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Music CD - Tori Amos: Boys for Pele
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Music CD: Boys for Pele
Artist: Tori Amos
List Price: $7.98
Our Price: $3.00
Your Save: $ 4.98 ( 62% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Horses
2. Blood Roses
3. Father Lucifer
4. Professional Widow
5. Mr. Zebra
6. Marianne
7. Caught a Lite Sneeze
8. Muhammad My Friend
9. Hey Jupiter
10. Way Down
11. Little Amsterdam
12. Talula
13. Not the Red Baron
14. Agent Orange
15. Doughnut Song
16. In the Springtime of His Voodoo
17. Putting the Damage On
18. Twinkle
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075678286223
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Atlantic / Wea
Release Date: 1996-01-23
Studio: Atlantic / Wea
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Rolling Stone was Wrong,wrong,wrong.....
Comment: Tori Amos doesn't answer to anyone. I mean, come on, just look at the album cover. But i can't get over the scope and beauty of this album. It occurred to me that it reminds me of Joni Mitchell's bravest and most misunderstood work,Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Mitchell was raked over the coals by the critics, only to be applauded almost two decades afterward for the album.
Boys for Pele suffered the same fate. Rolling Stone was horrible to Amos, giving her two1/2 stars. But i think it was a personal thing, as was the case with Mitchell. Amos just isn't an artist who is going to give any free handouts. True, this album is complex and hard to understand at that times but that's part of the brilliance of Amos' music.
Can't get over the heartbreaking "Hey Jupiter" with it's echoing chrous reminiscent of Prince's Purple Rain. And even more heartbreaking and moving is Putting On the Damage, with the line, "doing my best Angie Dickinson", which would make Elvis Costello wish he had thought of it first. The stunning single from the album, Caught a light Sneeze, with the haunting background vocals, sounding like a chorus of nuns having a seance. Her eerie use of electric guitar simply crashing in and out on songs like an ocean's wave.
Amost has commented about the smbolism of fire on this album. Yeah, i would say so. There is nothing safe about this at all, which is exactly why this album is so important. I remember the music that was released the same year as this (one in particular) but this is the one that will stand the test of time.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Tori at her artistic peak
Comment: After parting with her boyfriend and producer Eric Rosse, Tori was left alone and vulnerable. The overbearing presence of men in her life forced her to change her approach to music, and ultimately, to transform as a musician. This is Amos' debut as a producer and with help of sound engineers Mark Hawley, Marcel van Limbeek and Rob van Tuin--who mixed the record--she created her most confident work to date. Tori reached new heights with "Boys for Pele" and experimented with different tactics for the first time in her career. In terms of songwriting, instrumentation and recording, it could be considered her masterpiece. Just like Polly Jean Harvey turned to religious lyricism on her pivotal "To Bring You My Love", Tori used religion as a message of overwhelming patriarchy and romantic loss in her life. Both women worked extensively with men (John Parish and Eric Rosse were somewhat a guidance for them), but Tori decided that it was her time to stop answering to a patriarchal figure and do things on her own.
The album was recorded in a church in County Wicklow in Ireland as well as in New Orleans. The religious undercurrent of those places haunts "Pele". The acoustics of the church are complementary to the intimacy of the record. Tori's piano playing got more intense and she didn't follow the pop structure to the same extent as on "Little Earthquakes" and "Under The Pink". Harpischord and clavirchord add a nice touch to her usually Bösendorfer-driven sound. She also hired a choir, a brass band and a string orchestra. Musically, "Pele" is beneficially homogenic and coherent. Lyrically, Amos was swimming in obscurity. Certain references made to her friends can be heard throughout the record (Neil Gaiman in "Horses" and Trent Reznor in "Caught a Lite Sneeze"), as well as clear afterthoughts on her break-up and religious upbringing, but for the most part, you won't understand what she's talking about. Needless to say, you'll love her all the more for it.
The record starts with "Beauty Queen" that serves as an intro to the brilliant "Horses". Amos soon turns bitter in "Blood Roses", one of the more lyrically direct tracks on "Pele" which probably discusses Rosse among other things ("I've shaved every place where you've been boy"). Tori's greatest piano melody to date is witnessed in "Father Lucifer", one of the highlights for which she had an ecstasy trip with a shaman that, oddly enough, resulted in her having an affair with both Satan and Jesus (in her own words). Typical Torisms follow in "Professional Widow", one of the more harrowing songs Amos has crafted. It discusses various subjects and ends with one of the most memorable lyrics she's written, all set to seemingly angry harpischord playing. The biggest highlight, however, is a song that wasn't even let to grow--"Mr. Zebra" clocks in at a little more than a minute, but is a pure gem with its brass section and excellent vocals.
