out of a poll, into my bayou: a To Venus and Back poll (just the first disc)

her last album before she apparently lost the ability to edit herself?

(i guess you could say that about 'pele' too but i like its sprawl, whereas i can't sit through 'scarlet's walk' or 'the beekeeper' at all)

It seems odd to say but I might choose "Spring Haze" actually.

probably the most underrated of hers - i love this front to back, really. the production throughout is incredible. i'm really into "suede" right now, thanks to finding this bizarre live performance which pretty much reveals it as proto-chillwave, lol. s0 ahead of her time. i remember when kid a came out the following year and just shaking my head at the plaudits radiohead got for being "experimental" when critics had pretty much entirely ignored what tori had done the year before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YNCS9DLsZg

it's probably bookended by the two strongest songs qua songs - the way the piano and electronics interact on "bliss" is so creepy-alluring, and "1000 oceans" might actually be one of her best traditional ballads, like, in an alternate universe you could imagine it being an x factor standard. the synth hook on "riot poof" really should have gained some club mileage somewhere. "datura" is as far out as she's ever gone. i think i might go for "juárez" though - such an incredibly deep groove (that bass!) but one that's as creepy as she intended, those industrial beats mutilating the snatches of piano. when she played it live, she did this weird thing where she reached inside the piano and directly plucked the strings, while bashing on the side of it for the rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ophEEOSTzEU

"riot poof", though, just for that incredible THE SUN IS WARMING / MY MAN IS MOISTENING section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ_iaJ3-iVM

relistening now - i get the impression that "glory of the 80s" is a song that lady gaga would have loved to have written

She lost me here with "Bleece". Considering all the ridiculous criticisms that are labelled at Kate Bush II, the one, the only thing about Tori that is completely indefensible is the latter day bizarro pronunciation. Aside from that, Pele + Choirgirl (+ b-sides) + this first disc, they are so great to go back to. I voted "Glory Of The 80s"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

entered the phase of my life where i start to think this is the tori amos masterpiece

Lex's comment upthread about "Glory of the 80s" being a song Gaga probably wishes she wrote is OTM.

I otherwise don't feel like I connect strongly with the presentation of this album as Tori's most experimental / out there / texturally impressive album - or rather, that framing doesn't appeal to me as much as it might have 2 decades ago.

I mean, at some objective level it's true that on here (or at least, here together with FTCH) her arrangements reached peak density and wandered furthest away from the piano balladry template (with a few exceptions). But what does that mean?

As I get older the more comfortable I feel in declaring that Tori's key gift is a melodicist. Specifically, the incredible, intuitive interplay between these strongly melodic vocal top lines and then these roaming, intricate arrangements. One way to think about the first 10 years of her recorded work is her working to expand what that interplay can mean or how it can operate beyond straight reliance on her piano prowess (i.e. the template established by tunes like "Precious Things" and "Mother").

But it's not straightforwardly the case that the more outre the arrangements become the more interesting or powerful the results, at least for me - i.e. my favourite song and production number on FTCH is "Liquid Diamonds", though its expansion of the template is more subtle than, say, "Iiieee" or "Hotel" (other favourites of mine).

Perversely, following my own line of thinking above leads me to confirm what also feels right to me, which is that Boys For Pele is my favourite of her albums: it doesn't have radio-ready hits per se, but it's the album that feels most packed to the gills, positively dripping with hooks; it's also where the relationship between her vocal lines and her piano (or harpsichord) playing was extended as far as possible while remaining centre stage.

To Venus & Back is very fun and endlessly interesting, but it feels like the album in her first run where that melodic sensibility is most obscured - the songs are still pretty and tuneful, and the arrangements are fantastic, but precisely because they're so topographically dense it's mostly only the vocals that rise to the top, as it were.

Oh it looks like i've made this general point before (albeit years ago).