Boys for Pele

iTunes Review

The daughter of a Methodist minister and a former wild child, Tori Amos struggles with the patriarchal world at large and gently rages with her own indulgent fantasies on her third album, 1996’s Boys for Pele. Strong with Kate Bush influenced piano ballads and infused with her own fantastic imagination, Amos settles at her piano and harpsichord and lets it bleed without ever spilling an ounce of blood. Her carefully manicured tunes add strings, a gospel choir, and New Orleans brass to flesh out her idiosyncratic and incredibly personal recountings of a life lived in struggle. There’s an eerie creepiness to these subdued and skewered tunes. “Horses” begins gently and “Blood Roses” flows with a steady pulse until it nears its close and Amos starts to warble defiantly against its tidy gait. The X-rated chorus and haunted house funk of “Professional Widow” brings pause while the orchestrated purr of “Putting the Damage On” explores co-dependent relationships with refreshing frankness. Amos does nothing the easy way, challenging her audience with unconventional approaches to some difficult subjects.