Abnormally Attracted to Sin
I am not a Tori-phile, but I think I am abnormally attracted to Tori Amos‘ music. I don’t know what exactly it is that’s in her music that attracts me, all I know is that I like the way her voice flies across the dark landscape of her songs like a dizzy butterfly trying to find its way through a forest of dark emotions. When I first heard her music in the early 90s, it was like a revelation. It was as if a girl had left the door of her heart ajar so that I could take a peek and discover the little secrets she kept in the dark corners of that heart.
For years it was like that, and for every album it was a new discovery. Now, Tori Amos has her 10th album, and it is aptly titled Abnormally Attracted to Sin. I listened to the entire album last week, through all of the 17 songs. What did I find? I found the same Tori Amos but older and wiser, and more emotionally adventurous. Some people may find listening through the 17 tracks too tasking, but if one would find the thread that connects the songs in this album, it would be an excursion into that realm of emotions that is familiar to you but would not admit you have. “Pussy willow calls by the church, don’t go in if you are abnormally attracted to sin, she may be dead to you but her hips sway a natural kind of faith that could give your lost heart a warm chapel, ” she sings in the title track, and it’s stuck in my head for a week, abnormally haunting but sweet. Those lines are enough to describe the whole album.
The tracks to look out for in this album are “Wecome to England,” ”Not Dying Today,” “Mary Jane,” “Give,” ”Lady in Blue,” and, of course, the title track. If you loved Strange Little Girls, Scarlet’s Walk, and The Beekeeper, you’ll also love Abnormally Attracted to Sin. I am not saying that the previous albums I mentioned and this new album are alike in many ways. Of course, it’s the same Tori Amos, but with a darker and more honest soul.
