Tori Amos - Night Of Hunters (3.5/5)

So I've been catching up on some new music that I hadn't listented to (or barely listented to) after buying in the last year or two to see what I've been missing.  Figured I might as well write about it, since that's kind of one of the reasons I started this blog.  This blog that I seem to have abandoned since I don't really listen to much music, or watch any TV or movies, or read too many books or comics lately. (Huh.  So what do I do in my leisure time, any way?  That might be a question worth exploring in a blog some time soon as well, if I could only bother to try to figure out the answer.)

So, anyway, here we go....


Tori Amos returns (last September) with "Night of Hunters," a concept album in which she marries variations on classical music with her own style of baroque pop.  I had put this on my iPhone, along with Björk's latest, "Biophilia" last fall for a drive down to a family gethering in Kentucky.  While I made it through Björk's album a couple of times, I think I turned this off after about 3 tracks, perhaps at the point where her daughter makes her duetting debut.  I just couldn't deal with Tori being so Tori.  So has 6 months changed my mind about it?  Sort of. 

This, like 2009's "Midwinter Graces" (her second album that year!) is certainly a step in the right direction.  By leaving behind her usual backing and touring band, she may be pulling herself out of the tasteful adult contemporary rut that I feel that she's been in for her last several releases.  2009's other album, "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" (as best as I can remember fromt he 2 or 3 listens I gave that one) also helped her to break another rut, however briefly, which is the gimmicky concept album.  Well that gimmick is obviously back here, but musically, Tori sounds much fresher than she has since the string of "concept" albums that she began with 2001's "Strange Little Girls" and continued through to "American Doll Posse" and then the seasonal "Midwinter Graces."  Despite it being at the very core of the album, and more up-front than most of those other releases, the gimmick does not get in the way here.  Yes, everything still sounds a bit same-y by the end, but you can tell that Tori is inspired by the variations she's creating on the source material, which inclues Bach, Debussy, Schubert and Chopin (among others).  Perhaps that, plus working with other musicians than she usually does, has helped her to create something that sounds more raw and passionate than she has in years.  There are flashes of "Pink"/"Pele"/"Choirgirl" Tori here, while still retaining the tasteful maturity of her last decade of work.

Still, in the end, I'm not sure this is an album that I will revisit very often.  It was a bit of a chore to get through the 3 times I've listened to it in the last day and a half just to determine whether or not I'm interestesed in investing my time and attention to it.  Perhaps that it is because it feels overly long, but by the end, I feel myself completely zoning out, unable to determine where one song ends and another begins.  This is a problem that has plagued many of Tori's last several albums.  With the death of the physical single and the b-side, she's obviously been throwing every song that she's got in the can on her discs.  While this is an easy strategy for getting more music to her fans, there are better venues for this with the advent of iTunes and other digital retail outlets and streaming opportunities - even a digital EP with a limited physical edition sold through her own website - that would allow for a more satisfying listen where albums are concerned.  As I've always said, show me an album over 40-50 minutes, and I'll show you some filler.  If only I could remember what the filler on this disc is.