Carry (song)

Last updated
"Carry"
CoverArtToriAmosCarrySingle.jpg
Single by Tori Amos
from the album Night of Hunters
ReleasedAugust 18, 2011
Genre Classical, baroque pop
Length4:07
Label Deutsche Grammophon
Songwriter(s) Tori Amos, Claude Debussy
Producer(s) Tori Amos
Tori Amos singles chronology
"A Silent Night with You"
(2009)
"Carry"
(2011)
"Flavor"
(2012)

"Carry" is a song by American recording artist Tori Amos, released as the main promotional single from the album Night of Hunters (2011). The track was released Aug 18, 2011 as a digital download only with an accompanying video clip.

Contents

Background and release

Like the rest of the tracks on the album, Carry builds upon a classical composition, with musical variations, arrangement and added lyrics by Amos. Carry is a variation on La fille aux cheveux de lin (Girl with the Flaxen Hair), originally released in 1909 by French composer Claude Debussy. [1] In addition to piano by Amos, the track features instrumentation by the Apollon Musagète Quartet.

Carry is the last track of the album and the final piece in the song cycle and narrative story that spans the entire album. After the tumultuous shattering of the protagonist's relationship to her lover early in the album, and the emotional processing and understanding that subsequently follows, Carry describes the protagonist having despite it all found an eternal place in her heart for her lover. The lyrics are about coming to terms with the fact that people can disappear from your life without being forgotten, and that they can still remain a part of you. In a track-by-track introduction of "Night of Hunters" for Amazon.com, Amos writes: "With the dawn comes Carry, and the sentiment: you will not ever be forgotten by me, in the procession of the mighty stars your name is sung and tattooed now on my heart, here I will carry, carry, carry you forever.". [2]

The song was performed live regularly during the artist's Night of Hunters tour in support of the album.

An instrumental version of "Carry" appears on Sin Palabras, the instrumental companion album to Night of Hunters, released in December 2011. [3]

Reception

Rolling Stone found "Carry" to be one of the prettiest moments on the album, describing it as a lush closer. [4] Slant Magazine complimented it as a captivating melody, but felt the album as a whole was without pop structure or notable hooks. [5] Writing for All Music Guide, Thom Jurek describes "Carry" as the most powerful and accessible track on the album. [6] Glide Magazine's reviewer felt "Carry" along with its preceding track "Seven Sisters" acted as an ideal couple to end the album. [7]

Video clip

The accompanying video clip features Amos playing the piano and singing the track in the studio, edited together with scenes from the Irish landscape and the Georgian style house owned by Amos, where the photoshoot for the album art took place. Amos' daughter acts the part of "Anabelle" from the album's narrative in the video clip. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tori Amos</span> American singer

Tori Amos is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five, the youngest person ever to have been admitted. She had to leave at the age of eleven when her scholarship was discontinued for what Rolling Stone described as "musical insubordination". Amos was the lead singer of the short-lived 1980s pop group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving her breakthrough as a solo artist in the early 1990s. Her songs focus on a broad range of topics, including sexuality, feminism, politics, and religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Me and a Gun</span> 1991 song by Tori Amos

"Me and a Gun" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos. It was released as the first single from her debut studio album Little Earthquakes and is her debut single under the name Tori Amos. It was released on October 21, 1991 by Atlantic Records in North America and EastWest Records in the UK.

<i>Scarlets Walk</i> 2002 studio album by Tori Amos

Scarlet's Walk is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos. It was released on October 28, 2002 in the UK and October 29 in the US on Epic Records, making it her first release on the label after her split with Atlantic Records. Her first studio album of original material since To Venus and Back in 1999, the 18-track concept album details the cross-country travels of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, and was greatly inspired by the changes in American society and politics post-September 11, 2001. Topics explored on the album include nationalism, personal relationships, and the death of a close friend. Amos also took inspiration from the stories of her grandfather, who she claims was Cherokee and told her of the abuses against Native Americans throughout the United States' history.

Cad Goddeu is a medieval Welsh poem preserved in the 14th-century manuscript known as the Book of Taliesin. The poem refers to a traditional story in which the legendary enchanter Gwydion animates the trees of the forest to fight as his army. The poem is especially notable for its striking and enigmatic symbolism and the wide variety of interpretations this has occasioned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silent All These Years</span> 1991 single by Tori Amos

"Silent All These Years" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos, released as the second single from her debut studio album, Little Earthquakes (1992). It was originally released in the United Kingdom in November 1991 via EastWest Records. It was released in North America in 1992 by Atlantic Records and was later used to promote awareness of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). In the UK, the single was re-released on August 10, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tori Amos discography</span>

Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer-songwriter whose musical career began in 1980, at the age of seventeen, when she and her brother co-wrote the song "Baltimore". The song was selected as the winning song in a contest for the Baltimore Orioles and was recorded and pressed locally as a 7" single. From 1984 to 1989, Amos fronted the synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, which released one self-titled album with Atlantic Records in 1988 before breaking up. Shortly thereafter, Amos began writing and recording material that would serve as the debut of her solo career. Still signed with Atlantic, and its UK counterpart East West, Amos' initial solo material was rejected by the label in 1990. Under the guidance of co-producers Eric Rosse, Davitt Sigerson and Ian Stanley, a second version of the album was created and accepted by the label the following year.

