the POLL's in circles and circles and circles again: tori amos - 'under the pink' poll

Oh yeah I forgot about "Bachelorette" and esp. "Purple People"! I don't actually have "Siren" at the mo. What is "Mountain"?

"mountain" is the song that was only available on the website you could only access with the scarlet's walk cd. i never did bother checking the site out! it's better than half the album, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVvMLzuafU

"siren"! http://www.sendspace.com/file/mxrt8q everyone should d/l it, what an incredible song.

Lex did you ever hear her "Smells Like Teen Spirit"?

yes! i really like it, even though i have basically no time for the original.

Ha i thought so!

My favourite cover though is "A Case Of You" I think - not flashy, but she gets it so intuitively right, right down to the tiniest nuances of phrasing, like the way she sings "you said, 'I am as contant as a northern star', and I said..." ever so slightly slower than the original, such that instead of Joni's suggestion of defensiveness it comes across as some kind of declamation - and then she sings "constantly in the darkness" with this perfect wry chuckle at the back of her throat.

People tend to underestimate and/or forget to draw attention to the subtlety of vocal performance at work.

that's one i'm not sure i've ever heard!

yeah, she's a great interpretative artist - cf her conscious springsteen imitation on "i'm on fire" which highlights how the song is a pose, without losing any of its emotion. and i guess we'll cross the strange little girls bridge when we come to it...

Lex, "A Case Of You":

http://www.sendspace.com/file/s7hyx0

thx tim. i love the liberties she takes with original tracks, and how she frames them as perfectly natural - here, when she gasps "my blood - my holy wine - you taste so bitter and so sweet", revelling in the addiction where joni maintains at least a slight air of detachment.

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

Cornflake Girl 1

ha!

"cloud on my tongue" got jobbed but this had the correct winner.

Cornflake Girl 1

This was me.

goddamn am I bummed I missed this. i'm with anagram -- this is her strongest record top-to-bottom. can't understand at all how this could disappoint after Little Earthquakes other than maybe there's nothing as singl-y as "Silent All These Years" and "Crucify"?

I probably would have voted "Yes, Anastasia," and I'm happy to discover that everyone loves "Pretty Good Year" and "God" as much as I do, but "Past The Mission" and "Cloud On My Tongue" definitely got a raw deal here. Dunno tho... I think the only track I couldn't see myself voting for would be "Bells for Her"...

one vote for cornflake girl is pretty lol

This album is amazing, can't believe I slept on it so long. She covers a lot of ground but executes it all so well - I don't think there's a weak track here.

"The Waitress" reminds me a lot of 90s Nine Inch Nails and would have come out around the time of Downward Spiral, to the point where I thought maybe he had influenced her or vice versa. I couldn't find anything where she talked about it, but in the process discovered Reznor sang backup vocals on "Past the Mission"! Neat little coincidence