audio review : Bang ( song ) … Tori Amos

This song is rather dull and dreary until about the final third when Tori Amos, over spacey electric guitars, starts listing chemical elements from the periodic table. That whole end section, in which she sings of wanting to be “the very best machine I can be”, is rather dazzling. The whole song should sound like that.

my rating : 3 of 5

2017

audio review : Native Invader ( album ) ... Tori Amos

Bang ( song lyrics ) … Tori Amos

Bang ( song lyrics ) ... Tori Amos

Bang went the gun on their tongue.
Word crucifixion toward immigrants shunned.
“Immigrants; that’s who we all are
cause we’re all made of stars,”
you said to them. Ah yes, you did.

Bang went the universe.
Hydrogen lusting for helium’s burst.
A mighty sun’s dance of death;
exploding supernova.
One story’s end seeds another to begin.

Then the Heavens opened and then I heard voices joined in hosannas.
Breathlessly I saw your star.

So bright, it blinded me. I had to shield my eyes.
So bright, it blinded me. I had to shield my eyes.
So bright, it blinded me. I had to shield my eyes.

And then you took my hand. Oh yes, you did.

Bang! The world now traumatized
by a cluster of hostile humans who side
with their warlords of hate.
So we must out-create
with the backbone of night to rehumanize.

Then the Heavens opened and then I heard voices joined in hosannas.
And their tower of confusion could not drown the light from your star.

So bright, it blinded me. I had to shield my eyes.
So bright, it blinded me. I had to shield my eyes.
So bright, it blinded me. I had to shield my eyes.

And then you lit the path. Oh yes, you did.

“Can’t they see,” he said to me, “that we all are molecular machines?”
Goals and dreams. All I wanna be is the very best machine I can be.

Oxygen and carbon; part of our molecular machine.
Goals and dreams. All I wanna be is the very best machine I can be.

Hydrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium.
All I wanna be is the very best machine I can be.

Chlorine, magnesium, boron, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine.
All I wanna be is the very best machine I can be.

Iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium and zinc.
All I wanna be… a molecular machine.

2017

audio review : Native Invader ( album ) … Tori Amos

audio review : Native Invader ( album ) ... Tori Amos

It sounds like this set starts with a ballad about Yoo-hoo, but that would be quirky fun and Tori Amos isn’t about having fun. Her music is sober and somber, so when she stretches “you” out to two syllables, as she does with Reindeer King, she’s just unaware of how silly she sounds.

Native Invader doesn’t get much better from there; this is the land of the dull and the dreary; though there is an exception at the end of Bang when Amos, over spacey electric guitars, starts listing chemical elements from the periodic table. That whole section is rather dazzling.

my rating : 3 of 5

2017

audio review : Unrepentant Geraldines ( album ) … Tori Amos

audio review : audio review : Unrepentant Geraldines ( album ) ... Tori Amos

“Promise not to say that I’m getting too old,” Tori Amos pleads. It’s something that seems to weigh on her mind. 16 Shades Of Blue, the production of which includes some quirky sound effects, is all about aging, but the vocals, like most on the album, don’t go anywhere interesting in the way of melody. That’s a shame because the instrumentation, which often features enchanting piano play, is just ready to wrap itself around a beautiful song.

my rating : 3 of 5

2014