Album review: Tori Amos’s ‘From the Choirgirl Hotel’

Yes, I know this record came out in 1998. eMusic is getting batches of catalog from Warner, and this was part of it (published a few weeks ago).

Review of Tori Amos’s From the Choirgirl Hotel:

Before the release of 1998′s From the Choirgirl Hotel, Tori Amos had three commercially successful LPs under her belt. All of them were largely centered on her piano work, which alternated between delicate and haunting, alongside lyrics rich with religious allusions, coming from a woman still trying to find her voice. In “Girl,” from her 1992 debut Little Earthquakes, Amos sang, “She’s been everybody else’s girl/ Maybe one day she’ll be her own.” On Choirgirl, Amos makes it clear that she’s got the voice — and the platform through which to share it — and she’s not afraid to take risks. While her prior work did make use of outside instruments, Choirgirl is a band-made project, rather than a collection of accessorized piano songs.

In many ways, Choirgirl was a reaction to 1996′s Boys for Pele, which was arguably Amos’s most eccentric release to that point. It was her first self-produced effort, and many were turned off by lyrics that were often either overly cryptic or unnervingly personal. With Choirgirl, Amos regained some of her mainstream accessibility, balancing her melodic elegance with a gritty alt-rock edge. It marked the first time she fully collaborated with other musicians, and it shows: Opening track “Cruel” starts with a brooding guitar line, and Amos’s piano doesn’t kick in for a full minute. Even then, it complements the other sounds rather than controlling them. “Iieee” is founded on a tribal drum and bass beat, topped by layered Amos chants, strings and, later, bouts of piano, which are followed by wrenching, warped guitars. “Hotel” lays glitchy electronics alongside Amos’s yelping soprano. While Choirgirl sounds dark — and lyrically, it is — Amos is still capable of beautiful piano lines — as on the gorgeous, string-laden “Jackie’s Strength.”

Choirgirl was conceived after Amos’s miscarriage, which she addresses in album-opener, “Spark.” “She’s convinced she could hold back a glacier/ But she couldn’t keep baby alive,” she sings. It’s referenced again in “Iieee,” in which she asks, “Is it God’s?/ Is it yours?” Later on, the album hints at resolution: In “Northern Lad” — a song about the idea that being yourself is not always enough — she offers the advice, “Girls, you’ve got to know when it’s time to turn the page.”

Choirgirl didn’t revolutionize Amos’ formula (unlike the string of concept albums that followed), and she didn’t stay in this industrial phase for long. But it introduced a new depth to her work that, at least temporarily, helped to shatter her girl-with-a-piano image.