floatingcity's Full Review: Scarlet's Walk by Tori Amos
A ‘sonic novel’ encompassing a cross-country US trip, “Scarlet’s Walk” sees Tori Amos settling comfortably into the titular woman’s shoes as she explores America’s political and social climates following the September 11th terrorist atrocities. With 18 songs, over 70 minutes of music and no state left unvisited, she is certainly providing the listener with much quantity for their money; and happily there is a nice amount of quality too.
Heralded as a return to form after her previous rock and electronica influenced albums, “Scarlet’s Walk” is a significant step up after the poorly conceived covers compendium “Strange Little Girls”. Once again donning the hats of composer, lyricist, player and producer, Tori goes back to her singer-songwriter roots, stripping away the synthesised instruments and focusing on piano, vocals, drums, guitar and bass. The switch suits the topics and themes well, and makes the disc sound great played loud while driving. The production is clean, crisp and warm and as such works perfectly with the material, providing both opulence and sparseness at the right moments. Although time seems to have stripped Tori of some of her operatic high notes, her singing style remains distinctive: lower-pitched but still technically strong and expressive. Likewise, her lyrics have lost some of their old oblique nature – there’s still plenty of complex wordplay and imagery, but thankfully it’s not as forced or pretentious as it felt on “Boys For Pele”.
Scarlet’s journey begins strongly with “Amber Waves”, which tells the story of a young LA woman sucked “from ballet class, to a lap dance,straight to video” before being spat back out by the porn industry. It has a surprisingly catchy chorus and a lovely piano section as Scarlet is asked to check that the Northern Lights are still shining; they obviously are, suggesting that hope can still flourish during a particularly dark hour.
No journey would be complete without a torrid love affair, and Scarlet experiences “A Sorta Fairytale” with a guy she meets. The track is one of Tori’s most radio-friendly songs ever: subtle, catchy and with another nice and memorable chorus. There’s even a bit of emotional resonance as Scarlet realises the guy isn’t for her and gets “lost in the rearview”. Third track “Wednesday” is short, cute and bouncy, with a nice Beatles influence and a baseline that bobs up and down like a child on a seesaw, while “Strange” is a calm quiet ballad with some pleasant strings and thoughtful lyrics as Scarlet considers her break-ups: “You said ‘we’ll build a nest’/So I left my life, tried on your friends, your opinions/So when the bridges froze and you did not come home/ I put our snowflake under the microscope”.
The album’s more politically charged themes appear in other tracks. The otherwise disposable, a-cappella “Wampum Prayer” reminds that the modern West has been abuser as well as victim; while “Sweet Sangria” examines the notion of war: “I know your people have suffered time and time again/But I ask you now, what about the innocents on both sides?” It’s another calmly catchy groove, although I prefer the darker-sounding “Pancake”, which has good bass and guitar interplay with the album’s most confrontational lyrics: “I believe in defending what we once stood for/It seems in vogue, to be a closet, misogynist homophobe” “You could have spared her – oh but no, Messiahs need people dying in their name”. Tori is suitably angry throughout, and although she hits a few grating, throaty low notes, there’s a certain satisfaction to be had as she growls: “You give me yours, I’ll give you mine/’Cause I can look your God right in the eye”. “I Can’t See New York” trades anger for grief, a slowly ascending piano line and heavy drums paving the way for a pensive, emotional vocal; the chorus is especially harrowing with its lyrics and imagery, as a woman Scarlet knows gets on a flight to New York, but never makes it off the plane.
However, the album’s political commentary is not limited to criticising more right-wing philosophy. In the string-drenched, fluid “Mrs. Jesus”, Scarlet meets a strongly religious man who uses his beliefs to help others rather than judge them; while the incredibly catchy “Taxi Ride” is equally willing to point the finger at politically liberal individuals who conceal their own bigotry under political correctness. In this song Scarlet learns of the death of a gay friend, but is disgusted when she realises fellow ‘mourners’ simply see him as “Just another dead f*g”. Despite its sad overtones, it’s probably the most memorable song on the record and the best place to start if the mammoth track listing proves intimidating. “Another Girl’s Paradise” is one of the album’s more forgettable songs, but posits that maybe problems are simply caused by an unchanging human nature; “Carbon” echoes this with the album’s most complex and layered piano work as Scarlet takes a ride with a manic-depressive; needless to say, the two do not stay together for very long.
Although most of this CD is quite good, some parts of Scarlet’s journey are far less interesting than others. As an 18-track disc full of radio-friendly, adult-contemporary songs, it’s quite possible for several to slip past in a bland, homogeneous mass. “Crazy” is nice but uninteresting and proves the album’s first weak point after the interesting opening five, while the title track has a few nice harmonies but slides by without leaving an impression. Likewise, “Your Cloud” has a few jazzy touches but is incredibly dull, while “Don’t Make Me Come To Vegas” boasts a cool shuffling baseline spoiled by not having anything interesting around it. Fortunately, the album closes on a strong note with the twangy, banjo-inflected “Virginia” and regal, piano-and-orchestral number “Gold Dust”, in which Scarlet has a child and comes to realise that the original values of a nation will be reborn in its new generation.
As a ‘sonic novel’, “Scarlet’s Walk” is like most good, lengthy tomes: complex and full of plot, it produces a satisfying conclusion even though some of the constituent chapters are weaker than the others. That said, there’s something worth hearing on just about every song here, even if only “Amber Waves”, “A Sorta Fairytale” and “Taxi Ride” have the required kick to reach classic status. Nicely written, performed and produced, there’s something here to appeal to anyone with any interest in female singer-songwriter music – even if it does take a willingness to listen, pause and replay, and the ability to differentiate between subtlety and emptiness. “Little Earthquakes” and “From The Choirgirl Hotel” may have been more startling and powerful records, but “Scarlet’s Walk” details the continued development of Tori Amos while providing a satisfying and complex listen.
On Scarlet s Walk, her seventh album, Tori Amos does a great description of something beautiful. It s the latest transmission from Tori, full of wordp...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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