This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2008) |
Y Kant Tori Read | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1988 | |||
Recorded | 1987 | |||
Studio | Various
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Genre | Synth-pop [1] | |||
Length | 49:10 | |||
Label | Atlantic | |||
Producer | Joe Chiccarelli | |||
Tori Amos chronology | ||||
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Singles from Y Kant Tori Read | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Y Kant Tori Read is the debut and only studio album by American rock band of the same name,fronted by then-unknown singer and songwriter Tori Amos. It was released in 1988 by Atlantic Records.
The band consisted of Amos,singer-pianist Kim Bullard,drummer Matt Sorum who later joined Guns N' Roses,as well as long-time Amos collaborator guitarist Steve Caton;other contributors included Richárd Bernard on bouzouki, [3] and various session musicians. Due to the title,some critics believed the album was a solo project by a woman named "Tori Read". This was compounded by the fact that Amos is billed simply as "Tori" in the liner notes.
Amos chose producer Joe Chiccarelli,having admired his work on other albums. [4] According to Chiccarelli in an interview with HitQuarters:
"[Tori Amos] had a very strong vision of what she wanted to do on her first album. And despite the lack of success of that album,it was an interesting process because she was very vocal and very passionate about how she wanted it to sound and what her influences were and the emotions she was trying to convey." [4]
Although Amos had effectively disowned the album for many years,[ citation needed ] Chiccarelli has said that she was very happy with it at the time. [4]
The eponymous studio album was released in 1988 to dismal sales and the band broke up shortly after. Its lack of success and subsequent deletion has made it one of the most sought-after Tori Amos collectibles,fetching upwards of $1,000 in compact disc format in original longbox. At the height of Amos' career,vinyl copies would often sell for between $300–500 but,due to the decline of music collectibles and the heavy bootlegging of the album,they now frequently sell for between $50–80.
Because of the scarcity of legitimate copies of the album it has been heavily bootlegged,so much so that an extensive FAQ on the topic was created. [5] Bootleg versions generally stem from one of the first editions to surface,on a foreign label called Pacific Records. These usually have six "bonus tracks" from later in Amos' career;"Song for Eric","Ode to the Banana King (Part 1)","Happy Phantom" (live),"Ring My Bell","The Happy Worker" and "Workers". Other editions,particularly one that surfaced in Germany,were issued to intentionally resemble the original and fool legitimate collectors.
The number on the spine of the original CD reads 81845-2. The majority of bootlegs list this number incorrectly because the stolen artwork is taken from the easier to find LP version of the release,which had a different release number.
Non-promotional copies of the record are more desirable than promotionally issued copies. (The reverse is generally the case in music collectibles.) Because the record sold so poorly,the majority of commercially released copies were recalled,stamped with a gold promo stamp,and given a cut-out mark. Thus there are actually more promotional copies of the record than not.
Several singles were released to promote the album,though most promotionally and not commercially. "The Big Picture" was released as a 12" vinyl promotional single with unique artwork;"Cool on Your Island" was issued as a 7" vinyl promotional single with a special edit version of the song;it was also included as a B-side to a promotional CD featuring the song "A Groovy Kind of Love" by Phil Collins. (On The Rosie O'Donnell Show ,Amos told a story from this era of being stopped by police while traveling through Germany because her friend was carrying marijuana;when she told the police officer that she was "on a CD with Phil Collins" she was set free.)
One music video was produced,for the song "The Big Picture",featuring Amos performing on a "ghetto city" sound stage set.
Amos has continued to play a select few songs from this album ("On the Boundary","Etienne","Cool on Your Island",and snippets of "Fire on the Side") live in concert. During the 2014 Unrepentant Geraldines tour,however,Amos played a full version of "Fire on the Side",as well as "Floating City" and "Pirates". "The Big Picture" and "Fayth" were performed as mashups with George Michael's "Faith" and the Cure's "Pictures of You" respectively. She has yet to perform "Heart Attack at 23" and "You Go to My Head" in any capacity.
In 2017,Amos said she had made peace with the album,and was considering reissuing it in the future. [6] She then made several press appearances in late August stating a re-issue would be out in November.
Subsequently,an entirely remastered edition of the album was discreetly released on all digital and streaming services for the first time on September 1,2017,with no official announcement or promotion of any sort. This was then followed by a limited physical re-release of the remastered album on CD and transparent orange vinyl by Rhino Records as part of International Record Store Day's Black Friday exclusive releases on November 24,2017,only available at exclusive partaking independent record stores.
