UNREPENTANT GERALDINES

The American musician Tori Amos' music was totally new for me until yesterday. I had heard about her and read a review of her latest record and was very curious to hear it for myself. Since the debut "Little Earthquakes" 1992 she ahs done thirteen records and the last one came last year and it is called "Unrepentant Geraldines" and it came two years after her record "Gold Dust". The music of Tori Amos is very pure and stripped. Mostly it's just Tori Amos' voice and piano. There are also the guitar of Mac Aladdin and some instruments of Mark Hawley. The album lasts for almost an hour and has fourteen wonderful songs to enjoy. The cover doesn't represent the content, the cover isn't poetic enough for me.

Tori Amos overwhelmed me! I could not think that the music would be so vital and vibrant, so personal and powerful. It mixes a lot of what I like much: great melodies, folk tunes and themes, a fantastic high voice and a unique vocal style. As you can guess I liked the album very much; it was actually one of the most exciting records of 2014.

All of the fourteen songs are good and the majority are fantastic. Three are unbeatable: "America"(10/10) which made me amazed directly, the progressive "Giant's rolling pin"(10/10) and the romantic mood or old times felt "Unrepentant Geraldines"(10/10) are songs you must hear and some other wonderous tracks should be mentioned: "Trouble's lament"(9/10), "Maids of Elfen-mere"(9/10) which was so old English and "Selkie"(9/10). Furthermore "Wedding day"(8/10), "Weatherman"(8/10) and Invisible Boy(which ends everything)(8/10) and also the other songs are very fine.

As a whole this record does a very good job to challenge the listener. The playing aren't very progressive, but I think the spirit and the compositions are, actually more than those of "pure" prog bands. My over all rating ends at 4.18 and a strong four star to Tori Amos.

Best tracks: Amerika, Giant's rolling pin, Unrepentant Geraldines