The Tori Thread
 

Okay, so I figured it was time for one of this. I have had a Tori signature of about two years straight now and reference her a lot in discussion on the boards, so I figured I'd make a thread so those of us that listen to her music can discuss it in a more suitable place and not derail threads. I'm looking at you Merman, we are a dangerous combo hah.

So what with her new album news, there is a lot going on. Did everyone hear about that yet? Abnormally Attracted to Sin, May 19th, cover and set list released yesterday (check www.undented.com). I'm looking forward to the SXSW preview shows and the in studio. I wonder when we will get an official first single?

May is still a long way to go, so I'd say maybe in a month or so...
I'm not sure about the cover though, and that to get the whole thing you HAVE to buy the deluxe edition because only then you get the short films. Nothing unexpected, but it makes the standard edition pretty worthless then. I hope then that the price difference won't be big, but it probably still won't be readily available for me - here I could only buy the standard edition of ADP because nobody sold the DVD version in my town. At least the ADP DVD wasn't worth much :D
ONLY 17 tracks also sounds better than 23, I'm hoping for a compact album this time. It doesn't have to last 80 minutes to be good.

I don't mean to be negative nancy but I can't say I'm too excited about this album. The cover and the title seem... self indulgent? The long track list, the "visualettes" that go with each track... I don't know, so far I just don't like this direction.

Tori was the reason I watched Gundam SEED

:lol::lol::lol:
:P:P:P
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Isn't "self indulgent" what she gets probably since Little Earthquakes?
She's come up with the shortest tracklist since Strange Little Girls, Scarlet's Walk was 18 tracks, The Beekeeper 19 tracks and one "b-side", and ADP had 23 tracks on the standard edition and, I think 3 "b-sides".
The concept also seems much more loose this time, more like a theme really. Of course, maybe she's going to speak up more on that topic in some time, but so far no mention of anything comparable with The Beekeeper's gardens system (actually the concept and system were pretty amazing on paper, it just didn't have that much effect on the listening experience), where she was probably the most elaborate to date, or American Doll Posse's five archetypal Dolls came up. I understood it that she's just challenging the concept and definition of "sin" in today's world, which is pretty interesting in itself.
May 19 seems so far away though it's really not... I'm hoping to get my hands on the deluxe edition on the day of the release, and not listening to a leak before that.

this project is exciting and has potential for a couple reasons, although I'm trying to keep it down so as to not become disappointed potentially. This project occured in a way much similar as To Venus and Back, meaning it came out of spurts of creativity and happy accidents while she was supposed to finishing up work on other material. In the case of TVAB it was a b-sides rarities collection to finish up her record deal so she could move on and release new work, but that lead to random surprise creativity and some of her most experimental and amazing work. This time around, she was writing a lot of music on tour and they were putting together road footage montages for the eventual ADP tour DVD and suddenly all this music and ideas came to her, and that is where the visualettes came from. It is vague if they are actually footage from the road during the tour, or footage of the dolls, or what, but it kind of came out of left field I guess, and that is a good thing if you ask me.

Tori gets these huge concepts and works to have the albums tell these stories and sometimes they are so lofty it ends up holding her back. This time around there isn't any concept really, just a loose idea of "sin" and how it means many things and is conceptualized differently in different cultures. You could say Little Earthquakes is about the same thing and you wouldn't be stretching it too far. ADP, TBK, SW, SLG, they were all concept albums, the last time we had an album with a singular vague theme was From the Choirgirl Hotel really, and that was simply relating around miscarriages and the voices of the children who never were to be, etc. The same goes for all her earlier work, just kind of loose themes. So this is the first time in a long time she hasn't had a strong concept, so a lot of the ears with feet are super happy.

The title, I do agree, is a little indulgent. The photo is intriguing in a way, I mean at this point no one knows what to expect really. But I think the title coming from the name of a song is a good thing in the end, it shows that someone wasn't trying to hard to find a way to connect all the music in an umbrella category. The track length is a bit shorter and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet simply because 17 tracks can be just as long as the 23 on ADP, so there is no way to tell until the track lengths are revealed. I saw her live solo in Boston a few years back and she stretched out the songs and held out each note so long it almost became unenjoyable. When she is confined to following a set time structure with a band it can work out a lot better for her. So, at this current place and time, there is nothing but positive things to think about. Only a week to go to SXSW and we get to hear some new work, woo hoo!

Well, if you guys say this is more of a theme than a concept then that's very encouraging. Lets see what comes next week!

and 17, 19, 23 tracks- there's not much of a difference to me. They're all too long. I love BFP but I still think it's too long...

Yeah I DO agree with that and personally would probably be more content with around 12 tracks with the rest being released in some other way (and there sure are ways, right?), I was pointing more in the direction that it's the shortest in last years and it's probably the most compact we're going to get from her nowadays.
Of course I'm not the one to judge whether this is a concept and that is a theme, since they aren't that far apart... but for me it's a theme. I agree with neko also on the point with To Venus and Back, together with Choirgirl they're my two favorite Tori albums, with TVAB being the more cohesive and, well, compact one.

look at this way. the days of the single are gone. tori herself has said that she doesn't compose more or less music now than she did at her debut, its just a matter that before they would pick a lower count for the album and the left overs would be scattered across singles as b-sides, whereas now we don't have singles so she puts most if not all of them on the album and then leaves one or two b-sides, usually included with the packaging someway, like on a dvd.

also, in terms of an LP, I know that any more than 10 songs is a loss of money for the artist. By definition of an LP, that is what you are paying for, to include more tracks than that on an album actually costs the record company MORE money to include and subsequently is a lose of money for the label and artist. so every album we see over 10 tracks from is generally because the artist has a vision for the album, and isn't just slapping together 10 tracks for a release.