Girls, girls, what have we done to ourselves? (Under The Pink - Tori Amos)

Member Name: glitter_princess

Product:	Under The Pink - Tori Amos
Date:	06/07/03 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Subtle but powerful, Original, Emotionally raw

Disadvantages: Not for lovers of bubblegum pop

With the likes of Avril Lavigne and Norah Jones cluttering up the charts at the moment it seems that the female singer-songwriter genre is on its way back up. But while Avril torments us with the tedious teenage angst of ‘Sk8er Boi’, Tori Amos continues to release masterpieces that go relatively unnoticed.

Tori Amos was undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of the 90’s yet she continues to be most well known for the remix of her song Professional Widow. Her own songs make fantastic use of her masterful piano playing and she has the rare vocal talent to be able to move convincingly from numb desolation to intense anger. Her lyrics are quirky and often cryptic but always insightful and beautifully poetic; laced with hidden symbolism, meaning that her songs require the listener’s full attention but provide huge rewards for those prepared to devote their time to her music. Despite frequent comparisons to Kate Bush, her compositions are always strikingly original and, above all, unflinchingly sincere.

‘Under the Pink’ (1994) is Tori’s second album and employs a more experimental sound than that of its predecessor, ‘Little Earthquakes’. Though the piano still forms the foundation of her music, she displays an increasing confidence, using different styles and sounds, moving away from just her and her piano towards using a full orchestra, guitars, bass loops and experimenting with different ways to play the piano (muffling it, distorting it), all of which bring a more aggressive, intense sound.

The album opens with a soft melancholy piano (‘Pretty Good Year’) and Tori’s soft vocals echo the introspective world of ‘Little Earthquakes’. Then, just as you think you’re back on familiar territory, Tori whips out the carpet from underneath you and launches into a powerful, stunning chorus, revealing her new, more aggressive sound. ‘Pretty Good Ye
ar’ wistfully describes life experiences with a longing for the simplicity of childhood.

In ‘God’ we hear Tori (the daughter of a preacher) expressing her frustration with religion and displaying her lyrical wit which is so often overlooked. A powerful track with more of a rock sound than is usually associated with Tori.
‘God sometimes you just don’t come through- do you need a woman to look after you?’

‘Bells for Her’ uses bare, skeletal instrumentation to create an eerie, haunting atmosphere as it describes a difficult friendship. Distorted piano chimes seem to evoke a chilling, icy Christmas and convey a sense of emotional fragility and vulnerability.

‘Past the Mission’ is a duet with (one of my favourite musicians) Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. Initially an unlikely pairing, but their voices blend together really well, both having a dark quality to them, making this a fantastic collaboration.

‘Baker, baker’ is a touching, emotional piano-ballad describing lost love. Tori’s soft vocals create an emotional intimacy with the listener while the song build to an emotional climax propelled by a luscious string orchestra.

‘The Wrong Band’ is a humorous account of the goings-on in a brothel. An oom-pah piano part accompanies Tori’s dark but sharp lyrics and provides a welcome contrast to the more melancholy tracks.
‘Ginger is always sincere, but not to one man. Senator, let’s be sincere, as much as you can.’

‘Waitress’ delves into the world of fantasy violence as Tori fantasises about murdering her co-worker in a dark and menacing but witty track.
‘I want to kill this waitress. She’s worked here a year longer than I. If I did it fast, you know that’s an act of kindness.’

‘Cornflake Girl’ is one of the most stunning tracks on the a
lbum and probably the most well known. It has a slight country feel to it and if a piano can be really funky, this is it! A fantastic blend of country and pop exploring being an outcast and the injuries that women inflict upon each other.
“Never was a cornflake girl, Thought that was a good solution hanging with the raisin girls’

‘Icicle’ strips away everything, leaving only Tori’s voice and her piano, allowing you to focus entirely on the naked emotion in her voice and her poetic lyrics. A haunting track dealing with religion and masturbation (I can’t think of any other songwriters who’d have the nerve to tackle both those subjects in one song!)
“And when they say take of his body, I think I’ll take of mine instead.”

‘Cloud on my Tongue’ is an exquisite, tender piano ballad and illustrates everything that is fantastic about Tori Amos’ music: the ability to create an emotionally powerful song that is incredibly original and subtle at the same time, building masterfully to an intense climax.
“Got a cloud sleeping on my tongue. He goes, then it goes and kiss the violets as they’re waking up. Leave me with your Borneo, leave me the way I was before.”

‘Space Dog’ begins with a menacing thumping bass which sounds very Nine Inch Nails before moving suddenly into a piano and vocal break which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Joni Mitchell album.

The album closer ‘Yes, Anastasia’ is a 9 minute epic inspired by Anastasia Romanov, allowing Tori to display her skill on the piano as well as her songwriting ability.
“Girls, girls, what have we done to ourselves?”

‘Under The Pink’ is a fantastically focused and crafted album, proving that the success of ‘Little Earthquakes’ was not a one-off. While it is possibly not as instantly accessible as its predecessor,
it is more complex and emotionally intense. It is not an easy listen and requires you, as a listener, to give a lot of yourself and something tells me that this is music that speaks exclusively to women. Despite the intense emotional content of the songs, Tori never loses sight of the need for a catchy tune, and while her music reveals her musical intelligence it never crosses the boundary into boring pretension, but reveals something new with each listen. Tori Amos’ fearless emotionally raw approach is a rare quality in modern music and her eccentricity ensures that ‘Under the Pink’ still sounds as fresh and original today as it did on its release.

Summary: