Tori Amos
Abnormally Attracted to Sin

I would say it's time to ask for explanations.

For a moment, I imagine being a professor, one of those types: those who can't do, teach, to whom a brilliant student presents another assignment upon request. I suppose I would say: "Miss (um, Mrs.) Amos, what's happening to you? Have you started going out with friends? Is there a boyfriend in the picture? This is certainly not the level I expect from a talented girl like you. I still remember how you amazed the entire institution with that paper on 'little earthquakes.' A few years ago, I would have bet on you blindly. But now? This work is absolutely colorless, impersonal, simply not worthy of you! And please don't start with the usual justifications, the explanations of why this or that happened. The philosophy colleague has told me several times that you are committed, sure, but she also mentioned that at that age, knowledge remains superficial. I admit I always paid little attention to what you wrote, but let me tell you that in the first years of the course, in how you were unbeatable! I don't know what's happening to you, but this work is bland, without intention, or passion. I have to give you a two, with great regret. You may go back to your seat."

Professors sometimes go overboard. Especially those fat and smelly ones who speak from desks encrusted with centuries-old boogers. But it's the truth, "Abnormally Attracted to Sin" says nothing, or better: it says very little. Sometimes it even repeats what has already been said ("Strong Black Vine" is too similar to "Little Amsterdam" just as Ophelia is a very faded attempt to return to the glories of "Marianne").

Thus, a 17-track thick fried air becomes even more indigestible.

Some glimpses of what Tori is capable of doing can be seen in "That Guy" and "500 miles", but it's really very little. I understand Tori Amos. Art is a too demanding companion. It doesn't care about children in tow and exceptionally endowed partners. It doesn't repay you if you don't give it one hundred percent of your heart and soul, if you don’t allow it to live an extraordinary life, light-years away from the most ordinary daily life.

I understand. And even if this album will soon disappear along with the latest products (mind you: PRODUCTS) of the Redhead, I will continue to love her because I know there is a place where Tori Amos is unreachable: the stage.

Rating: **/*****

If there is something that absolutely must be recognized about Amos it is the absolute tenacity in following paths and roads that by now everyone (from fans to specialized critics: not general critics, to be honest, but probably, in this case, they don't count) has advised her in every way to abandon: the first among them is the choice to self-produce which in the last 6 years has led her to conceive (including this one) 4 concept albums (for better and also for worse) of oceanic dimensions: always on the edge between generosity and verbosity (that she, alone, cannot keep in check).

On the other hand, the Redhead has been telling us for years: she puts in her records everything she has produced in the interval elapsed since the previous work and "Abnormally Attracted to Sin" (the dominant theme of the concept this time is the "definition of success in interpersonal relationships") is no exception.

17 songs (plus a bonus track) spanning almost 80 minutes of music (in the DeLuxe version each song is accompanied by a "visualette") that once again present a stylistic inconsistency that risks ending up disorienting the listener (at least the distracted one).

Perhaps this is precisely Amos's main problem: refusing to start again from herself and the things she has built to embrace far too much around her (and not within her): thus it goes from the electro-British evolutions of the early '90s in "Give" to a bazaar of styles touching the classic Pop of "Welcome to England", the piano reminiscences from "Under the Pink" in "Curtain Call", the playful rhythms of "Fire to your Plain", the folk of "Fast Horse" (my favorite), the jazz of "Lady in Blue" and so on in a multitude of sound disguises that we should now be accustomed to.

High-level songs (even excellent like the aforementioned "Curtain Call" and "Fast Horse") are there but perhaps what I miss is Tori piano-voice accompanied by minimal arrangements that changed my life and that of many people on this poor globe: a return to simplicity is needed. Will she eventually satisfy me?

Sure, her ability (still at high levels) as an interpreter who saves many songs is there but not all, and some cuts wouldn't have been so "painful," but it is what it is, this record has its "catchy" dimension (as they say nowadays): if I had to consider her career "Abnormally Attracted to Sin" would be two and a half stars, if I had to consider the current state of Pop music the average would rise: I choose the Buddhist path...

Mo.

Rating:***/*****