commence retrospective
When I was in college, I consistently cited Tori Amos as my third-favorite artist (or band) of all time: the order went Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, Tori Amos. I think. Too much time has gone by now and the memory is getting a little hazier than it used to be—but! I still have my personal album popularity data spreadsheet, detailing how many times I have listened to any album from start to finish since the beginning of 1995. I have a column of "nineties totals," and when I sort by that, Tori Amos actually has three albums in the top 20, which is more than any other artist! (Boys for Pele, #2 at 78 listens; Under the Pink, #6 at 68 listens; From the Choirgirl Hotel, #12 at 64 listens). Mind you, these figures only account for the five years 1995-1999, and it would sort far differently had I started collecting data in 1990—countless more Madonna and Fleetwood Mac albums would be on it, and in fact more of both are on the top 20 when I sort by all-time data.
The point is, in the nineties Tori Amos was a huge deal to me. Her first five albums were all released in that decade, between 1991 and 1999, collectively by far her most commercially successful work (albeit all of it still obscure compared to most mainstream artists), and it was only in 2001 with her Strange Little Girls collection of covers did she embark on her semi-frequent trend of quite specific themed albums over the rest of her career. Strange Little Girls was always by some distance my least favorite album of hers (curiously, it also became the single album of hers that Barbara really loved), but at the time, to me, her 2003 follow-up Scarlet's Walk was a brilliant return to form, an album I truly loved.
I haven't loved any of Tori Amos's eight albums since Scarlet's Walk to anywhere near the same degree, although a couple releases in the past decade got a lot closer than the intervening releases. Which is to say, I have no idea how much I will like the album she has coming out later this month, Ocean to Ocean, set to release on October 29. But, I'm still very excited. She hasn't released an album in four years, since Native Invader in 2021, and I actually liked that one probably more than any release of original material since Scarlet's Walk.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I decided to listen to her entire discography in chronological order in anticipation of this new release—something I didn't even do before Native Invader in 2017. The last year in which I listened to every Tori Amos album was 2016, as it happens, so even though a lot of these albums I used to listen to a lot virtually every single year, in the age of podcasts when I listen to music overall far less often, many of her objectively great albums I still haven't listened to in literally half a decade.
Such was the case with her 1991 debut (under the Tori Amos name, anyway), Little Earthquakes, which I listened to the other day, and her fourth release, From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998), which I just listened to yesterday. It had been so long since I listened to Choirgirl, I kind of forgot how great that one really is. It's better than Boys for Pele (1996) in my opinion, although I think a lot of hardcore Tori Amos fans would disagree.
Also, I had to text Danielle while I was listening to it, in my bedroom at home last night. It made me think of her, because Danielle always liked Tori Amos as well, and I can remember her telling me about a neighbor in her apartment complex complaining about how much she would crank what I think is the best song on the album, "Raspberry Swirl," easily her most intensely beat-driven track to date, and probably ever even now. Anyone in their right mind would want to crank it!
So that was basically how I spent the last hour of my waking evening last night, updating my budget and uploading a few latest photos to Flickr while listening to Tori Amos.
Prior to that, I watched a couple hours of television, also on my own in the bedroom, while Shobhit was watching his news programs in the living room. I caught up on Monday's episode of Y: The Last Man, then watched two episodes of Reservation Dogs, a show I am loving more with each passing episode.
I thought about asking Ivan if he wanted to watch this week's episode of American Crime Story: Impeachment, but I figured he would not have time for it, and I was right, although not for the reason I assumed. I totally thought he would be working last night, but it turned out he had the night off. He actually left sometime between 7 and 8:00, which was nothing out of the ordinary as he often goes for walks even before his shifts, or even goes out to pick up takeout. But, had he been working, he'd have come home before leaving again in scrubs for his shift shortly after 9:00. He didn't return until well after 10:00, making Shobhit and me wonder nosily how he was spending an evening. Out for dinner with a friend? A date? Who knows. Ivan has spent so much time working and so little time socializing with anyone besides us since he moved back last summer, I think it's perhaps about time for us to be reminded that he's still allowed to have a life of his own that isn't necessarily any of our business.
Now I'm not quite sure when we'll have time to watch an episode, though. I'm hoping this weekend, which he's not working, although we already have potentially three other items on the agenda (Seattle Pride fall event Saturday afternoon; a movie Saturday evening; the Argosy Cruise Sunday afternoon). Sunday evening might prove ideal, now that I think about it.
In the meantime, Shobhit and Tracy and I are going to see No Time to Die tonight. I'm really glad I got tickets to the 5 p.m. showing, as it turns out that movie is long—163 minutes! With the trailers, it's going to be probably more than three hours before we get out of the theater, and I'll just barely have time to write the review after getting home tonight. I'm still looking forward to it though.
[posted 12:32 pm]