<i>American Doll Posse</i> 2007 studio album by Tori Amos

American Doll Posse is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released in 2007 by Epic Records. A concept album, American Doll Posse sees Amos assuming the identity of five different female personalities inspired by Greek mythology in order to narrate stories of life in modern America. Themes include opposition to the Iraq War, recording industry misogyny, disillusionment, sexuality, personal loss, and female empowerment in general. Musically, the record is more rock-oriented than other studio works by Amos, notably featuring more guitar and drums than previous albums The Beekeeper (2005) and Scarlet's Walk (2002).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hey Jupiter</span> 1996 song by Tori Amos

"Hey Jupiter" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It was released as the fourth single from her third studio album, Boys for Pele (1996), and was her first extended play (EP) since Crucify in 1992. The US EP Hey Jupiter features a re-recorded version of "Hey Jupiter" followed by four live tracks recorded during her Dew Drop Inn Tour of 1996. The song is also featured on the double A-side CD singles released in the UK and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spark (Tori Amos song)</span> 1998 single by Tori Amos

"Spark" is a song by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released by Atlantic and EastWest as the first single from Amos' fourth studio album, From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998).

<i>Abnormally Attracted to Sin</i> 2009 studio album by Tori Amos

Abnormally Attracted to Sin is the tenth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released 19 May 2009, in standard and limited CD/DVD edition. The album debuted on Billboard 200 at no. 9, giving Amos her seventh Top 10 album in the US.

<i>Midwinter Graces</i> 2009 studio album by Tori Amos

Midwinter Graces is the eleventh solo studio album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on November 10, 2009, through Universal Republic Records. It is the first seasonal album by Amos and is also notable for marking her return to a more classical, stripped-down, baroque sound with various synths, string instruments, the harpsichord, and Amos's own signature Bösendorfer piano at center stage, once more. The album, like previous releases from Amos, is available in a single-form CD or a deluxe edition, which includes three bonus tracks, a twenty-page photo book, and a DVD containing an interview with Amos. The standard edition was not released in the US or Canada. Midwinter Graces became Amos's lowest-charting album on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 66.

<i>Little Earthquakes</i> 1992 studio album by Tori Amos

Little Earthquakes is the debut solo album by the American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, featuring the singles "Silent All These Years", "China", "Winter" and "Crucify". After Atlantic Records rejected the first version of the album, Amos began working on a second version with her then-boyfriend Eric Rosse. The album was first released in the UK on January 6, 1992, where it peaked at number 14 in the charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taxi Ride</span> 2003 single by Tori Amos

"Taxi Ride" is a song by American recording artist Tori Amos from her seventh studio album Scarlet's Walk (2002). The song was released as the album's second single in January 2003. It was written, composed and produced by Amos. The song is a folk pop track, which features instrumentation of electric guitars, drums, bongos, and acoustic guitar. The track was her second offering after departing from Atlantic Records and signed with Epic Records.

<i>Night of Hunters</i> 2011 studio album by Tori Amos

Night of Hunters is the twelfth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on September 20, 2011, in the United States through Deutsche Grammophon. It is a concept album that Amos has described as "a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years." She pays tribute to classical composers such as Alkan, Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Granados, Satie and Schubert, taking inspiration from their original compositions to create new, independent songs. Regarding the album's concept, she has described it as the exploration of "the hunter and the hunted and how both exist within us" through the story of "a woman who finds herself in the dying embers of a relationship."

John Philip Shenale is a Canadian composer, arranger, musician and producer based in Los Angeles.

The Night of Hunters Tour was the eleventh world concert tour by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos in support of her twelfth studio album Night of Hunters. During the tour Amos was supported by the Apollon Musagète Quartett, making this her first tour with a string quartet. As well as playing select songs from Night of Hunters, Amos played various songs from her back catalogue rearranged by her longtime collaborator, John Philip Shenale, to accommodate the string quartet.

<i>Gold Dust</i> (Tori Amos album) 2012 studio album by Tori Amos

Gold Dust is the 13th solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on October 1, 2012 by Deutsche Grammophon and Mercury Classics. The album is produced by Amos with arrangements by long-time collaborator John Philip Shenale. Inspired by and following in a similar vein as Amos's previous effort, the classical music album Night of Hunters (2011), Gold Dust features some of her previously released alternative rock and baroque pop songs re-worked in an orchestral setting. The material for Gold Dust, consisting of songs selected by Amos spanning almost her entire catalogue at the time, from Little Earthquakes (1992) through Midwinter Graces (2009), was recorded with the Metropole Orchestra, conducted by Jules Buckley.

<i>Unrepentant Geraldines</i> 2014 studio album by Tori Amos

Unrepentant Geraldines is the fourteenth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on May 9, 2014 through Mercury Classics. The album marks a return to pop and rock music after several releases in the classical genre. Recorded at her own Martian Engineering Studios, the album was self-produced and mixed by her husband Mark Hawley and Marcel van Limbeek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Silent Night with You</span> 2009 single by Tori Amos

"A Silent Night with You" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter, Tori Amos. It was released November 29, 2009 as the only promotional single from the seasonal album Midwinter Graces (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maybe California</span> 2009 single by Tori Amos

"Maybe California" is a song by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos from her tenth studio album Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009). It was released as a promotional single May 19, 2009 by Universal Republic as a digital download only.

References

  1. "ShieldSquare Captcha". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  2. "Night of Hunters". Amazon UK. 2011.
  3. "Catalogue". Deutschegrammophon.com. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  4. "Night of Hunters". Rolling Stone . 18 October 2011.
  5. "Review: Tori Amos, Night of Hunters". Slant Magazine . 19 September 2011.
  6. "Night of Hunters - Tori Amos | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic .
  7. "Tori Amos: Night of Hunters". Glidemagazine.com. 9 September 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  8. "Tori Amos - A strange little girl grows up". Independent.co.uk . 22 September 2011.