Emotionally and musically intense, Little Earthquakes shows that the piano is as much a rock & roll instrument as the guitar. Tori Amos's debut (if one disregards Y Kant Tori Read, as one would be well advised to do) is at once listenable and challenging; she takes on every topic, from sex to gender to religion, in an uncompromising manner. Her music appears gentle at first, but this appearance is deceiving, as one quickly learns upon listening to the wrenching "Crucify" or the almost violent "Precious Things." By the time the album gets around to "Me and a Gun," sung hauntingly by Amos without accompaniment from her piano, the juxtaposition of Amos' sweet voice and the emotional complexity of her lyrics is both familiar and shocking. Sandman fans should listen for a reference to author Neil Gaiman in "Tear in Your Hand." --Genevieve Williams

2008-12-27 -- 5/5:: Dynamic singer-songwriting talent
Tori Amos is one of the rare artists who excel at almost everything -- singing, songwriting, melody, beat, arrangement, vocal quality. She's in league with the best: Cole Porter, David Wilcox, Joni Mitchell. Her songs are fiercely feminine with a creative individuality taking surprising turns and twists. That sometimes her choruses and bridges within songs turn so unexpectedly that they're not always recognizable as integral to the song is sometimes a delight, because they continually catch the listener off balance. The effect is a heightened sense of freedom -- that Tori Amos can go ANYWHERE and make it work musically. She's mastered the difficult art of making the piano sound crisp and clear while bringing out it's wonderful percussive qualities. Her best song is "Winter", a tour-de-force of haunting quality and lyrical power which will stick in listener's minds with cold imagery while Amos shifts her perspective as a young girl facing the scary prospect of rapid adolescence to her father encouraging her to love herself. Some lyrics are a touch confusing, like New Yorker poems, but her sharp, distinct voice is a pleasure. Terrific album! Five stars!!!!!

2008-12-23 -- 5/5:: "Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again."
Ok, so here's the thing. I decided that I was going to sit down and write a well-thought-out, non-sycophantic review of this album. After what I would say was at least several months of attempting to do this, I came to the realization that this just isn't going to happen. So instead I am going to do this:

I love Tori Amos. A lot. I worship her like the godlike human being that she is. I want to build some manner of spacecraft so that I can extol her greatness across the face of the moon. I would love to be able to just sit and watch her do...anything. Just writing music, playing piano, eating a sandwich, dusting, it doesn't matter. Just to have the opportunity to stand in her presence would be as humbling and thrilling of an experience as I can imagine. I would say that I'd love to have a conversation with her as well, but I am so intimidated by her greatness that I'm not sure I could actually speak to her as an equal. Whatever talents I may have in any capacity are infinitely dwarfed by what this woman does.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that this album is incredibly amazing. It's not even so much an album as a window into the tortured soul of a beautiful and amazing person. Yes, I used the word "amazing" twice in a row there, and as a writer I normally try to avoid such repetition, but here it's too fitting to change. From the mesmerizing melancholia of "Winter" and "China" to the fun and whimsical "Happy Phantom" and "Leather", to the vitriolic "Precious Things", this is really an emotional roller coaster like no other.

At first, you might think something light-hearted shouldn't go here, but you soon realize that you needed that break when you get to "Me and a Gun", which is so unbelievably heart-breaking that I sometimes have to skip over it because it's almost too much to take. Even with nothing but her voice, she conveys so much emotional power here it's staggering. The prose is blunt and almost rambling, which perfectly reflects the mental state of going through such a tramatic experience. If you don't already know what this song's about, you can look it up somewhere, because I really can't talk about it in greater detail. The very thought of it just angers me to no end. As I said, I sometimes have to skip this song, especially considering it's not even over here. After nearing being ripped to pieces by this song, the amazing title track follows to close it all, and the combination is nearly enough to crush you flat. This is beauty that no written language could possibly do justice.

Well, I could continue showering this album with praise until I'm left with something that makes "War and Peace" look like a pamphlet, but I'll stop here. In all seriousness, Tori Amos is a really incredible person, not just as a singer and a songwriter, but as a person in general. To be able to to go through the kind of crap that she has and still have a great personality and a great sense of humor is a real testament to the strength of her character, and "impressive" doesn't even begin to describe it.

In short, anyone who aspires to be this good is almost certainly doomed to fail.

2008-09-30 -- 5/5:: A poignant document of the anti-commercial wave of the early '90s
Tori Amos may be her own running gag these days (what with the wigs and costumes), but no one can argue that she made it big for no reason. In 1992, Tori had to prove that a singer-songwriter album made entirely on piano can achieve commercial success. It sold over two million copies worldwide and gave her a cult following. All these years later, it's still a testament for this woman and her fading talent. After the embarrassment of the "Y Kant Tori Read" project, Amos turned to her true love--composing the piano pieces and intimate lyricism. The pop accessibility of the record is timeless and the stark lyrics set to excellent piano playing make it an everlasting piece of art. Every song on the record is a gem of its own.

The opening track and the first single, "Crucify", discusses the suffering we undergo for love and approval. "Girl" is about accepting one's own self and becoming an independent individual. "Silent All These Years" is about finding one's own voice, while "Precious Things" brings back memories of childhood. "Winter" is about losing a safety net and standing up for yourself. Tori's topics include, but aren't limited to, religion and sexuality. Even if things get too melodramatic, she creates some space for a lighthearted number such as "Happy Phantom". "China" includes some of the best lyrics on the whole album ("sometimes, I think you want me to touch you/but how can I, when you've built a Great Wall around you?") and "Leather" has a wonderful strings arrangement.

The orchestration of the record is complementary to the songs, to say the least, always adding a nice touch to them and improving on Amos' lone instrumentation (strings are put to good use in "Girl", "Winter" and "Leather"). "Mother" is something of a weak track on the record, but it's no less endearing than the rest of the material found on "Little Earthquakes". The record ends on a high note with three amazing songs in a row--"Tear in Your Hand", which namedrops the world's most googled Neil (Tori's chum Gaiman), "Me and a Gun" which relives some of the most terrifying moments in Amos' life and the closing title track which remains the strongest song of her entire career.

The often overlooked therapeutic role of the record is one of its main strengths. "Little Earthquakes" ostensibly shows Amos as a truly honest human being who was as powerful as much as fragile. It's still a poignant document of the anti-mainstream wave of the early '90s and it is one of its greatest albums. Amos kept growing as an artist on the subsequent records before reaching an artistic breakdown and making some perplexing choices, but "Little Earthquakes" showcases her at her most mature and confident stage in life. After listening to this record, you'll feel like you've been hanging out with the dream king yourself.

2008-09-18 -- 5/5:: great cd
it is a great cd i love the cd it is great oh my god it is so sweet i just cant believe it.

2008-05-26 -- 4/5:: Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos
A beautiful CD, especially when I'm relaxing.
The music reminds me on Kate Bush's melodious & powerful songs.