Tori Amos

Oh Lord, I’m a Sinner
Handcuffed and Empowered, Tori Amos Explores Control

By Dominick Scala

Tori Amos’ latest release “Abnormally Attracted to Sin,” is a boiling cauldron of haunting, thought-provoking lyrics, spiritual confidence and devilishly angelic melodies and rhythms — everything you’d expect from a minister’s daughter. 

I became aware of Amos back in ’94 via some friends who listened to her religiously, and after hearing of Trent Reznor’s backup singing on her first record, back when bootleg live performances (on VHS) were sold at now-extinct mom & pop music shops.  So like any respectable music snob I picked up one of her illegally-taped live shows and soon found myself immediately entranced.  At that point in her career, she toured with no back up band — it was just her and her Bösendorfer. 

Treating the piano as some sort of lover, she ground her hips into the bench, caressed the ivory with her fingers and whaled into the microphone, spilling her insides all over the stage.

I was hooked. 

I made sure I’d see her perform every time she came through town and with each show she seemed to be more maniacal than the next. 

Like most “functioning” artists, Amos was born with talent. But unlike watered down, geriatric, waste of precious time, do-this-cause-it-sells mainstream music, her songs are brutally honest; and she has sewn into them a message.  The message, of course, evolves on each of her albums, from empowerment over victimization to making up your own mind.

Amos has described her own latest album as one on which she “wanted to really investigate how we're controlled by the threat of despair," she told the media. “Abnormally Attracted to Sin” is Amos’ tenth studio album, and she is currently on tour with backing musicians.

"I wanted to look at power and how we think and how you can reclaim the right to think for yourself, to uncover what you believe in as a spiritual, sexual creature,” she said. “You don't need the approval of your family, or of their religion. You can think, 'Wait a minute, I'm a spiritual being. Just because I like gold handcuffs doesn't mean I'm not a spiritual being. These definitions are not for my mother to make about me.' What I am exploring with this record is power, and giving it away with your thinking. How do we become controlled?"

Amos is no stranger to the meaning of sin. She was raised by a Methodist minister who chaperoned piano playing gigs at gay clubs when she was just 13 (he later explained he was confident none of the patrons would be interested in his daughter). His trust and support paid off, however. Amos makes music that sticks with you on the roller coaster ride of being alive, all the while being able to sing you to sleep at the moment before your death — it can surface some of the deepest emotions in you, letting you know that everything will be all right.

Tori Amos will perform at the Fillmore at Jackie Gleason Theater in SouthBeach, July 29 at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $37.50 to $63.00, available at livenation.com

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