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CD reviews

American Doll Posse

Tori Amos - American Doll Posse Audio CD

A fair review of the Tori Amos "American Doll Posse" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Tori Amos reviews here, or go back to the Tori Amos tabs.

Band: Tori Amos
Title: American Doll Posse
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-05-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Yo George 2: Big Wheel 3: Bouncing off Clouds 4: Teenage Hustling 5: Digital Ghost 6: You Can Bring Your Dog 7: Mr. Bad Man 8: Fat Slut 9: Girl Disappearing 10: Secret Spell 11: Devils and Gods 12: Body and Soul 13: Father's Son 14: Programmable Soda 15: Code Red 16: Roosterspur Bridge 17: Beauty of Speed 18: Almost Rosey 19: Velvet Revolution 20: Dark Side of the Sun 21: Posse Bonus 22: Smokey Joe 23: Dragon

a lot of good songs get lost
:< I hate saying that, but I think a lot of people were turned off by its length. This is not my favourite Tori album, but it has some pretty amazing tracks that just get lost because there are too many. Key tracks: Beauty of Speed, Body and Soul, Code Red, Smokey Joe, Dragon, and Girl Disappearing were fantastic.

I salute to you, Tori, and I sneeze
Buy this one if you love rocker Tori, but if you can only bear to listen to her earlier work, this isn't the "comeback" you were expecting (except maybe Bouncing off Clouds, which sounds very similar to "Mother" except more rocker-esque). Overall, this was a pretty solid album. Here's the basic formula: take "She's your cocaine" and "Raspberry Swirl" and turn it into an album. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, it is.

My only problem with the album: there was a bit too much filler. The album didn't work as well as a concept album because it was too weighted by extra songs, even though some of them were good. What ever happened to the b-sides Tori? You know your fans love collecting them. Here's how I think the track list for the album should have looked:
1. Yo George 2. Big Wheel 3. Bouncing off Clouds 4. Teenage Hustling 5. Digital Ghost 6. Girl Disappearing 7. Mr. Bad Man 8. Devils and Gods 9. Body and Soul 10. Father's Son 11. Dark Side of the Sun 12. Beauty of Speed 13. Almost Rosey 14. Dragon

Then she could have turned the rest of the album into 3 singles.
First, she could have the Big Wheel EP: 1. Big Wheel 2. Yo George 3. Fat Slut 4. You Can Bring Your Dog 5. Velvet Revolution
Then, she could have the Bouncing off Clouds EP: 1. Bouncing off Clouds 2. Code Red 3. Roosterspur Bridge 4. Programmable Soda 5. Secret Spell
Then, the Almost Rosey EP: 1. Almost Rosey 2. Smokey Joe 3. My Posse Can Do 4. Miracle 5. Drove All Night
She could have also released Posse Bonus as an iTunes single, but I don't care because it wasn't that good.

I think this would have made the album much less expensive, more cohesive, and give her fans something cool to collect. Just my two cents. .

The Epic Trilogy
While each of these sprawling double albums is conceptually-driven, each applies the concept of a concept in its own unique way. Tori Amos made three records for Epic, American Doll Posse being the third and second most ambitious of the trilogy.
On 2002's 'sonic novel' Scarlet's Walk, Amos takes on the persona of Scarlet, telling her stories through 18 delicately produced, nuanced songs, while on 2005's The Beekeeper, the concept is one I've still never wrapped my head around, involving three 'gardens' of songs and the ancient mysticism of beekeeping. While in terms of sheer musicianship, The Beekeeper holds some of Amos' strongest studio performances, it is overly long and consistently mild and by its nineteenth track, rendered a regrettably forgettable album in a catalog of arguably unforgettable albums.
2007's American Doll Posse flips this script, though not completely, as it is another 75+ minute opus exhibiting little of the editorially savvy that defined her 90's catalog. With Posse, Amos' conceptual element comes post production, employing five characters based on Greek mythological archetypes, each assigned her own designer wardrobe, wig and set of songs (even one called 'Tori'. )
Utilizing this concept, Amos has reasoned that she was able to pull together a set of songs that might not otherwise have worked as an album. While one could argue for and against this reasoning, what is plain is that Posse is Tori's most sonically diverse and rock-oriented record since 1999's To Venus and Back.
Working with her long-time studio band (Matt Chamberlain, Jon Evans, Mac Aladdin) and production team, (Mark Hawley & Marcel Van Limbeek,) Amos has fully realized a set of rock tunes unlike anything in her previous canon. Pro Tools is in full effect here; these tracks are cleanly rendered and edited within an inch of their lives, most being cut to the standard four minutes within just a few seconds.
There seems to be a radio friendly tune for each persona, 'Tori' singing the country-fried rocker "Big Wheel", with 'Clyde' taking on the Kate Bush-meets-The Cure European single "Bouncing off Clouds" and Santa singing the unmistakably autobiographical pep talk "Secret Spell". Meanwhile, Isabel takes the optimism-with-a-grain-of-salt "Almost Rosey" (featuring some lyrics that would do proud the singer songwriters of old) and Pip rips through the glam stomper "Teenage Hustling", which like "Secret Spell", takes a page from Tori's own world that no persona, no matter how glamorous the wig, could rightfully claim as her own.
Song for song, Posse is possibly Tori's best album in a long while. However, taken as an album, (even a double album, which it is. Remember those?) it is a lot to take in. What made the double album format work so well on vinyl, taking it 4-6 songs at a time, the CD format bulldozes the listener with an excess of information. If you can get this album on vinyl, I recommend it. Tori Amos is obviously still thinking in terms of vinyl, as Pip's wardrobe will attest.

What is this junk?
I distinctly remember the first time I heard "Crucify" in 1996, and how it changed my outlook on music forever. I, like many others here, have been a Tori fan for a long time. I LOVE all of Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink and From the Choirgirl Hotel, and about 75% of Boys for Pele, To Venus & Back, Scarlet's Walk, and I even enjoy half of Strange Little Girls.

Then The Beekeeper came out. And I wanted to like it, I really did! I tried. Some of the tracks are quite good, but others ("Cars & Guitars"? Oh GOD!) are embarrassingly awful. So I didn't rush out to buy American Doll Posse when it first came out.

When I did buy it, I was actually excited: the first few tracks had that Umph I was missing on Beekeeper. I played it a second time and was fairly happy. Then I realized something: I was only hearing the first four tracks. Four out of TWENTY-FRIGGIN-THREE. What was going on? I put it on in the car so I wouldn't wander off and it hit me: my brain was making me wander off so I wouldn't get hurt. The other tracks are painful. Tori's voice sounds like a dry gravel road and it just keeps going and going and going. I found myself skipping tracks and muttering "Oh, shut up. " ME! Saying "shut up" to Tori Amos! I played it all of seven times and haven't listened to it since. I don't care.

The cover is awful. The "poster" it came with makes my skin crawl. The album is long, self-indulgent, boring, dry, grating, and overall just SAD.

Instead of being excited about Abnormally Attracted to Sin, I've resigned myself to scouring eBay for the few rare singles and promos I'm still missing from Tori's early years. You know, back when her music was good.

What fun!
There's probably one song (posse bonus) that I won't listen to, but the rest of the songs I really like. I had to listent to it a few times, but it ADP really has grown on me. There's this air of cynicism that I like about many of these tracks. Also, the whole concept thing is kind of fun. It doesn't realy hold a candle to her older albums, but that's not really the point, is it? Overall, I'm very happy to own this album. .

You can see a complete list of all Tori Amos discography, or go back to the Tori Amos tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.