Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is an apologia for Tori Amos' previous album, "The Beekeeper". The strongest criticisms I've seen voiced revolve around the album's overall more cheerful sound.

It would appear that many of Tori's fans long for the days where her music was a vehicle for expressing shame and rage and making aggressive attacks on Christianity.

However, this album is a reflection of her life at present. She's happily married and has a beautiful daughter and many of the lyrics and themes explored on this album reflect the life of a person who put down the sword and embraced all that life has to offer.

As a fan, I that it's a personal decision to embark on a journey of discovery and explore the subtle nuances of everything this album has to offer. The other option being to simply cast it aside to commiserate with the latest nu-metal or pop-rock craze.

First of all, she's grown up, and her sound is as masterful as ever. The themes explored include the transmuting of pain into healing power ("Sweet the Sting"), agape love ("Sleeps with Butterflies"), the Divine Mother ("Marys of the Sea"), the separation of sexuality from the divine ("Original Sinsuality"), the joy of motherhood ("Ribbons Undone"), deaths in the family ("Toast") among others that elude me at present.

I'll let it stand that she did kind of go someplace that most people won't follow with the whole "Bee Shaman" thing, but, once I took the time to understand it, it made perfect sense. Bees are a microcosmic reflection of nature as a whole. Bees breed, labor, network, feed each other, and occupy a crucial part in the ecology of our world. There is much to be learned from bees about our world and about ourselves and what people often take for granted.

I give this album two grateful thumbs up. The sound is polished, refined, and professional. If her art were a fruit this would be the time for harvest. The lyrics are her most accessible ever, and they make sense. I don't know about the rest of you, but none of her lyrics have ever really made a lot of sense to me. I can interpret them, but I always feel as though I'm decoding imagery from our collective unconscious, which I enjoy.

Overall I feel this is her best album yet in terms of arrangements, themes, sound, lyrics, everything. However, most Tori fans missed it, which I don't understand. Maybe I've been listening to her music for so long that I understand the soul's journey from the bondage of sorrow to the liberation of simply putting down the sword. People grow, people change. I'm happy for Tori. biggrin