Tori Amos - American Doll Posse

As a big fan of Tori Amos first four Albums (I’m pretending that Y Kant Tori Read doesn’t count) I figured I would give her most recent release a chance, despite the off-putting title “American Doll Posse”, which sounds like the title of another terrible Pussycat Dolls reality TV venture. Like most of her recent albums… this one comes with a gimmick. Tori Amos created 5 different personas for the album: Santa, Clyde, Isabel, Tori, and Pip, each represented apparently by a different wig and lyrical focus. Don’t be fooled though, none of them could be confused with anything other than Tori Amos. Still, this gives her an excuse flex her eclectic music writing muscles in arenas such as country, glam rock, blues, folk and of course pop. Frankly I don’t really care which song is performed by which persona, it doesn’t change the fact that a few are great while the rest serve only to pad out this 23 track behemoth.

Lyrically she remains as obtuse as ever, so it should be fun to see what personal meanings her fans attribute her most recent crop of stream of consciousness ramblings. Standout tracks include Big Wheel, a song that would sound fine on the same jukebox as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Girl Disappearing, a warm mix of piano and strings that evokes Tori’s better old work. Body and Soul is a lot of fun, chock full of Janis Joplin swagger and Teenage Hustling has sharp edges that does her attempt at gruffer vocals justice. Bouncing off clouds makes for great alternative pop (despite the highbrow piano work) and Almost Rosey shows her vocal skills pretty much at their best. Finally Code red is dirty, distorted and easily one of my favorite tracks. On the other hand tracks like Programmable Soda miss the target by a mile injuring the crowd instead and several others fail to make an impression at all. All in all she is writing some of her best songs in years and has escaped the monotonous slump she was in. Maybe once she gets over the idea of concept albums we will see some more groundbreaking work. Either that or she can make a killing writing music for other artists, since American Doll Posse puts versatility on her resume.