Content warning: this episode discusses pregnancy and child loss. Please take care while listening.

On this week's episode, we book a round trip ticket To Venus and Back. Tori's surprisingly prompt follow -up to 1998's From the Choirgirl Hotel. After an epic world tour, Tori had implied that she'd be taking a break from recording for a while and planned to release a live album with a few new bonus tracks. As Tori's want to do, those bonus tracks developed into a full -blown 11 -track album with a bonus live disc that was released on September 21st, 1999, my 17th birthday. Thank you very much.

To Venus and Back is deeply beloved by fans and for good reason. It shows Tori and her band, Matt Chamberlain on drums, Jon Evans on bass, and Steve Caton on guitars at the height of their ensemble powers, and Tori at her most sonically experimental. As Tori herself once instructed, if it's too loud, turn it up. And that's precisely what she does on To Venus and Back.

The songs feel like an organic extension of the Choirgirl sound, but to say they sounded all similar to one another would be listener malpractice. Venus occupies a sonic space that is truly unlike anything Tori has done up to that point or has done since. The mixing, the engineering, the drum looping, the vocal distortions, the manipulation of the Bosendorfer, the introduction of new and strange synthesizer samples.

Every singular moment is its own dynamic piece of a dark, twisty, truly otherworldly puzzle that Tori has constructed with this record. It's cliche to say it was ahead of its time in 1999, but given how fresh and bold and immersive it sounds in the year of Our Lord 2024, no one would argue that Tori truly wrote, performed, and produced a collection of songs that pushed not only her own boundaries, but the boundaries of her listeners.

Perhaps Tori summed it up best herself in the lyric from Spring Haze when she instructs us that quote, the only way out is to go so far in. So join us as we break the terror of the urban spell.

• JV playlist
• KK playlist
• MM playlist

Ever feel like just being someone else? With the regal and roaring opus American Doll Posse, Tori Amos gave her listeners permission – and a psychic road map – to become the characters who hide in plain sight in all of our brains; even the “character” of ourselves. With healthy doses of showmanship and flamboyance, American Doll Posse saw Amos sonically embracing a towering, modern production style tinged with classic and country rock elements. No stranger to being a sonic character actress exploring roles, ADP’s real gag was stunningly Cindy Sherman-esque: Amos would manifest her characters in a new way, by literally becoming four distinct women who each represented aspects of her own personality. Enter Clyde, Isabel, Pip and Santa -aka the Posse. Taking a page from David Bowie’s glittery glam rock opera playbook, not only would Amos portray the characters in song and for the album’s still photography, she would also be portraying them -and performing as them- in full costume nightly at her live shows. 🤯🤯🤯 While she may have fully disappeared into each character, the moment you realize Tori Amos is also playing “Tori Amos” as a character in a sequined American Flag jumpsuit, the winking concept clicks, and every lighter in the arena goes up in the air. While each of the Posse gals gets their moment in the spotlight, the overall through line of the ambitious ADP is unity, strength in numbers, as five powerful women band together to deliver a ferociously righteous rock and roll sermon about how the patriarchy needs a good old-fashioned slap across the fucking face. Dontchu for-get to join Kristen, Matt and Joey to take a closer look at one of the most audacious records and eras of Tori’s career. Hold onto your wigs, and strap in tight for the wild ride of Messing With The Master, American Doll Posse. This one’s for the MILFs.

Content warning: this episode briefly discusses DV and suicide. Please take care while listening.

“So what if you find you like to tango alone?" Tori Amos asks in the final moments of “Birthday Baby," the closing track of her 15th solo album Ocean to Ocean, released on October 21, 2021. An ode to the unexpected ways we collectively learned to both mourn and celebrate during the years-long isolation of the COVID-19 crisis, the song vacillates between a rousing eleven o'clock musical number and something a David Lynch character might sob inconsolably to while draped over a diner jukebox.

This juxtaposition is the essence of Tori, who has been masterfully weaving the familiar, strange, tender, and unsettling for over 30 years. What immediately distinguished Ocean to Ocean upon release from Amos’ previous records, though, was its timeliness, an album written and recorded during the most hopeless heights of a global pandemic, released into a world that had barely begun to scratch the surface of its shared trauma.

Never one to shy away from documenting her own emotional turbulence, Tori allowed Ocean to Ocean to wear its melancholy on its sleeve. It’s a record inspired and consumed by loss – loss of connection to others, loss of the self, loss of Tori's beloved mother Mary – and the process of trying to piece together both who we were before the storm and who we might become on the day after. The result is a tight, cohesive collection of songs that expertly articulates and somehow finds meaning in the deepest recesses of despair.

Ocean to Ocean is ultimately both a technical triumph -- Tori recorded virtually from her home studio in Cornwall, England with longtime collaborators Matt Chamberlain, Jon Evans, and John Philip Shenale (quite literally oceans apart) -- and a triumph of the spirit, Tori finding the artistic and emotional strength to recontextualize a year of losses into a record of rebirth.

So, stay with Joey, Kristen, and Matt as they unravel the gorgeous, generous fishing net that is Ocean to Ocean.

"Get Out of that Pain," a conversation between Joey and Tori for BOMB magazine: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2020/05/06/tori-amos-resistance

Tiny Desk Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SufUZu4h_m8

JV playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zhxFp9ESB5WH9YuWY4Rpe?si=bedb114b0215415e

KK playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rFV8OAbjkRUsAx1sXBrFc?si=2b8a0878dcf6471c

MM playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Cf1JxCjkBhExAKP5ug4IC?si=ae970433a23e4377

Content warning: this episode discusses SA. Please take care while listening.

Objectively speaking, Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes is one of the all time great debut records. On the latest episode of Messing With The Master, Kristen, Matt and Joe lovingly look back and contextualize this seminal album, which laid down the foundation for the mythology of Tori and created a language all her own. The bracing new musical vocabulary of Little Earthquakes truly signaled the birth of a star.

Very few– if any– albums from debut artists sustain the kind of power and resonance of Little Earthquakes. Amos dared to make the most private parts of her life public, infused them with poetry, gathered an army of fellow survivors, and created a genuine community that’s with her to this day.

Crafting an origin story for the ages, Amos proved she understood the assignment and the stakes and caught a ride with the moon. The prom queen minister’s daughter next door made a modern rock record and became a star. It felt like we knew her and spoke the same language. Oh, these little earthquakes. Here we go again. It feels familiar because we’ve all been there. Tori took a major risk setting her diary to music, and verbalizing the verboten, but it’s one that continues to speak directly to the hearts of countless listeners, somehow, after all these years.

Playlists:

• Joey
• Matt
• Kristen

Content warning: this episode discusses child and pregnancy loss. Please take care while listening.

Tori Amos’ blazing fourth album From The Choirgirl Hotel claims a rightful place amongst legendary music by contemporaries such as Madonna, PJ Harvey, Hole, Beck and many others who released similarly iconic work in 1998. At a career high point, Amos intuitively plugged in a full band to achieve the record’s signature space-rock atmosphere and conjured some of her most electric live shows to date. Yet, inexplicably, she still was forced to face down misogynistic criticism in all corners of the male-dominated world of music journalism, even as she soared. Rolling Stone -who gave the album a four star review- couldn’t resist referring to Amos as a “space cadet”, “overeducated”, and “unsisterly” in a surprisingly barbed cover story that manages to ungraciously spend a chunk of time castigating her for the “emotional incontinence” of her preceding album Boys for Pele. Despite great resistance and even greater odds, From the Choirgirl Hotel, with its passionate storytelling and audacious compositions, tapped directly into the flashpoint of an era of exploding musical styles. Amos, in slinky deconstructed gowns over jeans and bodysuits, walked away the victor: a powerful woman reinventing herself with each new project, charting high, selling big and adhering uncompromisingly to a vision of remaining herself. So please join Kristen, Matt and Joey for the midnight sale, it’s time to check in to the Choirgirl Hotel, a record that holds you at the bottom of the sea in total darkness before releasing you back into a luminously fragmented mirrorball galaxy of ‘Tori Amos’ mythology.

FTCH Playlists:

JV: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3viIVIonnfbX5ZOvcsOFiY?si=20c51797e2a74e41

KK: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/61zQq6ozghLTlDnWpekQmc?si=4b297c660a224c1f

MM: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Wn2Cxi5uOZWee64nl4wOj?si=9fac68b767bf46ea

In this episode, Joey, Kristen, and Matt discuss Tori Amos' 2005 album The Beekeper. They explore the intersection of The Beekeeper with Tori's book with Ann Powers, Piece by Piece, 2000s fashion, and Tori's last record with major record labels before her emancipation day.

Joey shares his track listing, focusing on the theme of betrayal. Kristen shares her track listing, a modern take on the 3 Marys, and Matt's track list is inspired by the 1973 film Ash Wednesday, featuring Elizabeth Taylor where she plays a woman willing to get her man back by going to any length. Themes include European history, betrayal, and tumult.

TBK playlists:

Matt: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3gExMBT4WYGORuciSPucFP?si=aaa1703ca4e44bba

Kristen: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1qX0Bskzx3qUkK8JosAg6U?si=6ff8f5413ba04d6d

Joey: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Ryi4xVLIENgEX8rbG2QfG?si=1376fe42683b4354

Other resources:

DRIVE ALL NIGHT: THE SONGS OF TORI AMOS! The boys at DAN: SOTA just released an episode on 'New Age' in their 'Strange Little Girls' season. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1aQq6MbPYxKqVMHysbHIXH?si=e7e295d122d14caa

Content warning: brief discussions of suicide. Please take care while listening.

In this episode, Joey, Kristen, and Matt discuss Tori Amos' 2009 album 'Abnormally Attracted to Sin'. They explore the background of the album, including Tori's independence from major record labels and her collaboration with John Philip Shenale.

The hosts also discuss the playfulness and dark themes present in the album, as well as the influence of Tori's previous album 'American Doll Posse'. The hosts delve into the visualettes that accompanied the album and the alternate narratives they presented. They explore the idea of Tori as a character actress, the experimentation in the album, and the cinematic quality of the music. Joey shares his track listing, focusing on the theme of survival and the narrative of figuring out how to move forward. Kristen shares her track listing, centered around the theme of a woman unhinged and the journey of finding her place. Matt's track list is a film noir-inspired sonic masterpiece.

Themes include Hollywood, mid-life crisis, and betrayal.

AATS playlists:

• Matt
• Kristen
• Joey

Other resources:

• Tori's Crazy in Love (Beyonce) with Crazy mashup recorded by Erin O'Neil (2014)
• PopMatters: Matt interviews Tori (2009)
• PopMatters: Joey on AATS (2012)

On this week’s episode of Messing with the Master, Matt, Joey, and Kristen travel to a (sonic) desert garden in Taos, New Mexico, to explore Tori's sophomore album Under the Pink. Joey explains how Tori Amos turned him gay, Matt recalls how a Drag Queen at the Gold Coast brought Tori into his life, and Kristen discusses being emotionally unavailable as the Heterosexual-in-Residence. Themes of queer identity, womanhood, betrayal, and romance are explored.

Under the Pink playlists: KK, JV, MM

Find Messing with the Master on YouTube and Instagram (@messingwiththemaster)