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