Abnormally Attracted to Sin

by

Tori Amos

Edit

Lots of people are moaning about this album on these pages. And I am honestly not sure why. Tori's voice sounds terrific, the lyrics are intelligent and the music is rich and melodious as well as interesting, colorful, and diverse. All on one CD clocking in at over 72 minutes! Who else bothers to do this these days - or can? I certainly don't want Tori to start kicking out 40 minute albums like every other recording "artist". She has more to offer and thankfully does so with a rare and rewarding consistency. Is the texting generation now so attention-span challenged to actually consider this a liability? Pitiful. And as for the ad-hominem attacks, they are utterly pointless and not worth rebuttal. I have every Tori Amos album and they are all excellent on their own terms. AAtS is no exception. In fact I have listened to it now for the 7th time in the 4 days since I bought it. So if you have found immersion in a Tori Amos record in the past a pleasing experience you should expect nothing less from this piece of work because the girl has still got it - in spades!

By now there must be a division of Tori Amos fans--the ones, like myself, who like her earlier work, and the ones who like what she has done over the past decade. I'm sure there are die-hard fans like myself who subject themselves to everything Amos, and who might be lulled into a comfortable coma that feels (on the surface) blissful, but then the inability to come to sets in.

"Abnormally Attracted To Sin" carries on the Amos tradition set forth by "Strange Little Girls" back in 2001. Slick production, that also sounds flat and bland--like it was made behind a wall. Amos's clever and wry lyrics about the same old subjects--religion, sin, womanhood, etc. Plus her inimitable vocals which don't reach the dizzying heights of her earlier work anymore. She sounds like she's been taking Valium for the past decade, lazily churning her own butter, far from the taste buds of her adoring fans.

There's nothing here to get excited about. The songs come and go with no particular track standing out. This is just like her last three albums, and what's strange is she jumped record labels only to make the same album for a fourth time in a row. All of her albums this decade have been overstuffed (can Amos actually make a 40 minute album? She seems musically challenged to do so).

"Welcome To England" is a mediocre first choice as a single. What's she singing about? I don't know, I fell asleep already. To her credit, I liked "Give", "Maybe California", "500 Miles", and well, all the songs are just fine, really. That's the problem--there's nothing compelling or gripping here. Amos is supposed to represent intensity, originality, experimentation. All gone. It all died after "To Venus And Back" in 1999. Amos has gone through a longer blue period than Elton John.

Wake up and smell the coffee, Amos. Oh wait, that's all you've been doing for the past decade, because it's the only place your music has been heard--at Starbucks across the U.S. I expect more from you. I want my money's worth. Surprise me next time.

Here's how "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" compares to her other work:

1992 Little Earthquakes: Five Stars

1994 Under The Pink: Five Stars

1996 Boys For Pele: Five Stars

1998 From The Choirgirl Hotel: Five Stars

1999 To Venus And Back: Four Stars

2001 Strange Little Girls: Two Stars

2002 Scarlet's Walk: Three Stars

2005 The Beekeeper: Three and a Half Stars

2007 American Doll Posse: Three and a Half Stars

2009 Abnormally Attracted To Sin: Three Stars