AFTER disappearing for two years, Tori Amos is back with her ninth studio album American Doll Posse.The big surprise here comes from the shocking use of guitar - both electric and acoustic. Her unexpected vocal layering and harmonies, piano lines driven home at break-neck speed, and an overall sound that is everything. And more...
This time she's angry, fed up and goes all political on us, with a message to the US President, as she opens Yo George with...
I salute to you Commander, and I sneeze,
Cause I have now an allergy to your policies it seems,
Where have we gone wrong America?
Recording sessions on this album started in June last year with Jon Evans on bass and Matt Chamberlain on drums.
The title consists of five different female characters that Amos "developed around the album's 20 tracks", the titular "dolls" of American Doll Posse: Pip, Santa, Isabel, Clyde, and Tori.
This move allows her to veer off into all sorts of musical directions that sway in and out of rock, folk, alt-rock and pop genres.
Humanistic politics are engrained in many of the songs but there is also a lot of gorgeous string quartet arrangements by John Phillip Shenale (on Girl Disappearing), humour (on Fat Slut and Big Wheel, singing "I am a MILF don't you forget") and and excellent selection of keyboard instruments, all played by Amos, often simultaneously.
Body And Soul, a duet between Pip and Santa, is a marvellous track. It's a full-out proper rock and roll song.
But it is in the bonus track Dragon that Amos is at her finest. Her vocals were up front and centre, her piano piece straight out of a fairytale, an almost cutesy tone. It is a track that stands among her all-time best compositional work.
American Doll Posse debuted in the US at No 5, selling 54,000 copies, making it her sixth album to debut in the US Top 10. Many believe Tori has been "softened" by motherhood and family life, and not as fiery as her earlier releases.
This record puts that claim to rest. - NST 15/07/2007
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