Tori Amos
Under the Pink

Perhaps this time it will be difficult to find the words to translate emotions and images from listening to an album like this. That's because between sweet Tori and every person who loves her music, a unique, direct, intimate relationship is created, like with an old friend with whom you feel perfectly at ease, with whom you can share strong emotions. Under the Pink is her second work which in 1994, launched by the single “Cornflake Girl,” allowed her to reach the music Olympus, consecrating her as the "Goddess of Rock."

The listen of these 12 small pearls offers us, in the lyrics, a more mature girl compared to the romantic and dreamy one from Little Earthquakes, who, after having bared herself and shown "without veils," faces the world with more serenity, almost with irony in some songs ("God" and "Icicle" in particular) – probably a symptom of a light detachment with which she views the world and her life. From the musical point of view, what can I say: here we have the pinnacle of her songwriting skills. A collection of splendid songs, mixing a sound that is at times almost minimalist with complex piano and vocal arrangements. Everything that can spring from the voice of an angel, reaching unexplored heights, and from her faithful Bosendorfer, with which she maintains an almost carnal relationship; the rest, a pinch of rhythm section and violins. Just the essential. Because the rest is done by her magical hands and her melodic taste, resulting in songs that amaze with rhythm, time plays, and harmonies, but also with pure emotions for the listener, who can only fall in love again, and more and more, with each listen.

The album opens with the excellent “Pretty Good Year” and “God,” the launch single in the USA, which stopped at 12th place on the charts. Sometimes acidic, sometimes melodic sounds, I would say “Celtic” at times, a polyhedric song with a particularly interesting text, where she manifests an almost physical confrontation with God: “God, sometimes you just don't come through Do you need a woman to look after you” “Bells For Her” is perhaps the most evocative song, like an old sad nursery rhyme whispered on a handful of distant notes. It follows with “Past the Mission,” with bizarre timing but a very melodic cut, especially in the chorus where there is a cameo by Trent Reznor (one of her best friends at the time, and perhaps something more...); followed by the splendid “Baker Baker,” a song about a finished love that is impossible not to be moved by, with a very high emotional impact. Light influences of cabaret and electronics respectively in “The Wrong Band” and “The Waitress,” where Tori flaunts all the power of her voice in the chorus, proving to have truly divine blood in her veins. The well-known “Cornflake Girl” (n#1 in the UK) is a song with a genius piano riff and exquisite arrangement, almost a synthesis of her lyrics. Following are the two splendid ballads “Icicle” and “Cloud On My Tongue,” the first of these at the same time restless and ironic... “And when my hand touches myself I can finally rest my head And when they say "take of his body” I think I'll take from mine instead”
The album closes with “Space Dog,” the most rock song (along with God) and the enigmatic “Yes, Anastacia,” a long “epic” ballad dedicated to a Russian princess from the early 1900s, a cryptic symphonic poem.

In conclusion, a Tori Amos at the peak of creativity, in her most personal and mature work. And also the most beautiful in my opinion, because the Tori of “From the Choirgirl Hotel” (which remains nevertheless an absolute masterpiece), is objectively helped by a high-quality production. Sweet little Goddess, we await your true return with eagerness...