Tales of a Librarian | ||||
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Compilation album by | ||||
Released | November 17, 2003 | |||
Recorded | 1990 – Summer 2003 | |||
Length | 78:00 | |||
Label | Atlantic | |||
Producer |
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Tori Amos chronology | ||||
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Singles from Tales of a Librarian | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Mojo | [2] |
musicOMH | (positive) [3] |
Q | [4] |
Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
Uncut | [6] |
A Tori Amos Collection: Tales of a Librarian is the first retrospective compilation album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos. Given the option to be involved in the project, Amos elected to take a central role in the production of the collection, released in 2003 on her former label Atlantic Records.
Amos described the compilation as a "sonic autobiography", a title derived from her dislike of the term "greatest hits". [7] Recording under the premise that a librarian is a "chronicler", Amos pieced together the collection in accordance with the Dewey Decimal System; so, for example, "Sweet Dreams", which contains the lyrics "Land, land of liberty / We're run by a constipated man", is listed as "973.938: History of North America -- Politics of Illusion". [8] Amos revisited the mixing of many of her own favorite songs from her career, focusing on those she thought were not fully realized in their original recordings and those that she felt explained her life story. Additionally, Amos added two new songs and two re-recorded B-sides: "Angels", "Snow Cherries from France", "Sweet Dreams", and "Mary", respectively. The latter two compositions were originally recorded in 1990 during sessions for Little Earthquakes (1992).
"Mary" and "Angels" were released as promotional singles from the album.
All tracks are written by Amos
No. | Title | Original appearance | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Precious Things" | Little Earthquakes (1992) | 4:29 |
2. | "Angels" | previously unreleased | 4:27 |
3. | "Silent All These Years" | Little Earthquakes | 4:10 |
4. | "Cornflake Girl" | Under the Pink (1994) | 5:05 |
5. | "Mary" (re-recorded) | B-side to "Crucify" (1992) | 4:42 |
6. | "God" | Under the Pink | 3:54 |
7. | "Winter" | Little Earthquakes | 5:43 |
8. | "Spark" | From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998) | 4:13 |
9. | "Way Down" (Extended) | Boys for Pele (1996) | 1:50 |
10. | "Professional Widow" (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix) (Radio Edit) | Boys for Pele | 3:48 |
11. | "Mr. Zebra" | Boys for Pele | 1:05 |
12. | "Crucify" | Little Earthquakes | 5:00 |
13. | "Me and a Gun" | Little Earthquakes | 3:43 |
14. | "Bliss" | To Venus and Back (1999) | 3:35 |
15. | "Playboy Mommy" | From the Choirgirl Hotel | 4:06 |
16. | "Baker Baker" | Under the Pink | 3:12 |
17. | "Tear in Your Hand" | Little Earthquakes | 4:38 |
18. | "Sweet Dreams" (re-recorded) | B-side to "Winter" (1992) | 3:39 |
19. | "Jackie's Strength" | From the Choirgirl Hotel | 4:25 |
20. | "Snow Cherries from France" | previously unreleased | 2:56 |
All tracks are written by Amos
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Pretty Good Year" (Recorded live during soundcheck from Welcome to Sunny Florida , September 4, 2003) | 3:47 |
2. | "Honey" (Recorded live during soundcheck from Welcome to Sunny Florida, September 4, 2003) | 4:00 |
3. | "Northern Lad" (Recorded live during soundcheck from Welcome to Sunny Florida, September 4, 2003) | 4:27 |
All tracks are written by Amos
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Putting the Damage On" (Remixed; runs over photo gallery.) | 5:08 |
2. | "Mr. Zebra" (Instrumental; runs over photo gallery and navigation menu) | 1:05 |
3. | "Putting the Damage On" (Instrumental) | 5:08 |
All tracks are written by Amos
No. | Title | Original appearance | Length |
---|---|---|---|
21. | "Putting the Damage On" (Album version) | Boys for Pele | 5:08 |
22. | "Pretty Good Year" (Live from Sound Check) | Under the Pink | 4:12 |
Chart (2003) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) [10] | 93 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [11] | 72 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [12] | 34 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [13] | 93 |
Irish Albums (IRMA) [14] | 67 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) [15] | 65 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [16] | 77 |
UK Albums (OCC) [17] | 74 |
US Billboard 200 [18] | 40 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [19] | Gold | 35,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [20] | Silver | 60,000^ |
United States | — | 295,000 [21] |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
From the Choirgirl Hotel is the fourth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on May 5, 1998, on Atlantic Records. The album was Amos' first to be recorded at her own Martian Engineering Studios in Cornwall, England and was self-produced, with the mixing being handled by longtime collaborators Marcel van Limbeek and Mark Hawley, whom she had married in early 1998.
