coming oceans
I just learned yesterday that Tori Amos has a new album coming out next month! I'm probably one of a diminishing, already-tiny minority who even cares, but I am excited.
I only know about it because of a post by her official account on Facebook. That didn't even mention the release date; I had to Google it to find out it's October 29. It will be her 16th studio album, although I could also clarify that it will be her 14th album of fully original material. (2001's Strange Little Girls was all covers of other, male singers' songs, and 2012's Gold Dust was all orchestral reinterpretations of her own songs.) It will also be her 12th fully original pop/alternative record, as opposed to other diversions into "classical" or "seasonal" (Christmastime) styles.
Regardless of level of originality or style, of course I have all 15 of the studio albums she's released so far, as well as her pre-"Tori Amos" album called Y Kan't Tori Read from 1988, and her one best-of album Tales of a Librarian from 2003. Tori Amos is one of a slew of singers and bands who peaked in the nineties but whose continued output I still purchase almost without exception (Madonna of course; Garbage; Pet Shop Boys) even though the bulk of their fan bases abandoned them ages ago. In many of these cases, singers and groups are releasing new stuff nearly or just as good as their best stuff from their peak, although I would have to admit Tori Amos is an exception to that—she hasn't released an album I would call truly "great" since 2003, but I still gobble up anything new she has to offer. I did quite like a couple of her albums from the past decade.
Time will tell whether this new one, Ocean to Ocean, will fit that mold. I've ready that it's largely inspired by the grief of loss through the pandemic, which maybe weirdly, I consider a good sign. Her last album I truly loved, Scarlett's Walk, was a 2003 rumination on our post-9/11 nation over the two years since those terrorist attacks. Strangely, her previous release, Strange Little Girls, was released exactly one week after 9/11, so listening to that album always brings me right back to the uniquely surreal feeling that came with just existing at that time. It's also one of my least favorite of her albums, and yet the single Tori Amos album Barbara ever loved, listening to it often while we used to deliver copies of the Seattle Gay Standard through the South Puget Sound together.
Not much to update you on about last night, I watched some TV. This week's episode of Y: The Last Man on Hulu, which I watched in the bedroom (it was all right); I watched another episode of Sex Education season 3 on Netflix with Shobhit in the living room (that was excellent). We actually had time for another episode, but I needed to go spend about an hour in the bedroom coming up with topics for the BIPOC inclusivity discussion group I'll soon be having with Tracy and Eric. It was somewhat of a challenge coming up with ideas but I think I made at least a little bit of progress.
I guess I could mention that I posted the summer Social Review this morning. My intent was always to post those on the day the season changes, although I just looked it up and I guess the official first day of fall this year is not until tomorrow. My OCD tendencies just can't handle these Social Reviews being posted on the 21st of the month sometimes and another date other times, though, so I have always stuck to the 21st for these quarterly social reports (which I have now been doing for fully 19 years—as of this month!): March 21; June 12; September 21 and December 21.
And, oh look! Rain has found its way back into the 10-day forecast again: 40% chance both next Tuesday and on Wednesday next week. We'll see if that holds. I doubt it. I'm just glad we've got some drier and warmer weather this week still; forecast high of 73° today (that's only 3° above normal), and 68° on Thursday when I am set to go to the Washington State Fair. And, oh look, back to the low seventies again this Friday and Saturday. But whatever, once we're into, say, mid-October (so: after Shobhit and I go to Port Townsend for Auntie Rose's memorial service on October 2) then I will be all about getting all the rain we can as often as we can. The rest of you can bitch about it all you want, I don't give a shit!
[posted 12:31 pm]