Re: Tori--What do you really think?

[jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka)]

In article <1992Dec10.183854.28045@bradley.bradley.edu> you write:

>In <9212100522.AA02152@syrinx.umd.edu> jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu writes:

>>I think that _Little Earthquakes_ is a far more impressive debut than
>>_The Kick Inside_.
>
>Aside from the fact that _Little Earthquakes_ is not her Debut,
>I'd agree.  I think _LE_ is easily as strong as most of Kate's work.

You'd rather I'd said "solo debut"?  We'd already established that
Tori had a previous album.  It's also been mostly ignored by everyone
including Tori herself.

>I don't think age can be used as any real basis of comparison.  But
>if you like, my own personal opinion of Kate's recent output (since
>reaching her 30's) is that it is nowhere near as good as her peak was
>(which was well before she reached 29).  If Tori is peaking now at
>29, I don't think that any age comparisons are fair--she took longer,
>but then I think Kate has possibly burned out (we'll see if her next
>album makes me a liar, but it sure seems that TWS was a big step
>down from Hounds... and The Dreaming to me).

Several things.  First of all, there are just too many widely varying
opinions regarding KaTe's work since she reached her 30s.  A surprising
number of people have called TSW their favorite KaTe album.  Me, I think I
place it 4th, after N4E but before TKI.

I do think these age comparisons are fair in that we get the privelege of
owning KaTe's output as she progressed up to he point of TD and HoL and
even TSW.  As I said to Andrew, I'd rather have the variety of albums
than one single album at the peak.


>What were you just saying about Tori?  Why is it that Happy can catch
>up, but you seem to imply that Tori can't?

My reference to Happy was in regards to the level of maturity and songwriting
ability.  Happy's been moving away from self-indulgence as she gotten
older, and her literary ability has gotten better--the ability to portray
herself through other characters and situations, rather than having to rely
on her own mouth to be that of the song's.  LE doesn't have this problem.



>Which is more likely to withstand the test of time:
>
>something that other people can reproduce
>
>or
>
>something that has to be kept safe to be reproduced in its original form
>
>?

You're kidding, right?

In the 18th and 19th century, there was no way of spreading music except
in forms that others could reproduce.  In this age of communication, that
is completely irrelevant and a moot point.  Great visual works of art
are still in existence centuries (and even milennia if you include 
aboriginal cave art) after their creation.  What's your point?

Jeff
-- 
|Jeffrey C. Burka                | "Show what you are / Be strong, be true  |
|                                |  Time for you to / Be who you are."      |
|jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu            |                         --Happy Rhodes   |