Oh God, Up Next Is Tori Amos'Abnormally Attracted To Sin. I've Tried To Get Into This One Before And

Oh God, up next is Tori Amos' Abnormally Attracted to Sin. I've tried to get into this one before and I just can't. Like, according to iTunes I've listened to the whole thing three times, but I don't remember anything except "Strong Black Vine." Which I like a lot, but it's only one track out of 17.

Okay I guess I remember "Give." Sonically this is a little more Choirgirl-y than anything on her last couple of albums, which is good because I think Choirgirl is my favorite Tori album. Maybe it isn't though, maybe it's Under the Pink. But then again Choirgirl was the first Tori album I heard, with all the attendant nostalgia that involves. It was recommended to me by fellow students in my high school drama class, which I guess is the traditional time and place for Tori Amos indoctrination.

Welcome to England continues that Tori tradition of ending the song by dropping out all the instrumentation and drawling the last word ponderously. I think she did that six times on Scarlet's Walk. I pointed it out to a friend in college who was way more into Tori than I was, and he got mad at me, because once you start listening for it, it's everywhere.

I finished Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and my dislike of Seymour made a strong comeback in the end. We get excerpts from his diary, where he talks about how much he needs Muriel and her "simplicity." Ugh. On the one hand, I get annoyed at people I perceive to be shallow all the time, so it's not like I can say "oh Seymour, you elitist prig, these are wonderful people and you shouldn't think you're better than them." Whatever, go ahead and think you're better than them, but once you do, stop trying to integrate them into your life, you ridiculous person. Psychology tells us that once you start feeling contempt for your partner, the relationship is doomed. Treating your partner like she is a darling child and loving her for her simplicity is just the charming flip-side of contempt.

Seymour kept indicating this kind of beatific adoration for mundane Muriel and her mundane family, and it's like, they aren't monkeys in a zoo, Seymour, they're people who have to live their lives. Why would you link your life to theirs if you don't respect it?

I mean, Muriel still went and married him, so she's ridiculous too. But honestly. Ugh.

I took a break from listening to music on my computer to go listen to live music, specifically a jug band playing at the local hippie waffle restaurant. You know what Tori needs on her next album? A washboard player. Those dudes really liven up a song.

I don't know, the production on Abnormally Attracted to Sin is wearing me down. I wasn't super-thrilled about Tori's sound on The Beekeeper (and to a lesser extent Scarlet's Walk), but I thought American Doll Posse managed to wed the newer glossy style with the darker elements of her previous albums ("Code Red," "Smokey Joe," "Dragon"), plus there was a lot of just straight-up pastiche. This one is just ... eh. A song like "Maybe California," that once upon a time might get pure piano/vox treatment, is kind of glossed up in a way that turns the lyrics, which could be played as stark, into something...over-palatable. I guess I just want Dark Tori back. I want an album of all Smokey Joes!

Abattoir Blues was awesome, a question though: is Nick Cave Tom Waits-y, or is Tom Waits Nick Cave-sy? Now listening to Abbey Road by some band called The Beatles. These dudes think they're so great just because they got a Rock Band game named after them, like Green Day. Another question, can you play "Octopus's Garden" on Beatles Rock Band? Like, for completionists who don't mind the scorn and taunts of their friends? In the book I'm writing (it's called Hallways) there's time travel, and one of the people from the ~future~ is totally into the Beatles. I think that's probably been done before and is verging on cliche, but what's he going to be into instead? The Rolling Stones? Green Day? Maybe he should be into Tom Waits. No artist is more appealing to the youth of America than Tom Waits. Actually I like that idea a lot. "Hey guys! I may be from the future, but I'm still totally relatable to you guys and your time!" (plays 'Earth Died Screaming')

Now it's Webb Wilder's About Time, which was his first record after a billion years of not releasing any records. My father liked Webb Wilder in the nineties, when Webb was crossing over to mainstream radio and his sound was less country. The few scattered records he's released since then have been less commercial-sounding and more like his old records: country, roots rock, etc. My dad lost interest, but the same undiscriminating partiality that made me like all the music my dad liked when I was young has applied to Webb Wilder, too. I like pretty much everything he's ever put out; although, to go ahead and be a downer about it, this is my least favorite of his records. It's also the record I've spent the least time with, so I have a feeling with more exposure I'd probably grow to like it the same way I do the others.

I'm re-reading J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories because, you know, he's dead. It should really be subtitled "Further Tales of Neurotic, Philosophical Men Who Knew Damn Well What Kind of Women They Were Marrying In the First Place and Therefore Have No Grounds to Be Resentful When They Continue Acting the Same Way After Marriage."