Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Tori Amos started her solo recording way

Before the release of a wonderful conceptual disc American Doll Posse, Tori Amos stated that she was going to record her next work at an independent label. The problems with the head staff substitution at Epic Records put a start for this artist’s decision. She said in several interviews that the company was more interested in the profit than in her own personal vision of the discs’ material. It should be noticed also, that earlier the policy of a major Atlantic label was built in a way that regularly harmed the private life of the singer – thus, due to the tense and hard-edged touring schedule Amos had three miscarriages. So, no wonder that after celebrating the fifteenth year of her scenic activity, the performer decided to record apart from big recording companies with their contracts, promising pretty sums of money. Maybe somebody thought that she would not be able to resist the numbers with many zeros in the papers and forget her promises – but Tori made all exactly the way she was planning to. In 2008, she signed a deal with an independent studio Universal Republic. From complicated conceptual discs as the aforementioned American Doll Posse and its predecessor The Beekeeper the artist moved to the plainer form of a ballad collection and recorded Abnormally Attracted To Sin.

Generosity and beauty on Abnormally Attracted To Sin

In spite of the fact that the album Abnormally Attracted To Sin is not a conceptual record on the whole, it all the tracks are united in the respect of topics that make Tori Amos ponder – they are religion, power and the woman’s role in today’s society. The disc Abnormally Attracted To Sin is really generous to the listeners – she has included eighteen tracks on a disc. The work starts with the trip-hop composition Give, decorated with the piano play and slippery basses. It is a rather dark and even horrifying in some places melody. It is followed by the autobiographic ballad Welcome To England – it almost evidently reminds of the days when Amos was not world-wide famous and came to England to fascinate everyone with her piano rock. The tune itself is the artist’s return to her rock roots, as the devoted the song Strong Black Vine to some religious hesitations and explorations. One of the most striking and grasping songs is the beautiful pop ballad Maybe California telling about suicide. However, the disc also features such whimsical things as the electro-funk middle-tempo composition Police Me and Fire To Your Plain, spiced up with the country elements. The retro-jazz melody Mary Jane will take the listeners to the atmosphere of Paris in the 50-60s, while the track Ophelia gives them the artist’s interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s tragedy characters.

Feminism, philosophy and self-analysis

The new creation by Tori Amos, titled Abnormally Attracted To Sin, wonderfully manages to combine the qualities of a professional release and an indie record. It definitely has all the merits of the discs, recorded by Amos during her cooperation with major labels, but at the same time it lasts more than an hour and features the material that is highly experimental. Abnormally Attracted To Sin explores the favorite theme of Tori once again – it is the place of a woman in the current state of things. Thus, her devoted fans are sure to be happy. Moreover, the artist makes thoughtful and philosophic notes, while some of the songs on this long-play can be called the best specimen of Amos’ poetry to date. Of course, the performer is back with her deep exploration of the unconsciousness and her scrupulous self-analysis. It is hard to get off the thought that each song from Abnormally Attracted To Sin has much more symbolism in every image which the singer created than we can see - especially, when we have such powerful examples of her previous conceptual discs. Nevertheless, Abnormally Attracted To Sin differs from its predecessors with the less thought-out concept, although it is difficult to reject the fact that the disc makes an impression of a monolith record. However, it is less aggressive, too. The songs by Amos have become more tender and mild – it is a collection of piercing yet romantically soft ballads. Well, at least half of these songs are worth including into your regular play list, if you are fond of qualitative vocals, beautiful melodies and elaborated arrangements.