Tori Amos
Little Earthquakes

THE REVIEW

When a TV presenter once asked Tori Amos to define her music in a few words, she responded by saying: "It's very similar to a mixture of hot peppers and vanilla yogurt". Perhaps this is precisely the most fitting, simplest, and truest definition the red-headed singer-songwriter from North Carolina could express regarding her music.

It's 1992, Myra Ellen, daughter of a Methodist pastor and a woman of Cherokee descent, after having experienced an unhappy and discouraging recording experience years before (produced by "Atlantic Records") with her first band, Y Kant Tori Read, disillusioned and disappointed with the music world, decides to leave the band and start writing something more personal, more intimate at the piano. With the help of her artistic producer and boyfriend Eric Rosse, Tori (stage name she will use from then on) shuts herself in the studio and begins to record a series of songs, played only with the accompaniment of her faithful piano, then overdubbed and enriched with other instruments. Fundamentally, however, the structure of these songs is designed solely for a piano and voice line, which chase each other, caress each other, flee, and find each other again: "Little Earthquakes" is gradually being born.

After months of work, Tori and Eric let Atlantic listen to the album, which reacted somewhat critically, defining the music as a bit too quirky and not very suitable for the American market, but rather for the European and particularly the British market. Indeed, it is in England that Atlantic decides to send Tori and her "Little Earthquakes" to test the reception with the public. However, it didn’t take long to radically disprove Atlantic's initial doubts: Tori became a true idol in London venues, and everyone talks about this girl at the piano and her songs. On January 13, 1992, "Little Earthquakes" is released in England, and a month later in America. Any uncertainty on the part of the record company quickly dissolves because the album is a huge success (it will sell about 2.5 million records). Tori Amos is born, "Little Earthquakes" is born, an album with a fresh, innovative sound, rich with themes of great social importance and lyrics able to leave even the most skeptical music critics speechless. Religion, the female world, love, and sexuality are some of the themes around which "Little Earthquakes" revolves.

The album opens with "Crucify", the single that introduces Amos to the world and earns her the title of "most promising singer-songwriter of the '90s". It’s a song about religion ("I crucify myself every day/ I crucify myself and nothing I do is good enough for you/") and being often slaves to it: it’s a song with strong content and that immediately stirs some controversy. It is followed by the beautiful "Girl", a song with a pop flavor, characterized by minor chords that give more depth and drama to the piece. Then comes the sweet "Silent All These Years", the first single released in 1991 and one of the most tender and moving songs on the album, capable of dragging the listener and leaving them suspended between heaven and earth. The piano and strings are the only instruments present, and everything is enriched by Tori's own choruses, which, like a thousand voices chasing each other, seem to draw melodies suspended in the air. "Precious Things" is instead one of the most rock tracks of the album: piano, drums, bass, and distorted guitar; there’s a reference in the lyrics to one of Tori's favorite bands, Nine Inch Nails, whom she will often cite in her future compositions. It follows the story of a father and daughter (a clearly autobiographical song) who must learn to grow up and stand on their own: the fantastic "Winter", one of the album's deepest pieces, with a load of pathos and masterful interpretation capable of drawing some sincere tears down one's face. And here comes a fairly cheerful track "The Happy Phantom": it seems like a kind of interlude, a "sorbet", very charming and played with great finesse and a jazzy feel.

Following "China", a pop ballad not as beautiful as the rest of the songs on this album but ultimately convincing, "Leather", a very sensual and catchy track, and "Mother", a very intimate, heartfelt song with a very profound and surely moving text. The tracks that close the album are "Tear In Your Hand" with its pop groove and an easy to remember piano riff, "Me & A Gun", the rawest and saddest track of the entire album, whose theme is sexual abuse (which Tori herself suffered years before). The singer-songwriter herself would confess a few years later to being raped and having written this song thanks to seeing a film that touched her particularly: "Thelma & Louise". The last track is "Little Earthquakes", a song in the style of Kate Bush. African percussions, ethnic sounds, and a slow yet dragging rhythm make this last track a true absolute gem.

"Little Earthquakes" is, in short, an innovative album for the '90s, a brave album, an open diary, stories that speak of daily life, fragments of emotions experienced by Tori herself, who, through the fusion of her voice with the piano, manages to give us true jewels, making this album a true masterpiece of modern music.