"Tori Amos' covers will make you forget the original song."
Tori Amos is quite simply a wonderful musician. Her music comes from the heart, she truly uses her voice like an instrument, and her singing just melts me. Because I highly respect Tori musically, I enjoy hearing covers that reveal her own musical qualities and her distinctive revision of songs she likes. "Angie," a song from the Rolling Stones' more decadent days, is tremendously beautiful with the implicit intimacy of Tori's effortless singing. Great piano arrangements too. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is truly radical compared to the original. Instead of Kurt Cobain's loud, crass delivery with ringing guitars and pounding drums, Tori sits down at the piano and sings it quietly and beautifully. Finally, Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" gets the Tori-treatment. The piano is achingly good here, and Tori's voice...well, its awfully pretty. Funny how I've never really loved Led Zeppelin, but covers of Led Zeppelin songs are almost always excellent.
The EP version of "Crucify" is, in my opinion, superior to the album version. Although this one is shorter and lacks some of the piano flourishes of the "real" version, I think this is a more compelling arrangement, with the added guitars. The EP version of "Winter" is unchanged, which is fine, because you shouldn't mess with perfection.
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