MUSIC REVIEW: Tori Amos - From the Hotel Choirgirl

"Amazingly good."

This is certainly Tori Amos' most robust album, as it adopts an approach that fleshes out the roles of the other musicians. Tori's piano shines as always, but it's not always the driving instrument in the music (lots of guitar here). The compositions are more "rocking" and less florid, less delicate. The arrangements are denser and that is new to feature to Tori's sound, and yet because of her magical touch they preserve a very warm and human element that makes them so accessible. As always, vocals are superb: her effortless (but hardly lackadaisical) delivery is charming, visceral, and powerful, with semi-conscious phrasing and a semi-cool tone.

Tori's albums are always snapshots of where she is at the moment, and at this point she was obviously very intuitive emotionally. Her lyrical subject matter takes on staple Tori topics, but with particularly keen emotional expression. All her emphatic poetry is there, it's just slightly more obscure than Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink. However, the album is consistently excellent and proves to be extremely well rounded, both lyrically and musically. There's also considerable variety, including the requisite piano ballads "Jackie's Strength" and "Northern Lad" (two beautiful songs), the dance-inflected beats of "Raspberry Swirl," (virgin territory for Tori; a fun tune with a nice combination of wit and sass), and the hard-rocking "She's Your Cocaine" (complete with rumbling bass and quirky melotron). The album finishes notably strong (she often saves the best for last). With the final three tracks, Tori flexes her musical vocabulary and comes across as intelligent, classy, even adventurous.

From The Choirgirl Hotel is pleasantly unpredictable and makes for joyous listening. Boys For Pele sometimes feels heavy-handed and thick, and Under The Pink is a little inconsistent. As such, From The Choirgirl Hotel is Tori's best work since Little Earthquakes, but it has more variety and creative songcraft.