Little Earthquakes

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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 --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Little Earthquakes
Average customer rating:

Very Alternative

Happy Phantoms

Get sucked into Tori-world

Like a life jacket to me...

Outstanding

Little Earthquakes
Tori Amos
Manufacturer: Atlantic / WEA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Singer-Songwriters | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Adult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Heroes | Warner Brothers Records | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Under the Pink

Boys for Pele

From the Choirgirl Hotel

Scarlet's Walk

The Beekeeper

ASIN: B000002IT2
Release Date: 1992-02-25

Tracks:

Crucify
Girl
Silent All These Years
Precious Things
Winter
Happy Phantom
China
Leather
Mother
Tear In Your Hand
Me And A Gun
Little Earthquakes

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews:

Very Alternative.......2007-05-14

I liked this album. I waited a long time for it. It's got a more alternative style to it. There's a little rebellion in there as well (which Tori can be known for). I loved the last song on the disk, "Little Earthquakes." It's probably the dartkest of all the songs on the album. I still can't quite understand it, but it's good anyway. The album overall is great. I would recommend this album to all of the new Tori listeners because it is a bit easier to understand then some of her other ones. Overall, it is a great album and I highly recommend it.

Happy Phantoms.......2007-04-19

Opening up with the brilliant "Crucify" and one of my favorite lines ever (I've got so much guilt I could start my own religion), this is the ultimate in the Tori experience. Sure, she's gone on to other things including a fairly brilliant turn at a more electro style but for the most part Tori has tended to bore me as the years go by. I know there's a ton of Torifanatics out there ready to lynch me but I can't help it. Little Earthquakes is a brilliant album and nothing else in her catalog really compares. My ultimate favorite on the entire album is "Tear In Your Hand" which is probably the most poppy and filled song on the album, (I think she's just pieces of me that you've never seen) but the piano intro of "Silent All These Years" and its excellent take on a bored housewife theme, at least to me, it's like an update of "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan" to me, and it's a testament to know that will only a piano backing, this song is one of the most powerful things ever recorded - so you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts/ well what's so amazing about really deep thoughts/ boy, you best pray that I bleed real soon/ how's that thought for you. Brilliant, vindictive, pissy, everything I like. "Precious Things" with its story of teen anguish, feels like I lived the whole song with Tori (I want to smash the faces of all the beautiful boys/ those Christian boys/ so you can make me cum that doesn't make you Jesus). "Happy Phantom" with its happy little piano chord and not so pleasantries is a gem. The acapella horror of "Me & A Gun" still resonates all these years later, particularly when you find out it is a true story. When this album came out I hadn't really heard anything like it before. Sure, there's Kate Bush but this new breed Tori was just a little more edgy. Of course the entire time Tori has been recording, Kate was taking a sabbatical and I wonder if Kate just got bored of listening to Tori as well and that's why she finally came out of the woodwork. Well, no matter what this album stands the test of time as one of the best albums ever released.

Get sucked into Tori-world.......2007-04-08

Tori Amos has released a lot of brillant albums since Little Earthquakes, nonetheless, this remains her most accessible album and the easiest way to get sucked into Tori-world, and begin to get interested in other, deeper stuff by her. It sucked me in. Every track is brillant. No filler. All killer Tori.

Crucify - This is a sharp one. She explains the suffering we put ourselves through, but Tori's never whiny, rather strongly accepting that she's crucifying herself. She wants out, but till then she can handle it.

Girl - Girl is a sweet mid-tempo track with the incredibly catchy hook "She's been everybody else's girl. Maybe one day she'll be her own." Very vividly describes the naïveté of youth and the challenge of growing up.

Silent All These Years - I heard this one first. It was on an acoustic piano collection and this sucked me (like many other fans) into Tori-world. It talks about the suffering of having to be silent, almost abused, and shut up, but manages to remain sweet and catchy. "My scream got lost in a paper cup. Do you think there's a heaven where's some screams have gone?" ;)

Precious Things - This song feels instantly heavy and claustrophobic and loud and rocking. I kinda interpret it as teenage angst and rebellion ("Little fascist panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl." Ehem...), but I'm not quite sure.

Winter - This remains one of her sweetest ballads. The lyrics are incredibly poignant and sincere and she means every word when she sings. About growing up and has some points of exchange between Tori and her dad. "All the white horses are still in bed, I tell you that I'll always want you near. You say that things change, my dear."