"Marianne" and "Hey Jupiter" showcase Tori at her more unconventional piano playing, the former being a song about her friend who died of drug overdose and the latter being a result of Tori's overwhelming loneliness during her tour. "Caught a Lite Sneeze" is the greatest single that Amos has released to date, serving as both an emotional breakdown and a catharsis. It contains marvelous drum programming, heartbreaking harpischord melody and piercing background singing. "Muhammad My Friend" is the most obvious of the patriarchy-beating tracks, where she changes Christ's gender and sings with mellow vocals. "Way Down" and "Agent Orange" represent the shorter material on record that serves as separator of longer tracks. Jazzy influence that was always welcome on her early material is now sadly reduced. There are only trances of it to be found on "Pele". "Little Amsterdam" is an absolute standout with perfectly set mood (filled with a great beat and some radio channeling in the background).
"Talula" brings back the harpischord, but it's not as effective as in other tracks. The problem with "Boys for Pele" is that it can at times seem underwhelming. But these moments are rare, as Tori is on her artistic peak here, churning out some of the best material of her career. The quiet, soothing pieces such as "Not the Red Baron" and "Doughnut Song" may lower down the mood of "Pele" and as it ends with two rather silent tracks, it seems as if the whole album is a quiet endeavour. Overall, "Boys for Pele" is a highly satisfying effort and a rewarding piece of music. It is a tad too long, but contains a handful of highlights to keep things interesting. It became a fan favorite and one of the most successful albums that Amos has made. If it seems puzzling at times, it's because it wasn't meant to be self-explanatory. But that hardly makes it a bad record. What's really confusing are the choices Amos made on subsequent records where she stopped being a protagonist and became a part of the sound texture. Still, "Pele" gives you a taste of how good she can be.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Does anybody actually read these reviews?
Comment: I wonder.
This is a great album. Not as catchy as most of her material except for "Caught A Light Sneeze" but the others are excellent. I bought a cassette version for my car (that came w/ a tape player!) and have listened to it over and over. It is becoming my most listened to album now. Good for long drives and even a quick trip to the liquor store!;-)
It is like a nice long and deep conversation w/ a good friend. A quiet, beautiful and sensitive friend. Listen with care. You are amazing Tori Amos.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of today's truly great musical artists
Comment: This is the first, but not the last Tori Amos album I have bought. It is amazing and weird. The harpsichord was a stroke of genius, and brings a new light to one of my least-favorite instrumental timbres.
Amos uses her voice as an instrument and as a canvas on which to splash color and texture. She is a true musical artist, as opposed to a commercial, typical diva that we have had way too many of.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Putting the Damage On
Comment: Let me say this first: Boys for Pele, in its entirety, is perhaps my favorite album of the 1990's. Though my concept of musical tastes is increasingly diverse, Pele remains at the top.
This could be the best journey through the end of a relationship I've ever encountered. There are a lot of different ideas flowing on this particular LP, From the haunted opening of "Beauty Queen > Horses" to the subtle, somber, and yet somehow hopeful "Twinkle," this album will surely not disappoint. From anger to sadness, acceptance to understanding, it's all here. Lyrically it's a "typical" Tori Amos album, a bit on the abstract side, but reading between the lines is what draws me to her earlier releases. A lot of these songs have a strong backbone in the harpsichord, which gives it a timeless quality, and it's difficult to look at this specific release in individual tracks. The whole concept behind Pele is not like that of her other releases, it's almost as if she opened her journal and put everything she had on tape. In fact, I have the tree (on the disc itsself) tattooed on my back. This album is a gem to be cherished for years. I think I owe Tori my sincere gratitude.
"Thank you to Pele, and those who brought me to Pele."
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Editorial Reviews:
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Boys for Pele, the title of Tori Amos's epic third album, is as awkward and confusing as the music inside. Though it sounds like a recruitment slogan for Little League soccer, the name actually refers to the lost temples of feminine divinity. Pele, you see, is the Hawaiian volcano goddess; the boys, well, they're the sacrifices that quell the rumbling lady's rage. Attempting to regain fires stolen long ago, Pele rewrites the crucifixion to star a girl Jesus and in doing so conjures a forgotten matriarchal mythology. While Amos's characters--Jupiter, Muhammad, Lucifer--are male by name, the aural landscape into which they're thrown is as symbolically and expressionistically female as Georgia O'Keeffe's skull-and-roses paintings. Pele is a complex and formless--and often impenetrable--work of gothic-pop chamber music, both beautiful and ghostly in its nearly complete reliance on Amos's rolling Bosendorfer grand piano, chilling harpsichord (which she bangs like a courtly punk rocker), and acrobatic voice (as earthy as Joni Mitchell's and as otherworldly as Bjork's). Unfortunately, she takes us only halfway: her songs engage and challenge us to understand, but the imagery offers few clues to help us crack their frustrating opacity. Pele ends up as much a pretentious and self-indulgent trip as it is a synthesis of talent, imagination, and skewed vision. Still, there's reason to celebrate that an album as formalistically and thematically alien to pop audiences as Pele would win such quick success upon its original release. --Roni Sarig
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