TITLE: To Venus and Back ARTIST: Tori Amos YEAR: 1999 FORMAT: Cassette
I paid an ugly amount for this extremely rare double cassette release because I’m Boo Boo The Fool. As my friend put it though, we stan talent!
Between Tori fans, Venus is criminally underrated due to its placement in her canon. It comes after a string of what is known to be her 4 best albums. Because this is her first album that’s considered Great and not Absolutely Flawless in Every Aspect, it tends to get left in the dust. That’s a damn shame considering it has some incredible deep cuts on it.
1999 was a hard time for Tori. She had a series of miscarriages that left her drained emotionally and she was fighting tooth and nail with a record company that would not promote her music properly (an exec actually screamed “I OWN YOU, TORI AMOS” in her face during a meeting). Before Venus was released, she owed Atlantic 3 more albums. This album was originally to be a collection of b-sides and rarities but new songs started coming to Tori, despite not wanting to give Atlantic any new songs. Once she had an album’s length of material she decided to turn it into a double album, with the second half being songs recorded during her famous Plugged ‘98 tour. I have to say that she ended up choosing some of the least interesting songs of the tour and I almost never listen to the live disc as a result. Her husband convinced her to include one of the more boring live tracks (can’t even remember which) instead of the band version of Liquid Diamonds which still baffles me to this day. Anyway by releasing this as a double album, Tori only owed Atlantic one last album. Enter 2001′s Strange Little Girls, with no Tori-penned songs in sight.
To date Venus is her most outwardly electronic album. I miss electronic Tori, it’s been a while since Abnormally Attracted to Sin, bring her back.
KEY TRACKS: Bliss, Juárez, Glory of the 80s, Suede, Dātura, Spring Haze, Precious Things (Live), Sugar (Live), The Waitress (Live), Purple People (Live) NOTABLE B-SIDES: Zero Point, Upside Down (Live)