Happy Phantom - This is a funny one, with Tori imagining dying and becoming the Happy Phantom. It has some wise insight on death and dealing with it, "The sun is getting dim, will we pay for who we've been?" and how people whom we leave behind will soon learn to live without us, "Do we soon forget the things we cannot see?"

China - This is another sweet sweet ballad. Now about being in a relationship where the other person shuts you out and how hard you try to bring them back. "You're right next to me, but I need an airplane."

Leather is a searing sorta-black comedic song about not being truly loved in a relationship, "Look i'm standing naked before you. Don't you want more than my sex?" The Leather is a kind of metaphor for consolation in such a situation.

Mother, despite being the longest track on the album, is actually quite catchy. After one listened you won't feel completely affected, but later on you'll find yourself singing, "Mother, the car is here. Somebody leave the light on." It's about leaving home and finding independence, with all the fear of changing and the like. "Just in case I like the dancing, I can remember where I come from."

Tear In Your Hand is one of the most charming break-up songs I've ever heard. About a guy who's found someone else and Tori wonders, "I can't believe you're leaving 'cuz me and Charles Manson like the same ice cream." and pleads, "maybe she's just pieces of me you've never seen" That maybe Tori had everything the other woman had and more. What's incredible about how she sings it, it's not one of those, I'll-sweep-your-floors-and-serve-you-hand-and-foot-if-you-take-me-back songs. Eventually she realizes, "Cutting my hands up, every time I touch you. Maybe it's time to wave goodbye now."

Me And A Gun is probably the most painful song on the album. Tori was raped once at knifepoint and the song sears and burns your heart as she sings: "It was me and a gun and a man on my back and i sang 'holy holy'
as he buttoned down his pants" You can feel her violation, her mutilation, her anger.

Little Earthquakes culminates the album as it talks about the need for some degree of suffering, of pain to feel alive, to be alive, showing that all the pain and angst all through the album are not wholly bad things. You live and you learn. You go on, but without, you are numb. "Give me life. Give me pain. Give me myself again."

Tori exorcised many of her personal demons on this album and she did it poignantly. She never sounds like a victim. This is no pity-me-I've-had-such-a-bad-life album. She sounds like she's valiantly telling the world: These things happened to me. I'm laying myself bare. You can listen. And I say you owe it to yourself to take that invitation.

Like a life jacket to me..........2006-11-30

This CD, from start to finish, saved me from one of the darkest period of my life---offering hope, light, and a sense that someone else had been so down as I had. "Silent All These Years" was my voice at a time...

Outstanding.......2006-10-27

A very important album in every way. Every song is perfect! Beautiful voice, incredible compositions and an unforgettably poignant statement of human being's complexities and intricate emotional turmoils! Couldn't recommend it enough! Tori is magic in all her albums!

Average customer rating:

Little Earthquakes/Boys for Pele

Manufacturer: Wea/Atlantic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000C3WC5
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Tracks:

Beauty Queen/horses
Blood Roses
Father Lucifer
Professional Widow
Mr Zebra
Marianne
Caught A Lite Sneeze
Muhammad My Friend
Hey Jupiter
Way Down
Little Amsterdam
Talula
Not The Red Baron
Agent Orange
Doughnut Song
In The Sprintime Of His Voodoo
Putting The Damage On
Twinkle
Crucify
Girl
Silent All These Years
Precious Things
Winter
Happy Phantom
China
Leather
Mother
Tear In Your Hand
Me And A Gun
Little Earthquakes

Album Description

Australian twofer combines the albums Little Earthquakes (1992) and Boys For Pele (1996), Features 30 tracks including 'Caught A Lite Sneeze', 'Professional Widow', 'Crucify', 'Silent All These Years', 'Winter' and more . Two standard jewel cases in a slipcase. Atlantic/WSM.

Album Details

Features the Albums "Little Earthquakes" and "Boys for Pele".

Music:

Music

music

Music

Voyeur

Bruce Neswick, Organist

Cantabile-Famous Encores

Feel Like a Woman

Doowop Jukebox [Import]

Creation Chant [Import]

Come Dream with Me

Britten: Folksong Arrangements Vol1; Sonnets Op22

Chronicles 92 - 98 [Import]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5; Dvorak: Symphony No. 8

Bam Bam Bam

Boogaloo to Jack McDuff

Canta Armando Moreno V.1 [Import]

Bach: Violin Concertos in A & E minor/Concerto for Two Violins/Orchestral Suite

A Good Git-Together