All tracks are written by Tori Amos, except as noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Big Picture" | 4:19 | |
2. | "Cool on Your Island" |
| 4:57 |
3. | "Fayth" |
| 4:23 |
4. | "Fire on the Side" | 4:53 | |
5. | "Pirates" |
| 4:16 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
6. | "Floating City" | 5:22 | |
7. | "Heart Attack at 23" | 5:16 | |
8. | "On the Boundary" | 4:38 | |
9. | "You Go to My Head" | 3:55 | |
10. | "Etienne Trilogy" ("The Highlands" / "Etienne" / "Skyeboat Song") |
| 6:45 |
Total length: | 49:10 |
Credits are adapted from the Y Kant Tori Read liner notes. [7]
Musicians
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.
Steve Caton is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and visual artist, perhaps best known for a lengthy association with Tori Amos.
Y Kant Tori Read was an American synth-pop band fronted by singer-songwriter Tori Amos and active between 1984 and 1989. The band originally consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Amos, guitarist Steve Caton, drummer Matt Sorum, and bassist Brad Cobb. The band's name comes from an incident in Amos's childhood where she was asked to leave the Peabody Conservatory because she refused to read sheet music.
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.
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.
Matthew William Sorum is an American drummer. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. Sorum is currently on tour with Billy Gibbons, with whom he also records, is a member of the touring project Kings of Chaos, and is a former member of both The Cult and Y Kant Tori Read. Sorum was also a member of Guns N' Roses side projects, Slash's Snakepit and Neurotic Outsiders, and has released two solo albums, Hollywood Zen (2004) and Stratosphere (2014). He was the touring drummer for the supergroup Hollywood Vampires from 2015 to 2017. His latest project is Deadland Ritual, featuring Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, and Apocalyptica vocalist Franky Perez.
Joe Chiccarelli is an American record producer, mixer and engineer, who is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and has been active since the 1980s. He has produced albums by Stan Ridgway, Morrissey, Oingo Boingo, Spoon, The Shins, Sandra Bernhard, My Morning Jacket, Counting Crows, Augie March, Manchester Orchestra, Minus the Bear, Boy & Bear, Kurt Elling, Saints of Valory, and Big Talk. Other artists include Elton John, Rufus Wainwright, U2, Alanis Morissette, Beck, Etta James, Jamie Cullum, Al Stewart, Tori Amos, The Strokes, The Killers, Cage The Elephant, Cafe Tacuba, Pink Martini, The Shelters, Christina Perri, Third Eye Blind,All American Rejects, Vanessa Carlton, Rachael Yamagata, Michael Buble', Glenn Frey and Jason Mraz.
"The Big Picture" is a song by American synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, commercially released by Atlantic Records in 1988 exclusively as a 7" vinyl single in a generic picture sleeve. Two versions of a promotional 7" vinyl were also released, one with light blue labels and one with dark blue labels. A 12" promotional vinyl single was also issued with an accompanying picture sleeve. The song was a commercial failure and received absolutely no critical comment.
"Cool On Your Island" is a song by the band Y Kant Tori Read, commercially released by Atlantic Records in 1988 as a 7" vinyl single and a cassette single. Two versions of a promotional 7" vinyl were also released, one with light blue labels and one with dark blue labels. The song was a commercial failure and received absolutely no critical comment. After the failure of the first single by the band, the label did not feel expenses were warranted to film a music video.
"Putting the Damage On" is a ballad by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos, and is featured as the 17th track on her 1996 album, Boys For Pele. The song may have been initially considered as a single for the album, because copies of the album were accompanied by a sticker listing this song, along with "Caught a Lite Sneeze" and "Talula," as feature songs, but of all five singles released from the album, "Putting the Damage On" was not one of them. In the song, Amos is accompanied by her own piano playing, and by the Black Dyke Band.
"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.
"God" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos, released as a single from her second studio album, Under the Pink (1994). It was issued as the album's lead single in the United States on February 3, 1994, as the second single in Australia on May 2, and as the fourth single in the United Kingdom on October 3. The song reached number 44 on the UK Singles Chart as well as number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It became Amos's first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 72.
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.
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.
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.
"Sweet the Sting" is a song written and recorded by Tori Amos, released as the second single from the album The Beekeeper (2005). Following the trend of her several previous singles, "Sweet the Sting" was released as a promotional single only, with physical CDs produced for radio stations.
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.
"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.
Modern Madness is the second studio album from American singer and songwriter Robert Tepper.
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