Boys For Pele East Orange NJ

Boys For Pele

Tori Amos

Atlantic Records, 1996

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/18/2005

Tori Amos's fanbase made Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink breakout hits. After Under The Pink, it seemed that Tori Amos fans would buyanything. Most all of the Tori fans I knew had at least one bootlegof her music; be it a concert or b-sides. However, that fanbaseactually showed some cracks and fissures after the release of Boys For Pele.

To hardcore Tori Amos fans, Boys For Pele was Tori Amos's The Wall; a gargantuan album, filled with big music and bigthemes. It was a long-ass album as well. Eighteen songs andclocking in at around 70 minutes, Boys For Pele was Tori Amos taking the ranks among the bigboys of rock as she released her own "epic" double-album.

To other fans, Boys For Pele was as close to a betrayal as an artist couldrelease to his or her fans. Gone were the stark, personable lyricsof Earthquakes and Pink, replaced with hugely abstract lyrics and "what thefuck was that?" arrangements, such as "In The Springtime Of HisVoodoo" and "Blood Roses."

While some of the songs were "out there," many still had vividimages to linger in your head from the first listen. You may notget what "Blood Roses" is about on the first or seventh listen, butwhen Amos sings in a trembling voice "chickens get a taste of yourmeat," you're stuck with that image for the rest of the night. "Inthe Springtime Of His Voodoo" is a much-needed pick me up duringthe last quarter of the album; after a few slow-paced songs, thelistener gets to hear one of Amos's most erotic songs: "Got anangry snatch / girls you know what I mean / when swivelin that hipdoesn't do the trick / me pureed sanitarily Mr. Sulu / warpspeed."