Love the melody of Jamaica Inn, but so wish the song didn't have the line "The sexiest thing is trust." I think it's her all-time worst lyric... outside of the ones for Maybe California.
Beekeeper has such a bad rep, when it’s one of the most pleasant albums I can imagine listening to. So gorgeous to put on and just chill out to. I know at the time a lot of fans wanted BFP Tori back but The Beekeeper is a completely worthy entry in her catalogue. After the concepts of SLG and SW, Beekeeper touches on subjects closer to home like her daughter, the death or near death of relatives, issues in her marriage... it’s relatively bouncy production is deceptive considering its content. I haven’t been a part of Tori forums in years but I hope it’s been reassessed. ADP deserves same reassessment for different reasons. Abnormally onwards has been the “worst” for me, despite nice moments on Hunters, and a general return to decent quality on the last two (though I don’t seek either album out). Gave Scarlet’s Walk a spin today and it remains probably my all-time favourite. Incredible album, and feels like it marries the best of her abilities into one simple, effective concept - the travel album. Your Cloud has been soothing me today.
I think the lyrics to Maybe California are really beautiful. It’s far from her best. Maybe it’s cause I love the song so much.
'Maybe California' suffers because her vocal is so weak on it, but then again I think her vocals on that whole album were overly compressed and sucked of any life.
The Beekeeper is a lovely light hearted middle of the road album about DEATH, BETRAYAL and AGING. It’s actually pretty dark stuff. I once asked Tori how she felt about it in hindsight and she said “well....I would’ve liked longer to work on that one but I had a deadline”. Apparently Epic wanted it out in the fall of 2004 but T pushed it back to February 2005 and still largely regards it as unfinished.
God there’s so much about AATS that I hate and I think “Maybe California” might just take the biscuit. It’s so “Tori-by-numbers”, almost like she’s trying so hard to write what is expected of her that she becomes a parody of herself. It’s so much better when she is genuinely inspired to be creative. The bulk of AATS all sounds very...forced.
1. From The Choirgirl Hotel 2. Boys For Pele 3. Scarlet’s Walk 4. Under the Pink 5. To Venus And Back 6. Little Earthquakes 7. The Beekeeper 8. Native Invader 9. Unrepentant Geraldines 10. American Doll Posse 11. Night of Hunters 12. Strange Little Girls 13. Abnormally Attracted To Sin 14. Midwinter Graces 15. Gold Dust And that is the end of that discussion.
I think somebody proposed to have a rate in three parts because her discography is... not endless but quite. I hope it happens one day. Kate Bush would say Get Out of My House.
I've never run a rate before, so I don't think Tori's cavernous discography would be a smart starting point. But I'd be more than willing to help out someone else.
I’ve heard the odd Tori song through people posting them elsewhere and I wanna delve deeper into my alt-gay soul and I figured she deserves my attention, where should I start with her? Just jump into it chronologically? Happy for any recommendations of her more overlooked songs.
The first four/five albums are all considered classics, then after those the tracklists become longer and filler starts to pop up frequently. If you have the time I'd say to just go chronologically. My current top three is Black Dove, Talula and Winter, which are quite different from one another. Depending on what you like I can maybe guess what you might enjoy more.
Go with the first four albums in order (Eathquakes - Pink - Pele - Choirgirl). After that, take a breather and watch some of her 90s concerts on YouTube.
