eMusic Review 0
On her debut, Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos sang about different types of girls; on its follow-up Under the Pink, she became them. The singer-songwriter's 1994 sophomore album is a grander, fiercer statement, one where Amos allows herself murderous shrieks (the seething tempo-shifter "The Waitress") and moments of feminist religious doubt (the slickly groovy "God"). But she still crafts a handful of beautifully evocative slices of life, like opener "Pretty Good Year," where a circular piano line coaxes away the hours as we "hold on to nothing as fast as you can."
Under the Pink prioritizes Amos's classically tinged keyboard work and octave-jumping vocals, giving the album a sharper aesthetic. Amos even crafts a nearly conventional pop song in "Cornflake Girl," a jazzy romp that rides a relentlessly strummed mandolin. Trent Reznor contributes backing vocals to dark love song "Past the Mission," and the musical whimsy of "The Wrong Band" urges along its question-authority message. But while the album teeters between rocky rave-ups and gentle lullabies that echo the songs' seismic emotional shifts, Amos ends on a decidedly baroque note with the nine-minutes-plus "Yes, Anastasia." Transforming herself into the Russian royal Anastasia Romanov and pounding the keys along to a stirring string… read more »
