Audio: Tori Amos – Backstage at Bonnaroo

Youre not crazy james. Her voice has changed, probably due to her age, ETL youre right, because it seems like her voice CAN sound great, on certain songs, whens she’s singing a certain way. She does have the jaw thing, and it looks to me, especially since around 2001, that it pains her to open her mouth a certain way. How open your mouth is’s obviously got a lot to do with the way youre gonna be able to sing.

Exactly–after the Scarlet’s Walk tour (starting with the Beekeeper) it became painful to listen to her struggle against her “new, lower tone.” There have been only a few songs (“Code Red” on ADP, “Strong Black Vine” on AATS, for example) in which it seems that you are hearing a real live person sing, and not some weird twisted caricature of a sea nymph from 1995. The records are also grossly, embarrassingly overproduced. Mostly, the songs stopped being interesting both musically and lyrically after Scarlet’s Walk, possibly because there are too many of them, though not necessarily (I will never, ever have a need in my life for a song like, “Goodbye Pisces” or “Martha’s Foolish Ginger,” and “Secret Spell” sounds like something you make up in your head to cheer yourself up while running on the treadmill but DO NOT PUT ON A RECORD.) They are vague and unspecific and impersonal. Which is really sad to me, because we need someone writing for the audience she is writing for–young women need a genuine, raw, honest voice like Tori Amos used to be.

Also, “bliss” will NEVER be pronounced “bleees” no matter how many times she belts it out that way. I actually thought she was a brilliant singer (those background vocals on “Caught a Lite Sneeze”? “Blood Roses,” and almost all of Choirgirl?!) which is why it’s so frustrating that she can’t seem to do what Joni Mitchell and Carole King did, which is sound more interesting after their voices deepened. Slowing the songs down does not address the issue: it only makes the live show boring. I almost fell asleep the last time I saw her. I still see her live shows, because I respect and admire everything she’s done in the past. That is why it is depressing.

Yeah, suck a grapefruit. It also depends on what kind of venue environment it’s in as well, even down to the listener’s mentality and ability to audiolize the music in their own head; you get what you give kinda thing at a show…

I don’t mind the evolution of her musical style – I actually liked her last album a lot – but I have been shocked by how much she has allowed her voice to degrade. She can no longer hit the big notes – girrrls on precious things is plainly a thing of the past. I wouldn’t mind even that, but her voice sounds thin and strained a lot of the time, and I find myself agonising over whether she’s going to make every other note on some of them. Shouldn’t she seek help/treatment? It must be from overuse and age, but some of these effects can be reversed. She might need a break from touring, but she keeps on and on getting out on the road.

I’m not “complaining” because it’s “different.” I wouldn’t exactly call LE to UTP to BFP to Choirgirl to SLG to Scarlet’s Walk (all records I love) a homogeneous body of work. And it’s not because she’s “trying something new.” It’s because what she’s trying isn’t working, at least for me. I don’t get this “doubters” thing. Her music is not a religion. I’m simply being critical of it, and not in an offhand, stupid way–I know it very well. Sadly, her music was Bob Dylan to me, to quote the Minutemen. I want to like every new record she puts out, and the whole “she’s too old” or “she’s too happy” to make good music line strikes me as a simplistic, sexist explanation. (I’ve already cited Joni Mitchell and Carole King as examples of women who were able to make deeper voices and age work for them; Patti Smith is still great, and there is no shortage of bands that were great ten years ago or twenty years ago and are still great–that is a cliche.)

I also think she’s had some interesting approaches since Beekeeper… the Cindy Sherman homage of American Doll Posse was brilliant, though there was an almost Disney cheesiness to the title and the rigidity with which she approached her “performances” of each character. I think Abnormally Attracted to Sin, for all of its many faults (Police Me, Welcome to England, which sounds like easy radio pop–a cardinal sin for Tori Amos back in the day–Mary Jane, 500 Miles, Not Dying Today) is a stronger record (Give, Strong Black Vine, Curtain Call, Flavor, Lady in Blue) than ADP or Beekeeper. But how could you listen to a song like “Yo, George”–possibly the least arresting political commentary I’ve ever heard–and think that her music has not become boring? I mean, if you’re going to protest something heinous, drop the cutesy bullshit and rock like Patti Smith doing “Soul Kitchen” on a recent record. Make a statement I don’t have to feel embarrassed listening to. One that could somehow possibly be perceived as offensive. There’s too much packaging around her music, now. It’s almost like a brand that’s being resuscitated every year, and she’s repeating herself. I used to find her interviews surprising; lately there are always buzzwords that I know will be brought up “sexuality” (excuse me, should I say, “SINsuality”), “freedom,” whatever. Got it. No one is infringing on your sexual freedom, Tori. I doubt that is the most important issue facing middle aged American or British feminists at this point.

And bliss never used to be pronounced “blees.” I get that she “plays her voice like an instrument,” but I don’t see why that means that she has to come up with her own new alphabet. It’s distracting me and, it seems, it’s distracting her. When I saw her in NYC this year, she only looked alive during one song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, which was awesome. The rest of the songs were over as soon as they started. She’s become predictable. I don’t think that with age inevitably comes musical decline–there are just too many bands and singers and composers proving that is not the case–but I do think it is possible that with a certain level of comfort and security comes complacency and an unwillingness to take risks. Which is why she won’t experiment with her new, actual vocal range, with any new themes, etc. She talks more about her Michael Kors and Sigerson Morrisons than, oh I don’t know, about the way capitalism is ruining the lives of women around the world.

AND the records are grossly, embarrassingly overproduced. Again: it’s Tori Amos, the Epcot version.

I thought tori’s voice was in fine form, and she looked great as always too.

wow you people are harsh & I think she sounds wonderful.