Tori Amos Boys For Pele CD

Live Recording

Personnel: Tori Amos (vocals, harpsichord, piano, harmonium, clavichord); Nancy Shanks (vocals); Steve Caton (acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar, guitar, mandolin); The Sinfonia Of London (strings); Michael Deegan, Bernard Quinn (bagpipes); Clarence J. Johnson III (soprano & tenor saxophones); James Watson (trumpet); Tracy Griffin, Brian Graber (flugelhorn); Mark Mullins (trombone); Craig Klein (sousaphone); The Black Dyke Mills Band (brass); Alan Friedman (organ, programming, sound effects); George Porter, Jr. (bass); Marcel Van Limbeek (church bells); Manu Katche (drums); Mino Cinelu (percussion); Darryl Lewis, Mark Sterling, Marvin Sterling, Sam Berfect, Jack Trimble, James Crawford, Jr., Gus McField, Jr. (background vocals); R.O.B., Marcel.
Principally recorded in Counties Wicklow and Cork, Republic Of Ireland.
BOYS FOR PELE was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Personnel: Tori Amos (vocals, harpsichord, harmonium, clavichord, organ, keyboards); Steve Caton (guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, mandolin); Sinfonia of London Orchestra (strings); James Watson (trumpet); Mark Mullins (trombone); Black Dyke Band (brass); Craig Klein (sousaphone); Manu Katche (drums); Mino Cinelu (percussion); Marcel VanLimbeek (bells); Alan Friedman (drum programming).
Audio Mixers: Marcel VanLimbeek; Mark Hawley; Bob Clearmountain.
Recording information: Air Studios, London, England; Co. Cork, Ireland; Delgany, Co. Wicklow, Ireland; Dinosaur Studios, New Orleans, LA; Egyptian Room, New Orleans, LA.
Director: Peter Willison.
Photographer: Cindy Palmano.
Arranger: John Philip Shenale.
Highly ambitious, challenging, idiosyncratic, and confounding, Boys for Pele expands on the more experimental and progressive tendencies of Under the Pink. Amos frequently discards traditional song structures and employs wide-ranging, eclectic instrumentation in her music, while her lyrics seem to grow even more obscure, giving the album a very impressionistic feel. While there are certainly worthwhile moments, her experiments don't always work; some of the songs fail to stick, and it takes a few plays before many start to sink in. Ultimately, Boys for Pele is polarizing: Some Amos fans will only admire her more for taking the risks she does, while others may find to their disappointment that the intimacy and personal connection that helped Amos build her fan base are too difficult to detect. ~ Steve Huey
Spirituality is tangled inexorably with power and patriarchy for Tori Amos. On Amos' third solo record, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele serves as her alter-ego, presenting a threat to Amos' ever-present, menacing father figures. On "Muhammad My Friend," she warns, "I know you've seen fire/But you've never seen fire/Until you've seen Pele blow." Amos is equally intrigued by other strong, angry females--on "Twinkle," she admires "a girl twice as hard" who reportedly killed a man.
In contrast to her words, Amos tends toward restrained, ethereal vocals; they occasionally verge on ferocity but never quite make it all the way. Her piano and harpsichord playing is, by turns, delicate and passionate. Contrasts like those between confessional and enigmatic lyrics, and between an underlying sense of anger and a voice that holds back from truly expressing it, create an electric tension throughout BOYS FOR PELE.
PELE is the first record Amos has self-produced, and it branches out from her previous work, exploring more loosely structured songwriting and experimenting with the use of strings, brass and a gospel choir.

Spin (1/97, p.59) - Ranked #13 on Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums of '96.'
Spin (3/96, p.109) - 9 (out of 10) - "...Part clasp-key dream diary, part coded message, part erotic Rorshach test, Amos' lyrics are so hermetic they'll set you tripping....her music [is]...full of breath but refusing climax, laced with brass filigrees and melodic tendrills, cut with shadows and grit..."
Q (2/96, p.93) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...it utilises the strangest brew of instruments to create its effect, with harpsichord, mandolin, harmonium, organ, bagpipes, gospel choir and even the Delgany church bells passing through....it is surely the sound of Tori Amos they way she wants to sound..."
Musician (3/96, p.87) - "...Everything on BOYS challenges the listener to accept the artist on her terms as she speaks in her own poetic language and follows her muse through territory both familiar and vaguely forbidding..."