Strange Little Girls | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 18, 2001 | |||
Recorded | February–July 2001 | |||
Studio |
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Length | 62:09 | |||
Label | Atlantic | |||
Producer | Tori Amos | |||
Tori Amos chronology | ||||
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Singles from Strange Little Girls | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 65/100 [1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Alternative Press | 7/10 [3] |
The Austin Chronicle | [4] |
Blender | [5] |
Entertainment Weekly | B [6] |
The Guardian | [7] |
Los Angeles Times | [8] |
Q | [9] |
Rolling Stone | [10] |
Slant Magazine | [11] |
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 (one song featured twins) 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 .
As with Amos's previous two studio albums, the cover album was recorded at her Cornwall studio. The album received mixed reviews upon its release in September 2001 with critics largely seeing the album as a mixed bag, praising the unlikely re-workings of Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" and Slayer's "Raining Blood", while panning the versions of the Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". Amos also tackled songs by artists such as Tom Waits, the Velvet Underground, Depeche Mode, and the Stranglers.
The album's greatest attention was garnered from Amos's cover of Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde", a rap song. The album's cover of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" was translated into a discussion on the right to bear arms, and included soundbites from both George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush, as well as from Amos's own minister father. The album entered the charts at US No. 4, selling 111,000 copies, making it her third album to debut in the US Top 10, her second-highest debut in terms of sales, [12] and her best position in the US for almost six years.
The song was featured in Season 4 of The West Wing in the episode "20 Hours in America Part 2".
A planned commercial EP "Strange Little Girl" (originally by the Stranglers), including "After All" (originally by David Bowie) and "Only Women Bleed" (originally by Alice Cooper), was pulled from shelves soon after being shipped to stores in Europe. Despite being recalled from the shelves, limited copies of the single were sold and a promotional video was made.[ citation needed ]
Additionally, Amos later acknowledged that she had attempted to reinterpret four other songs that she "couldn't find her way into." They were "Fear of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy, "Hoover Factory" by Elvis Costello, "I'm Sick of You" by Iggy Pop and "Marlene Dietrich's Favorite Poem" by Peter Murphy. These tracks have not been released. [13] She also mentioned later in a 2012 interview that, with drummer Matt Chamberlain, she had recorded "Growin' Up" by Bruce Springsteen for this album, but it has also not been released although she has played it live. [14]
Amos received two 2002 Grammy nominations: Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Strange Little Girl", and Alternative Music Performance for the album.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "New Age" | Lou Reed | The Velvet Underground | 4:37 |
2. | "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" | Marshall Mathers, Jeff Bass, Mark Bass | Eminem | 5:46 |
3. | "Strange Little Girl" | Brian Duffy, Dave Greenfield, Hans Wärmling, Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel | The Stranglers | 3:50 |
4. | "Enjoy the Silence" | Martin Gore | Depeche Mode | 4:10 |
5. | "I'm Not in Love" | Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman | 10cc | 5:39 |
6. | "Rattlesnakes" | Lloyd Cole, Neil Clark | Lloyd Cole and the Commotions | 3:59 |
7. | "Time" | Tom Waits | Tom Waits | 5:23 |
8. | "Heart of Gold" | Neil Young | Neil Young | 4:00 |
9. | "I Don't Like Mondays" | Bob Geldof; Johnnie Fingers | The Boomtown Rats | 4:21 |
10. | "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" | John Lennon, Paul McCartney | The Beatles | 9:55 |
11. | "Raining Blood" | Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King | Slayer | 6:22 |
12. | "Real Men" | Joe Jackson | Joe Jackson | 4:07 |
Total length: | 62:09 |
Like most of Amos' albums, this one also features B-sides on its singles, but this time only two were released.
Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Single |
---|---|---|---|
"After All" | David Bowie | David Bowie | "Strange Little Girl" (2001) |
"Only Women Bleed" | Alice Cooper, Dick Wagner | Alice Cooper | "Strange Little Girl" (2001) |
Chart (2001) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) [15] | 7 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [16] | 18 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [17] | 6 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [18] | 24 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [19] | 8 |
Danish Albums (Hitlisten) [20] | 16 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [21] | 27 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) [22] | 16 |
French Albums (SNEP) [23] | 26 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [24] | 11 |
Irish Albums (IRMA) [25] | 21 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) [26] | 11 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [27] | 13 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [28] | 17 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [29] | 32 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [30] | 34 |
UK Albums (OCC) [31] | 16 |
US Billboard 200 [32] | 4 |
European Albums ( Eurotipsheet ) [33] | 14 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States | — | 395,000 [34] |
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 / rock 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.
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's 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.
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 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.
"Cornflake Girl" is a song by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It was released on January 10, 1994, as the first single from her second studio album, Under the Pink (1994), by EastWest Records in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it served as the album's second single, after "God". Singer Merry Clayton provided backing vocals and sings the "man with the golden gun" bridge.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Male is the fifth studio album by Australian-British singer Natalie Imbruglia, released by Portrait on 31 July 2015. It was released in Europe on 21 August 2015.
Strange Little Birds is the sixth studio album by American rock band Garbage. It was released on June 10, 2016, through the band's own record label, Stunvolume. It is their second independent album release, and follows 2012's Not Your Kind of People. The album's press release describes Strange Little Birds as "a sweeping, cinematic record of a unified mood: darkness".
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.
Happiness Begins is the fifth studio album by American pop rock band Jonas Brothers, released on June 7, 2019, by Republic Records. It is their first studio album since Lines, Vines and Trying Times (2009). For the record, the band enlisted producers Ryan Tedder, Greg Kurstin, Justin Tranter, along with Joel Little, Mike Sabath and Shellback to help create a "new and improved sound" with "feel-good tracks" pop album.
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.