Tori Amos - Crucify
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Free Music Notes for Crucify
Free Music Review: A Small Sample of What Was to Come
Hit: 5 Stars
I was in high school in 1992 when this was released. Having insomnia, I was up late on a Friday night, flipping channels when I came across this stunning redhead at a piano. If I'm not mistaken, the show was ABC's In Concert. I'll be darned if I remember which song she was playing, but I do remember she also did "Me and a Gun", which was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. The true story of her rape at the hands of a fan, its effect was immediate and gut wrenching. The next day, I went in search of the album at the music store. Alas, they were sold out of Little Earthquakes, but they did have this EP in stock. I was disappointed, but I looked at the track listing, shocked to see "Angie", a Rolling Stones cover. At the time, the Stones were my favorite band, so I needed no further prodding to purchase Crucify. Her version of "Angie" proved to be amazing, as were her covers of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" and Nirvana's "Smell Like Teen Spirit". "Crucify" turned out to be an excellent song about guilt and the search for salvation. But the song that blew my mind and made me an instant devotee of this songstress was the absolutely magical "Winter". To this day, "Winter" remains one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard and is still my all time favorite Tori song. It's about growing older, about losing some things, about falling behind, about the loss of innocence and probably a million things I'll never quite understand. Needless to say I was hooked and haunted the record store until they replenished their supply of Little Earthquakes. This EP keeps a special place in my collection, simply because it was my first exposure to Tori. Free Music Review: "Figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."
Hit: 5 Stars
Cucify by Tori Amos is a great cd single. This cd also contains three covers: The Rolling Stones beautiful ballad Angie. Led Zepplin's Thank You, and Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. Tori successfully makes each song her own, this woman is amazingly talented. She plays the piano like no one else and the way she sings these covers gives you chills. Gorgeous and haunting ballads, this is one EP you won't regret getting. Buy it today!Free Music Review: Haunting
Hit: 4 Stars
We knew she could bare us emotionally with her own compositions, then she manages to unleash that same power revisiting covers. It was foreshadowing.Free Music Review: Stones? Nirvana? Zepplin? She's Got You Covered
Hit: 5 Stars
The Crucify EP, more than a single and less than an album, was my first taste of the way Tori worked back then. She was probably the most prominent and consistent EP-artist in the '90s, as nearly every single she put out was released in this format, with at least two, and usually three or four, extra, non-LP songs on it. If you were a completist, as I was (and still am), this made collecting Tori both frustrating and quite rewarding. To wit: while you would always get a profound feeling of accomplishment from finding some, say, UK release of 'Silent All These Years' in the import section of the local Sam Goody or Hastings, there was always, in those final years before the internet and sevices like this, at least one that you just couldn't get no matter how hard you tried. The Crucify EP was never one of these; ever since its release, it has always been right up front with the LPs, where you can always find it.
Of course now, in the days post-ebay, post-amazon, finding all of Tori's myriad EPs is easy; all it takes is money and an internet hookup (and the nerves and patience to dig through ebay and wait out any number of auction opponents). Still, in spite of the fact that you don't even have to go to that much trouble to find Crucify, and in spite of the fact that it will never cost you fifty or seventy-five dollars, it stands up with the best of those rarer, more costly EPs. The single mix of the title track that begins the record is excellent, the kind of track that reminds one that the 'remix' isn't always a waste of studio time, and that it can sometimes add another dimension to a song, or bring out an element of it that isn't emphasised in the album mix. This is followed by the album version of 'Winter,' which would wind up with an EP of its own; while there's no particular reason for it to be here, it fits the context and is just a damn good song anyway. But the reason to buy this record, for most of us, is the three tracks that follow: the covers. These are stark, simple recordings, just Tori and the piano, and they are perfect in their simplicity. Her version of the Rolling Stones' 'Angie' is breathtaking; a slow-burning, passionate rendition that exceeds the original in emotional quality and brings out the melodic potential of the song that the Stones neglect; pardon the cliche, but she truly makes it her own. Ballads simply are not their specialty; they are (one of) Tori's, so she had little trouble taking a seemingly tepid ballad by a non-ballad-oriented act and making it a thing of great passion and beauty. Next up, she did something that really took nerve: she took the ultimate rock anthem of the age, and, with no more than her voice and 88 keys,without changing a word, converted it into damn near a new song. Supposedly, Kurt Cobain liked Tori's 'Teen Spirit,' which is nothing like his original, but for lyrics (you can understand them in this version, by the way). I've always believed that there's no point in covering a song if you don't have something new to contribute to it, some variation upon the standard interpretation. Note-for-note remakes are for bar-bands, 'tribute bands' and the like; when a genuine artist covers a song, he or she should be able to present it to you in a new way, from a perspective other than that of its originator. Tori's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' haunting yet comprehensible, does this beautifully.
Which brings us to the end: 'Thank You,' by Led Zepplin. The Zep had a more profound influence upon the young Myra Ellen Amos than any other musical force, perhaps; it certainly shows in her vocal style, and her tendency toward mystical epics on record. Either way, her version is etherial, evoking mental pictures of sunrise beaches and highland mists as well as any Zep original. When I saw her live, at the Backyard in my home town of Austin, Texas days after Hurricane Katrina, she did Zep's 'When the Levee Breaks' in tribute to the people of the gulf coast; it was one of the highlights of the evening. Tori probably does Robert Plant better than anyone these days, quite possibly including the man himself.
In conclusion, even though there's no difficulty in finding it, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg, the Crucify EP is a wonderful piece of work, entirely worth the trouble you don't have to go through to find it.
Free Music Review: Magical
Hit: 4 Stars
Tori and piano provide a short, yet sweet 5 song collection.
The CD begins with two original tracks and then serves up three powerful covers, the first of which is a cover of the Rolling Stones classic "Angie". Amos then goes on to cover Kurt Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This acoustic version is haunting yet beautiful. The final track on the CD covers Led Zeppelin's ballad, "Thank You". Yet again Amos provides a worthy redition of a past song.
Overall very well done. Not intended to lift your spirits, but rather a reflective, mood setting work.