lambchops's Full Review: Boys For Pele by Tori Amos
After years in the industry, Tori Amos still rests by her on choosing between the mainstream and the underground. Her piano-driven opuses appeal to a largely female audience—many of which have suffered her same hardships. Maybe my emotionally strife-free life is what makes it difficult to consistently connect to Amos on that level. There’s little question that the ethereal North Carolina native possesses an incredible amount of talent, but on albums like Boys For Pele I am forced to question her direction and genuine appeal.
Amos has in the past managed a few outstanding albums. They are clearly defined when looking at her career—Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink are clearly her best material. There are other albums that lack the special spark that made those such intimate affairs. The songs might still be outstanding, but it seemed for whatever reason that Amos was reaching a bit too far—From The Choirgirl Hotel and Scarlet’s Walk are of this variety. Finally, there is another wholly strange bunch of albums where Amos successfully stretches herself. Strangely enough, I am most fond of her when she’s covering other artists on Strange Little Girls and Crucify (among other briefer works).
Boys For Pele fits in to the second mentioned category above. It is by no means a horrid album, but it’s also not as fascinating as my favorite Amos material. Released in early 1996, the album is both too long (over seventy minutes) and too challenging. Her lyrics, as usual, tend toward the obscure and unidentifiable. I’m fine with that fact, but when paired with mostly unremarkable arrangements I find myself troubled by the entire outing. I want to love Boys For Pele, but Amos in an effort to try new things left behind the elements that made her first two releases so incredible.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Boys For Pele is it’s almost complete lack of remarkable moments. As listeners we are accustomed to the equivalence of aural filet mignon on fine bone china from Amos—instead we are handed ground chuck on a soggy paper plate. Needless to say, I am unimpressed by the effort. In culling through the eighteen songs, I find myself increasingly troubled by the album’s music direction. However unhappy I am with the work on the whole, I can find it in my heart to choose a few favorites. They should come as no surprise to folks.
Caught A Lite Sneeze, Hey Jupiter, Professional Widow, and In The Springtime of His Voodoo are in order my favorite songs here. Of course, considering that there are fourteen more it’s a shame I couldn’t come up with more positive to talk about. In any case, this is certainly not the proper place to start a relationship with Tori’s music (unless of course you don’t intend on continuing forward).
From the start of Boys For Pele, I am perplexed. The split first track of Beauty Queen and Horses is abrupt. Neither song seems to be a complete vision nor do they even blend neatly from one to the next. Basically it feels as though Beauty Queen was accidentally inserted into the mix—though it was not. Blood Roses however is one of the worst things about Tori’s third effort. The electronic harpsichord is sharp and painful. It seriously cripples a song that may or may not have been otherwise excellent.
It takes until Professional Widow for me to feel any appreciation for this disc. And quite honestly after being bashed over the head for fifteen minutes, by crap the appeal of the song is seriously hindered. It is loud, it is bold, and it is brash. It’s also atypical “Tori” in the instrumentation. One unacceptably bizarre and one number pass before the best song of the entire album appears.
Caught a Lite Sneeze was without question the biggest hit of Boys For Pele. The reason is simple enough—it is slightly funky but also darkly beautiful. While not as intimate as I like my Tori, it does have a lovely melody with her unique voice neatly layered atop. I like it—and, for that matter, it’s worth skipping ahead to check out. In trying to assess the lyrics, I’ll just say that I refuse to believe they are profound in any way. They are merely “strange” which isn’t good or bad.
Continuing on for a few more songs Tori returns to her piano on Hey Jupiter. This return to form is refreshing especially when it is smashed between the lackluster Muhammad My Friend and Way Down. In any case, the light ballad marks an impressive high point of a largely unimpressive album.
As Boy For Pele digresses, I can’t help but feel violated by most of the songs—Talula not only lacks character but is also strikingly ugly with more shrill electronic harpsichords and Not The Red Baron and Agent Orange are mercifully short but have no particular place on this album. Doughnut Song is a slight reprieve from the overall nasty nature of this album.
Tori’s third album thankfully winds down with a trio of songs. The first, In The Springtime of His Voodoo is a strange beast. At first, it is offensive and crazed but on subsequent listens I’ve come to appreciate the fact that Tori was trying something different—and for once it proved successful. However I can’t say the same thing for Putting the Damage On and Twinkle.
I am not impressed by Boys For Pele. I am not impressed by Tori’s cockamamie ideas, lyrics, and melodies. I do not appreciate the superfluous length of the album. Truthfully, aside from a handful of songs I have no particular use for this disc. In listening to it time and time again I have yet to really latch on to locate the emotion that pervaded most of her other work. Basically, this feels like a detached artsy-fartsy thing meant to separate Amos’s real fans from her faux fans.
My suggestion? Stick to Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink. They are incredible albums. Heck, buy any of her other outings before even considering Boys For Pele.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Beauty Queen/Horses
02. Blood Roses
03. Father Lucifer
04. Professional Widow
05. Mr. Zebra
06. Marianne
07. Caught a Lite Sneeze
08. Muhammad My Friend
09. Hey Jupiter
10. Way Down
11. Little Amsterdam
12. Talula
13. Not The Red Baron
14. Agent Orange
15. Doughnut Song
16. In The Springtime of His Voodoo
17. Putting The Damage On
18. Twinkle
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