Strange Little Girls is a concept album released by singer-songwriter Tori Amos in 2001. The album's 12 tracks are covers of songs written and originally performed by men, reinterpreted by Amos from a female point of view. Amos created female personae for each track and was photographed as each, with makeup done by Kevyn Aucoin. In the United States the album was issued with four alternative covers depicting Amos as the characters singing "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", "Strange Little Girl", "Time", and "Raining Blood". A fifth cover of the "I Don't Like Mondays" character was also issued in the UK and other territories. Text accompanying the photos and songs was written by author Neil Gaiman. The complete short stories in which this text appears can be found in Gaiman's 2006 collection Fragile Things.
Boys for Pele is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos. Preceded by the first single, "Caught a Lite Sneeze", by three weeks, the album was released on January 22, 1996, in the United Kingdom, on January 23 in the United States, and on January 29 in Australia. Despite the album being Amos's least radio friendly material to date, Boys for Pele debuted at number two on both the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, making it her biggest simultaneous transatlantic debut, her first Billboard top 10 debut, and the highest-charting US debut of her career to date.
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.
Under the Pink is the second studio album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos. Upon its release in January 1994, the album debuted atop the UK Albums Chart on the back of the hit single "Cornflake Girl", and peaked at number 12 in the US.
The Singles 1992–2003 is a greatest hits album by American rock band No Doubt, released on November 14, 2003, by Interscope Records. It features 13 of the band's singles from three studio albums—Tragic Kingdom (1995), Return of Saturn (2000), and Rock Steady (2001)—and the single "Trapped in a Box" from their 1992 self-titled debut album. The album also included a cover of Talk Talk's 1984 song "It's My Life", the only new song on the album and which was released as a single. It was released alongside the DVD Rock Steady Live, a video of a concert as part of the band's Rock Steady tour in 2002, and the box set Boom Box, which contained The Singles 1992–2003, Everything in Time, The Videos 1992–2003, and Live in the Tragic Kingdom.
The Beekeeper is the eighth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on February 20, 2005, through Epic Records and is her second release for the label. As with many of Amos' releases throughout the 2000s, The Beekeeper is a concept album, heavily inspired by the practice of beekeeping and its connection to femininity and female empowerment. The album's nineteen tracks are separated into six different "gardens", and are inspired by topics such as her experiences with motherhood, betrayal ("Witness"), and Christian mythology.
"Crucify" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos. It was released as the fifth single from her debut studio album Little Earthquakes, on May 12, 1992, by Atlantic Records in North America and on June 8 by EastWest Records in the UK. In Australia, it was released on July 20, 1992.
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.
The Definitive Collection is a greatest hits album by American pop musician Lionel Richie.
Tina! is a greatest hits album by American singer Tina Turner, released in North America on September 30, 2008, by Capitol Records and in Germany on October 17, 2008. The album was later expanded to a three-disc set titled The Platinum Collection, released in Europe on February 23, 2009, by Parlophone to coincide with the European leg of Turner's tour.
Greatest Hits is a greatest hits album released by American rock band the Foo Fighters on November 3, 2009.
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.
To Venus and Back is a double album by American singer, songwriter and pianist Tori Amos. Released on September 21, 1999, it comprises her fifth studio album and first live album. The first disc, entitled Venus: Orbiting, shows Amos increasingly experimenting with elements of electronica and trip hop, and spawned the singles "Bliss", "1000 Oceans", "Glory of the 80's", and "Concertina". The second disc, Venus Live, Still Orbiting, was recorded mostly during her Plugged '98 tour in support of her previous album, From the Choirgirl Hotel.
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.
The Best of Nickelback Volume 1 is a compilation album by Canadian rock band Nickelback. It was released on November 4, 2013, through Roadrunner Records (internationally) and Universal Music Canada to coincide with their October–November 2013 "The Hits Tour". Though frontman Chad Kroeger had previously stated in an interview that their upcoming greatest hits album would include new songs as well as previous hits, the final track listing contains only previously released material. The compilation features singles released from all but the first two studio albums from the band; Silver Side Up (2001), The Long Road (2003), All the Right Reasons (2005), Dark Horse (2008), and Here and Now (2011).
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.
Native Invader is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It was released on September 8, 2017, through Decca Records. Its lead single "Cloud Riders", was released on July 27, 2017.
Ocean to Ocean is the sixteenth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on October 29, 2021 through Decca Records. The album was written during lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic in Cornwall, England and featured the musicians collaborating remotely, with recording occurring in England, California, and Massachusetts. It is Amos's first studio album since Midwinter Graces (2009) to feature her typical backing band of Matt Chamberlain on drums, Jon Evans on bass, and Mac Aladdin on guitar.
"Mary" is a song by singer, songwriter, and pianist Tori Amos. First released as a B-side to UK pressings of her 1992 single "Crucify", it was later re-recorded for the compilation Tales of a Librarian and released as a digital single. Like many of Amos' singles, it was released digitally only but a promotional CD release was made for radio stations.