The Life and Times of Rockstar Mom: Figured it Out

When Morrissey was here, he sang a song called "Sister, I'm a Poet" and one of the lyrics is "Turning, turning, turning the knife/On everything except her own life." Thinking about this song a bit and trying to really get a feel for the new Tori Amos album 'American Doll Posse' has finally clicked. Tori is now "Tori" and she's not a real person! Hello! No wonder! I was trying to think of a song from the new album that has the same introspective and personal lyrics that are evident in the whole 'Little Earthquakes' album and even showing up in 'Scarlet's Walk' in songs like "Your Cloud" But now, now we have a Persona Tori thing that is writing songs, songs that have nothing to do with the "personal" but more to do with the political. It's all through a filter of fiction, which means the songs aren't even close to being personal. The last album was really the start of this, with the only personal song being a song for her daughter, but nothing really for "Tori"

The whole thing smacks of illusion. This"Tori" person that we thought we loved, doesn't exists anymore, but instead the "Tori" is really want she thinks we want. We got all the slow melodies from the last album, so now it's time for the warrior woman. Unfortunately she's been warring with the same old song since 1992. Can you imagine that she's taken a b-side "Sweet Dreams" a song that she didn't even feel was good enough to make the album originally and she's turned that song into 25 and put them on an album?

There are moments on this album that I love. They seem to be the glimpses back into when "Tori" was Tori and could access her emotions during the music. During "Dragon" before the sickly sweet chorus, it almost hearkens back to 'Pele' and there are some times things rock like "Body and Soul" before she draws out the word "conversion" into 18 syllables and "Bouncing off Clouds" if you ignore all the oddly phrased lines.

While I'm excited to see her in Boise with Niki in December, I'm more excited for the live aspect of music that I love, rather then hearing the new songs. She can play a crowd very well and she always promises a show. She is a true performer and I think she really does love being on the stage, but I feel some of my fandom slipping away. Her kookiness is a bit too kooky for me now I guess. It's hard to relate to the music when it's so lacking in spirit.