There\u2019s a common occurrence amongst what many would call \u201cThe Lilith Fair Crowd,\u201d that wave of stridently feminist singer-songwriters who left an indelible, can\u2019t-pin-me-down mark on the music of the \u201990s… and that\u2019s how many of them got their start in more conventional, sometimes even-cookie-cutter fare.<\/p>\n
There was Sarah McLachlan fronting the short-lived rock band The October Game, as well as Natalie Merchant fronting the much more successful (and genuinely classic) 10,000 Maniacs. And while Bjork\u2019s tenure with the Sugarcubes still had streaks of her off-kilter sensibilities, the syncopated grooves of their guitar riffs had more in common with summer rockers like Red Hot Chili Peppers or even the B-52\u2019s than the ethereal caterwauling of Bjork\u2019s later solo efforts.<\/p>\n
Likewise, Alanis Morrissette’s prior stint as a Tiffany-style teenybopper before Jagged Little Pill<\/i> tossed a hand grenade on her fluffy image is such the stuff of legend, even TV show How I Met Your Mother<\/i> had a recurring bit that riffed on it, with their most acerbic character once being teen sensation Robin Sparkles. It\u2019s as if, in order for these artists to later serve as such wonderful sirens for complex emotionality, they first had to toil in the trenches of comparative (and often male-centric) pablum.<\/p>\n
Surely, none of these singers must have been more keen to put those proverbial trenches behind them than piano virtuoso Tori Amos, best known for elaborating on the diaphanous path of fairy chanteuses that Kate Bush paved before her. Named (with X-Tremely Kewl lettering) from an incident in Amos\u2019 childhood where she was asked to leave Peabody Conservatory because she refused to read sheet music, Y Kant Tori Read was a motley band that paired Amos with guitarist Steve Caton (who\u2019d be the only bandmate she\u2019d continue to collaborate with), drummer Matt Sorum (later an alumni of Guns \u2018n Roses and Velvet Revolver) and bassist Brad Cobb (who\u2019d go on to do nothing else of note, apparently), plus a bevy of other rotating artists.<\/p>\n
They only ever made one album. It\u2019s very clear why.<\/p>\n
One of Amos\u2019 strengths evident in her solo career is her uncanny ability to weave an immersive setting with each song; more than simply harkening to a specific moment, her lush instrumentations would paint a complete environment\u2026 the listener would truly be there.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, virtually none of those strengths are wielded competently in Y Kant Tori Read\u2019s confused, jumbled mess of a self-titled album. For example, there\u2019s about 30 seconds of it at the beginning and 30 more at the end of \u201cFire On The Side,\u201d but the rest of the track is mired in faux-Roxette-style anthem-ing that just doesn\u2019t gel.<\/p>\n
You know that bit in Disney\u2019s Sleeping Beauty<\/i> where the two fairy godmothers can\u2019t stop feuding over whether the dress should be pink or blue? I have to imagine that the same belligerent back-and-forth was present in every practice session for this group, because there\u2019s a feeling of disgruntled compromise permeating this whole setlist. It feels present on opening track \u201cThe Big Picture,\u201d which seems like it really<\/i> wants to cut loose on making a big statement, man<\/i>, but even with a music video that involves Tori spray-painting a cop\u2019s crotch and vamping with a pirate sword while wearing inflatable, striped paints, nothing can save it from being the sort of mediocre nothing-rock you\u2019d see in a corporate training video. It makes \u201cWe Built This City\u201d feel like \u201cYou Shook Me All Night Long.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that sense of confused strife is definitely<\/i> present in \u201cFayth,\u201d which just might be one of the worst songs I have ever heard. No joke, it sounds like Ray Charles trying to play a Don Henley song from memory as Slash from Guns ‘n Roses fails to impersonate B.B. King\u2019s guitar grooves, all while Debbie Harry rehearses a sequel to her “Man From Mars” rap ditty from Blondie\u2019s \u201cRapture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes. All of that. AT THE SAME TIME. Discordant doesn\u2019t even begin to cover it.<\/p>\n
This milieu of muddled, musical histrionics runs rampant throughout. There\u2019s the intrusive saxophones in the already-cluttered \u201cYou Go To My Head,\u201d the breakneck shift into a plodding boogey found in \u201cHeart Attack At 23,\u201d jungle flutes randomly overlaid onto cries of \u201cHello?\u201d before Tori\u2019s affected vocal fry undercuts the jamming out of \u201cPirates\u201d\u2026 the list goes on and on. Does the word choice of my review, itself, feel like it\u2019s trying too hard and warring with itself in its attempts to form coherent thoughts? Well, welcome to listening to this album.<\/p>\n
Of the 10 tracks on here, only two achieve any sense of pleasing cohesion (appropriately, I hear they’re also the only two that Tori will play at her concerts nowadays). The pretentiously-named \u201cEtienne Trilogy: The Highlands, Etienne, Skyeboat Song\u201d is fine, mostly a montage of nostalgic musings, fairly pleasant. (Though the extended bagpipe postlude feels a bit unnecessary. What was wrong with a simple fadeout, guys?) \u201cCool On Your Island,\u201d however, is a genuine keeper. The sonic tapestry-making which would become Tori Amos\u2019 trademark is here in full display, balancing a somehow contemplative rumba rhythm with moog-esque guitar strums. I’d put it in any appropriate playlist without reservation.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, one genuinely good and one mostly fine song out of ten isn\u2019t a great average, especially when the other eight are chaotic enough that silence just might be preferable. In paper-grading scoring, this averages out to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":34550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10756],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-46396","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-y-kant-tori-read","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46396","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\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46396"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}