Turn That Whiskey Into Rain

Tori Amos “Big Wheel” – Even though she gave me every reason to ignore and/or dislike her recent work, I was very wrong to assume that it was all over for Tori Amos. She’s a clever and immensely talented woman, but much like Bjork, her last few records were burdened by cumbersome and not especially compelling concepts, an emphasis on her least endearing quirks, and a curious lack of playfulness. The last point was the most troubling for me — both Bjork and Amos’ best work gained strength from their peculiar sense of humor and willful perversity, but as the former threw herself into chilly austerity, the latter was remaking herself as a bland adult contemporary artist without even being particularly subversive in the process.

“Big Wheel” is a return to the sly, twisted Tori that I enjoy the most; the one who wrote songs like “She’s Your Cocaine,” “In the Springtime of His Voodoo,” and “Professional Widow.” You know, the Tori who gleefully appropriates the style of other genres (in this case, rowdy Dixie Chicks country rock), tweaks their lyrical archetypes, and remakes them in her image. “Big Wheel” is effortlessly fun and revels its own novelty, especially when Amos chants “I am a M.I.L.F., don’t you forget” at the end, knowing full well that the line is going to end up quoted in every bit of press that she’s going to get for the next few years. On one level, she’s fucking with us, and on another, she’s fucking with her characters and her cult of personality. Also: It’s true, obviously. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Half Cousin “Jim’s Crash Memory” – A lot of the lyrics pass by in a haze, but the title of this song seems about right — the entire composition sounds like a person trying to reconstruct a fractured memory. Some of the pieces are missing, and other unrelated bits are accidentally set in place, abstracting the truth. Rhythmic elements that would have normally supported the structure are foregrounded in a way that renders familiar feel somewhat alien, whereas the sort of sounds that would attract attention or act as a connecting thread are either absent or intentionally subdued, making the track come across like a pop song that has been turned inside-out. (Click here to buy it from Gronland Records.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Jarvis Cocker, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, and They Must Be Russians.