Re: Tori--What do you really think?

[as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (andrew david simchik)]

In <m0mzj8W-000ilXC@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu> chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams) writes:


>>My personal views are that Tori is *at least* as talented, original, and
>>brilliant as Kate Herself.  This is because there are times when I'm not in
>>the mood to listen to Kate, but I cannot recall any times when I haven't
>>been in the mood to listen to Tori.

>    This is a somewhat bogus criteria. How many times a day do you want
>to experience the emotional catharsis of _The Ninth Wave_. Any time
>I sit down and listen to it tears well in my eyes, and I get goosebumps.

I'm not talking about listening to it more than once a day.  I can't listen
to LE twice in one day either; it's too draining.  I mean there just hasn't
been a "no Tori today" day, whereas there have been many "no Kate today"
days, not because it's too affecting, but because I just don't feel like it. 
I know someone's good if I can always listen to them

>It can get embarrassing when listening to a walkman on the bus.

So can listening to "This Woman's Work" and being compelled to mouth the
words (if not actually sing them) and crying on the bus!  :)  (tortured
sentence alert)

>>  Tori also pleases me with her albums more;

>    Frankly, "pleasing" me isn't very important either, in evaluating
>the worth of an artist's work. Paula Abdul "pleases" a great many people
>by not challenging them.

I'm not talking about pleasing just anybody, I'm talking about pleasing
*me*.  Not that I'm some highbrow music critic, but I consider myself to
have some modicum of taste, and if I'm pleased by it, there must be
*something* decent about it.  I think Paula Abdul is very challenging--it's
a challenge to sit through an entire album without being nauseous!  :)

>>granted, there's only one album so far (besides WKTR), but there's
>>only one song out of twelve that I find less than amazing ("Me and a Gun",
>>for anyone who cares), whereas there are usually more than 1/12 that I find
>>inferior on Kate's albums. 

>    _Me and a Gun_ "less than amazing"?!? Maybe you need to see her in
>concert...

At the moment, I would *kill* to see her in concert.

>    It was probably the hardest song for her to write, and the one that
>most clearly points out the *differences* between Kate and Tori. Kate
>could *never* write write a song that revealed so much of herself,
>that left her so vunerable, so emotionally naked...and to have the
>guts to perform it *every single night*... 

I agree.  Maybe I'm not as affected by it because I know it's coming.  It
sounds so deadened and unemotional on the album...I'm sure it's better in
concert.

>    Kate, by her Catholic school education, insulated family life, 
>the cultural differences between England and America, has an entirely
>different way of expressing her emotions than Tori. You have to dig
>deep into Kates's music when trying to understand her feelings. Tori
>_wants_ you to know her.

I also see Kate as more theatrical than Tori--you don't know if Kate is
talking about herself or someone else.


>    In some ways this has made Kate the more original composer. Not
>encumbered by the strictures of a classical musical education, blab,
>blab, blab...

Blab is right.  Tori doesn't sound encumbered *at all*.  In fact, I think
it's more encumbering not to have a classical musical education, because you
must know something to escape its confines.

>    I wish everyone could have heard _Sat In Your Lap_ in the context
>of the charts at the time. It was, especially at the time, a stunning
>departure from the rest of the music world. It (and the rest of _The

It still is, in my opinion!  :)  SIYL is one of my favorite Katesongs.


>>Granted, Kate has a certain literary merit, but Tori's music is equally
>>fascinating, just quite different.  And *nobody* does covers like she does.

>   Take a listen to some of Hal Wilner's compilations. Check out Tom
>Waits' "Hi Ho, Hi Ho" on _Stay Awake_ and repeat that with a straight
>face. 

Do you mean that these two do covers the same way Tori does?  Because that's
what I meant.  I wasn't saying her covers were better than everyone
else's....



>                                 Chris Williams of
>                                   Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
>                                      katefans@chinet.chi.il.us
>                                         chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu

>Me: We drove here from Kansas City.
>Del: My, what intrepid Fans...

Drewcifer

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