Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Track List:
Crucify
Girl
Silent All These Years
Precious Things
Winter
Happy Phantom
China
Leather
Mother
Tear in Your Hand
Me and a Gun
Little Earthquakes
Smells Like Teen Spirit
My friend had been suggesting this album since he heard about my project of listening to an album daily. I’ve been a bit meh on it. This past week I heard her version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. I enjoyed it enough to make this my choice for today. One thing that I don’t like about albums that I know the person who suggested it really loves is that I don’t know how I will feel about the album or if I will hear the same things. I don’t recall hearing any of the songs on this album before.
Crucify
The lyrics seem to describe her contemplating why people, specifically herself, are so critical of themselves to the point of self loathing. I would also assume that she comes from a background of heavy religious influence given this is the start of her first album. The song was very polished.
Girl
I really like her voice, and it sounds great with the slight reverb. Noticed the strings. A story of a woman who has spent her life trying to please others and the hope that one day she will not have to be subservient.
Silent All These Years
I think that the verses of this song were perhaps borrowed by Kings of Leon in the song The Bucket. The song seems to describe her assessing her life and realizing that a lot of her relationships suffer from poor communication.
Precious Things
A coming of age story of a girl growing into womanhood and dealing with a belief system that oppresses her for being herself and feeling out of place. Out of the first third of the album this is my favorite so far, it feels much less polished than Crucify and personal along the same lines as Silent All These Years.
Winter
I think these are synth strings. The instrumentation is great, her voice is really well highlighted, the production is fantastic. I think that this is her recalling her father’s support when she was younger.
Happy Phantom
I enjoyed this song. It's jaunty. It seems to be about living for the moment and being flexible.
China
This song uses a metaphor of physical distance for examining distance between partners in a relationship. I am also reminded of Concrete Blonde with this song, the airy female lead specifically.
Leather
Perhaps a song about her not enjoying meaning casual encounters? Or perhaps she wants more from the encounter. Not sure.
Mother
I think this is a song where she is describing a relationship of a mother helping her daughter grow out of childhood and enter adulthood with warnings about the inherent patriarchy in society.
Tear in Your Hand
The piano over the chorus plays a very similar riff as the one that is sung in Silent All These Years that reminded me of the Kings of Leon song. It’s a song about being broken up with.
Me and a Gun
It’s just her singing. She is describing betting raped in a car under threat of violence. I am going to take a small break and will return. Damn.
Little Earthquakes
Another song where she explores interpersonal relationships and how small conflicts (little earthquakes) can cause massive rifts in relationships resulting in social networking failures. The observation is probably more apt today given our current interconnected society.
That was an experience
Wow, just wow. There were some polished songs but most were quite raw. Which was a stylistic choice I believe. I feel like she was still working to discover herself as a solo artist here. I do not know what work she had before but the experience in the songs tell me she was part of a group or something and had some life experience. I believe Amos is credited for every song and these songs weren’t written by a teenager. This album makes me want to hug my kids. There is a lot of observation and reflection on familial relationships here as well as romantic relationships. There was also a lot of exploration by Amos and I would expect that her subsequent albums are a little more directed. That was good.
