Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel
Tori Amos - Abnormally Attracted to Sin
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Bryan Duncan - Mercy
Nik Kershaw - To Be Frank
Mark Lizotte - Soul Lost Companion
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul To Science
I've written once before about From the Choirgirl Hotel, here. Basically I want to expand on what I said then, because the power of this album still amazes me in a way very few other albums do.
I said last time that I was often drawn to listen to Choirgirl when I'm in a dark, angsty mood. This is still true. But it's not merely that. It's that when I'm in a dark, angsty mood, quite frequently this is the only thing in my entire collection I can find that provides the kind of catharsis I'm looking for.
I don't know if other people ever go trawling through their music trying to find something to match their mood, and spend a while thinking "nope, that's not it... nope... nope...think, think, what are you hearing in your head? What does it feel like?". It's certainly something that I do from time to time, having a moment when I feel the desire for something really specific. To me this is one of the reasons for having a large music collection, to cover as many different nuances of mood as possible.
Time and again, Choirgirl can be relied upon to be the best possible album for a particular kind of angst-ridden mood. Nothing else I own possesses the same kind of power and drama. No-one else sings to me - no scrap that, sings for me - about trying to hold back glaciers, about balloons not staying up in a perfectly windy sky, about boys who can't be men, about screaming at cathedrals, about just feeling that there's something wrong and not knowing how to fix it. Song after song hits these kinds of marks with pounding beats and soaring melodies. It's intoxicating.
I know it's not healthy to be in that kind of place for long periods. But it's certainly easier to bear that kind of place when you can give it a fantastic soundtrack, and for me at least, being able to find an articulation of the mood is the kind of therapy that can help me move on.
And 54 minutes of music is a lot cheaper and more readily accessible than a counselling appointment of the same length.
Showing posts with label from the choirgirl hotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label from the choirgirl hotel. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Saturday, 10 March 2012
February 2012 - Popular Music
Tori Amos
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Marc Cohn - The Rainy Season
The Dissociatives - The Dissociatives
Peter Gabriel - So
Genesis - We Can't Dance
Gomez - In Our Gun
Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Sting - ...Nothing Like the Sun
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love
Hmm, living in the 80s a fair bit...These lists really can surprise me sometimes. For instance, I have this sense at the time of writing that I haven't listened to any Tori Amos for several weeks. And in fact I'm right, but I listened to several albums in the first half of February.
It's also interesting that Choirgirl is the last one I listened to, and I've listened to it at least once in each of the last 3 months after not having played it for almost half a year before that. That's in no way because I started disliking it, but simply because it can be such a visceral and exhausting album to listen to. I'm most often drawn to it when in a dark, angsty mood and ready to let fly at the world.
I still rank it as Tori's most astonishing album, because of the way it rewrote the rules of what she was capable of. No longer was her career 'merely' the story of a woman pouring her heart out at the keyboard. She was now in charge of much larger forces.
I listened to The Rainy Season a great deal during the month. I've said before that it's one of my favourite albums of all time, but I don't believe I've said why. And it's because it's one of the most perfect small-scale albums I know.
Which might seem like a putdown, but it isn't. Not everything should be grand and epic. The Rainy Season is a collection of songs that resonates with small, intimate moments and domestic relationships. It's warm and affectionate, and a little sad as well. It feels like it belongs in a log cabin with a wood fire. And for me there isn't a false step anywhere. Which is why, when a car chewed up my original cassette copy, I immediately went hunting for a CD version. I didn't want to be without it in my collection.
- Little Earthquakes
- Boys for Pele
- From the Choirgirl Hotel
- Scarlet's Walk
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Marc Cohn - The Rainy Season
The Dissociatives - The Dissociatives
Peter Gabriel - So
Genesis - We Can't Dance
Gomez - In Our Gun
Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Sting - ...Nothing Like the Sun
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love
Hmm, living in the 80s a fair bit...These lists really can surprise me sometimes. For instance, I have this sense at the time of writing that I haven't listened to any Tori Amos for several weeks. And in fact I'm right, but I listened to several albums in the first half of February.
It's also interesting that Choirgirl is the last one I listened to, and I've listened to it at least once in each of the last 3 months after not having played it for almost half a year before that. That's in no way because I started disliking it, but simply because it can be such a visceral and exhausting album to listen to. I'm most often drawn to it when in a dark, angsty mood and ready to let fly at the world.
I still rank it as Tori's most astonishing album, because of the way it rewrote the rules of what she was capable of. No longer was her career 'merely' the story of a woman pouring her heart out at the keyboard. She was now in charge of much larger forces.
I listened to The Rainy Season a great deal during the month. I've said before that it's one of my favourite albums of all time, but I don't believe I've said why. And it's because it's one of the most perfect small-scale albums I know.
Which might seem like a putdown, but it isn't. Not everything should be grand and epic. The Rainy Season is a collection of songs that resonates with small, intimate moments and domestic relationships. It's warm and affectionate, and a little sad as well. It feels like it belongs in a log cabin with a wood fire. And for me there isn't a false step anywhere. Which is why, when a car chewed up my original cassette copy, I immediately went hunting for a CD version. I didn't want to be without it in my collection.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)