Messing with the Master: Tori Amos

In terms of narrative, composition and sheer scope as a record, Boys for Pele is one of the most audacious “pop” records to come out of the 1990s. Make no mistake: despite its twisty narrative, mysteriously confrontational lyrics and non-traditional take on song structure, Pele was a considerable mainstream success, selling more than 2 million copies worldwide and going platinum in the United States. Part harrowing journey into dar...

“I think the thing that just astounds me about Tori is that she can take a bit of something like a melody or harmonic sequence for some of these pieces that were the inspiration and create something truly her own, showing how truly powerful her own creative stamp is. I think of Night of Hunters as a 70-minute song with 30 pieces of music held together by 13 sets of interlocking lyrics. Now that’s composing!

Tori was able to keep th...

With Strange Little Girls, Tori Amos approached the covers album as concept album, offering reinterpretations of 12 diverse male-authored tracks from the perspectives of an assortment of female characters. The project was inspired originally by by the homophobic and misogynistic messages which Amos believed to be prevalent in popular song at the beginning of the 21st century.

“People were talking to me about how popular music was g...

As she turned 50 in the spotlight, Tori Amos’ 2014 album Unrepentant Geraldines dropped and was greeted with headlines trumpeting the singer-songwriter’s “return to form” and “comeback”. But here’s the kicker: she never went anywhere.

Although she had written a musical for the stage (The Light Princess, 2013), and composed a 21st century song cycle (Night of Hunters, 2011), Unrepentant Geraldines was Amos’ first record of entirely ...

Content warning: this episode discusses pregnancy and child loss. Please take care while listening.

On this week's episode, we book a round trip ticket To Venus and Back. Tori's surprisingly prompt follow -up to 1998's From the Choirgirl Hotel. After an epic world tour, Tori had implied that she'd be taking a break from recording for a while and planned to release a live album with a few new bonus tracks. As Tori's want to do, tho...

Ever feel like just being someone else? With the regal and roaring opus American Doll Posse, Tori Amos gave her listeners permission – and a psychic road map – to become the characters who hide in plain sight in all of our brains; even the “character” of ourselves. With healthy doses of showmanship and flamboyance, American Doll Posse saw Amos sonically embracing a towering, modern production style tinged with classic and country r...

Content warning: this episode briefly discusses DV and suicide. Please take care while listening. 

“So what if you find you like to tango alone?" Tori Amos asks in the final moments of “Birthday Baby," the closing track of her 15th solo album Ocean to Ocean, released on October 21, 2021. An ode to the unexpected ways we collectively learned to both mourn and celebrate during the years-long isolation of the COVID-19 crisis, the song...

Content warning: this episode discusses SA. Please take care while listening. 

Objectively speaking, Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes is one of the all time great debut records. On the latest episode of Messing With The Master, Kristen, Matt and Joe lovingly look back and contextualize this seminal album, which laid down the foundation for the mythology of Tori and created a language all her own. The bracing new musical vocabulary of ...

Content warning: this episode discusses child and pregnancy loss. Please take care while listening. 

Tori Amos’ blazing fourth album From The Choirgirl Hotel claims a rightful place amongst legendary music by contemporaries such as Madonna, PJ Harvey, Hole, Beck and many others who released similarly iconic work in 1998. At a career high point, Amos intuitively plugged in a full band to achieve the record’s signature space-rock at...

In this episode, Joey, Kristen, and Matt discuss Tori Amos' 2005 album The Beekeper. They explore the intersection of The Beekeeper with Tori's book with Ann Powers, Piece by Piece, 2000s fashion, and Tori's last record with major record labels before her emancipation day.

Joey shares his track listing, focusing on the theme of betrayal. Kristen shares her track listing, a modern take on the 3 Marys, and Matt's track list is inspir...

Content warning: brief discussions of suicide. Please take care while listening. 

In this episode, Joey, Kristen, and Matt discuss Tori Amos' 2009 album 'Abnormally Attracted to Sin'. They explore the background of the album, including Tori's independence from major record labels and her collaboration with John Philip Shenale.

The hosts also discuss the playfulness and dark themes present in the album, as well as the influence of T...

On this week’s episode of Messing with the Master, Matt, Joey, and Kristen travel to a (sonic) desert garden in Taos, New Mexico, to explore Tori's sophomore album Under the Pink. Joey explains how Tori Amos turned him gay, Matt recalls how a Drag Queen at the Gold Coast brought Tori into his life, and Kristen discusses being emotionally unavailable as the Heterosexual-in-Residence. Themes of queer identity, womanhood, betrayal, an...

Content warning: This episode includes discussions of SA, DV, suicide. Take care while listening. 

On this week’s episode of Messing with the Master, Kristen, Matt and Joey unpack the mystical complexities of Tori Amos’ 2017 gem, Native Invader, which chillingly encapsulates the doomsday tensions of the era in an atmospheric sonic snapshot of the personal, the political and the otherworldly.

The year prior to the album’s release s...

Three lifelong Tori Amos fans reflect on the iconic singer-songwriter’s catalog by thoughtfully and intentionally reorganizing each album into fresh playlists that explore Tori’s musical legacy as well their own interconnected personal narratives and friendship, which began with a shared passion for Tori’s music over 20 years ago. 

This week on the first episode of Messing with the Master, Joey, Kristen, and Matt are taking a sonic...