Strange Little Girls East Orange NJ

Strange Little Girls

Tori Amos

Atlantic Records, 2001

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/12/2001

Any time you're out of the public eye for a length of time,especially in the music business, returning to view is always adicey position. Will people remember who you are? Will your musicstill be in favor, or will the same people who sent your album tothe top of the charts write you off as living in the past?

It's been two years since Tori Amos released her last album To Venus And Back, a combination studio/live effort. Okay,maybe two years isn't a long time to be out of the public eye; askTom Scholz of Boston. But it's been 10 years since Amos came to theforefront with her groundbreaking effort Little Earthquakes, and people still seem to hold her tothat standard - myself included. I admit I lost interest in Amosafter Boys For Pele - never mind the fact I have To Venus And Back and From The Choirgirl Hotel in the Pierce Memorial Archives,still never listened to.

What's so intriguing, then, about Strange Little Girls, Amos's return to center stage, inwhich she dusts off 12 covers from male-led bands and gives them astrong dose of estrogen? After all, it's not the first time Amoshas focused her attention on cover-land; three-fifths of her EP Crucify from 1992 were covers.

Ah, but it's the way Amos attacks these songs, breaking themdown to their simplest elements (and, in some cases, taking thingsa little too far) and giving them a fresh voice. Strange Little Girls is not a perfect album, but it's gotmore than enough material to make me take a long second look atwhat Amos has been trying to accomplish with her music over thelast five years.