrange Little Girls<\/i> was a career suicide album, worthy of
\nLou Reed’s worst offerings.<\/p>\n
And then 9\/11 happened. Another artist makes a statement. But
\nTori used 9\/11 as a geographic barometer of what was going on in
\nAmerica. The result was
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i>, a return Tori’s earlier, more accessible
\nworks. Many of her songs on
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i> don’t require a master’s in English to figure
\nout: “Taxi Ride” touches on homophobia and the chilling “I Can’t
\nSee New York” is one of the best songs yet dealing with the
\nterrorist attacks on New York.<\/p>\n
It is hard to say that
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i> is Tori Amos’ most assured album in years
\nbecause all of her albums seem assured. It is definitely an album
\nwhere Tori seems fully in control of her musical choices. That is
\none of
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i>‘s greatest strengths.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that is also one of its greatest weaknesses.<\/p>\n
As polarizing as
\nBoys For Pele<\/i> was for die-hard fans of Tori’s earlier works
\nand as forgotten
\nFrom The Choirgirl Hotel<\/i> is in her collection, both albums
\nhad a sense of wonder and surprise to them. Tori could go back to
\nher hyper-intimate settings of just her, her piano and her piercing
\nlyrics, but then she could mix up the voodoo and let her freakish
\nside dominate in songs like “Professional Widow” and “She’s Your
\nCocaine.”<\/p>\n
On
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i>, the mood is consistent. Almost too
\nconsistent. I’ve listened to this album scores of times and have
\nactually had to replace it twice, but still, only about a third of
\nthese songs qualify as standouts. The others seem to add a great
\nlandscape, but no major sense of uniqueness to them. It’s almost
\nlike
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i> is far greater than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n
That all said,
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i> is a short listen for an album that runs in
\nthe 70 minute range. The flow is so smooth, you feel guilty for
\nskipping over some of the weaker tracks. And any artist that can
\nhold your attention for that length of time in the age of cable
\nmodem access and hyper time-management is obviously doing something
\nright.<\/p>\n
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i> neatly fractures Tori Amos’ catalog into two
\nequal parts: the intimate, accessible Tori (
\nLittle Earthquakes<\/i>,
\nUnder the Pink<\/i> and
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i>) and the experimental, otherworldly Tori (
\nBoys for Pele<\/i>,
\nChoirgirl Hotel<\/i> and
\nStrange Little Girls<\/i>) with
\nTo Venus and Back<\/i> sitting comfortably in the middle.<\/p>\n
After hearing
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i>, it’s amazing to me that Atlantic Records
\ndidn’t do more to keep Tori in their roster. She has a fan base
\nthat will follow her through even her most experimental phases.
\nThat is because most know that for every time she dives off the
\ndeep end, she will come back, more rooted than ever and release an
\nalbum like
\nScarlet’s Walk<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The album’s theme is enlightenment through motion. It’s a walk
\nworth exploring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5650],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37571","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tori-amos","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37571"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}