Tori Amos
Little Earthquakes

THE REVIEW

But where exactly have we run aground? We didn't want to live the lives of our mothers and grandmothers, and we almost succeeded.

But then what went wrong? The dating, the dating is what I need.

Maybe after 2000? Like the euro/lira exchange rate. VALUE HALVED?

The regression has been so slow that regaining ground today is almost impossible.

When the war SEEMS over, the "enemy" regains ground.

But in the end, aren't women their own worst enemies?

When we were getting exhausted to death for everything we had achieved, we were defeated once more.

Yet we believed in it, we did it, mixed, together without ever having to look over our shoulders.

In 1992 when this album came out, we were all by the sea talking, laughing, consoling each other with total carefreeness.

We talked about love, books, and albums. There was always a concert to go see, the summer was dotted with musical events, touring central Italy. Arezzo Wave, Ferrara sotto le stelle, il Violino e la Selce, Frequenze disturbate.

We women were represented by warriors like Tori Amos and PJ Harvey. Raw, tough, and determined to revolutionize history. The girls rocked, one with the guitar and the other thrashing on the piano.

Tori Amos is not just a genius of music but writes and interprets a cultural and social manifesto with Little Earthquakes. Her music contains her life marked by many satisfactions but also much violence. The end of a pregnancy, the end of a love, and also the violence which in the end you even feel guilty about.

The album is long, challenging, not my favorite perhaps but a true manifesto of passion and reflection. The themes Tori Amos discusses are grand in a mix of pure feeling. In "Crucify" seemingly pop, she talks about the relationship with a man and with religion, and here's Girl speaking to us young warrior girls always in between the dark and the light. Then come the "Precious Things," live gives chills down the spine for that speed of sound and passion. What are the precious things to keep guarded within? The red-haired priestess of sound explains and teaches us. Then she talks to men in "Leather" (you just want to take my sex). And here come the imperious "Little Earthquakes" of adjustment. Sometimes imperceptible but powerful within the soul, without them how could we settle emotions and turn the page?

I now listen again to "mother," with which I close this analysis. "Circus girl without the net" that's what I am—a woman who always flew without a safety net and got very hurt.

Music is therapy and sweetness and especially answers and empathy. Tori Amos cares about maternity more than anything else; there is no greater joy or pain in a woman's heart and mind.

The world I see from the window doesn't please me, this isn't what we wanted for the new warriors of the future. Nature will know how to set things right as always.