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Tales of a Librarian: A Tori Amos Collection [CD]

Tori Amos Audio CD
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
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Music

Image of album by Tori Amos

Photos

Image of Tori Amos

Videos

Tori Amos introduces Midwinter Graces

Biography

Tori Amos has an extraordinary fan base. It’s not unusual to hear her listeners explain how a song changed their life, through its ability to alter perspective and heal. Or even that a song might have saved their life. Since the release of her debut Little Earthquakes 20 years ago in 1992, where she smashed apart boundaries with her piano rock and raw, confessional poetry, Amos continues ... Read more in Amazon's Tori Amos Store

Visit Amazon's Tori Amos Store
for 95 albums, 7 photos, videos, discussions, and more.

Frequently Bought Together

Tales of a Librarian: A Tori Amos Collection + Little Earthquakes + Under The Pink
Price For All Three: £13.34

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  • Little Earthquakes £5.27
  • Under The Pink £4.67

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Product details

  • Audio CD (17 Nov 2003)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Rhino
  • ASIN: B0000E2Y9A
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 28,455 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. Precious Things
2. Angels
3. Silent All These Years
4. Cornflake Girl
5. Mary
6. God
7. Winter
8. Spark
9. Way Down
10. Professional Widow
11. Mr. Zebra
12. Crucify
13. Me and A Gun
14. Bliss
15. Playboy Mommy
16. Baker Baker
17. Tear in Your Hand
18. Sweet Dreams
19. Jackie's Strength
20. Snow Cherries from France

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk

After a full decade of unbroken success, the world's premier singer/songwriter marks her departure from east/west with Tales of a Librarian, her first best-of compilation. But where most acts simply slap together a few crowd-pleasers, preferring to concentrate on new material for their new label, Amos brings her usual perfectionism. Taking the very rare opportunity to revisit her songs, she has personally and purposefully remastered 18, while adding two new beauties in "Angels" and "Snow Cherries from France". For the most part this remastering has entailed a rearranging of the backgrounds, particularly the percussion and backing vocals (one of Amos's greatest strengths). The result is that the early tracks now sound more contemporary and sophisticated, making this album an easier entry-point for new listeners. The biggest difference is in the vocals, now even more up close and personal--and the originals were already frighteningly intimate. If anything's lost it's a certain fragility, some moments where Amos seemed about to be buried under the music and perhaps forced to stay silent for yet more years. Drama, that is. Still, it's an interesting exercise and the songs, naturally, are superb. Many of the best are here--"Winter", "Cornflake Girl", "Crucify", "Baker Baker"--more than enough to satisfy even the most rabid fan. --Dominic Wills

Product Description

1. Precious Things 2. Angels 3. Silent All These Years 4. Cornflake Girl 5. Mary 6. God 7. Winter 8. Spark 9. Way Down 10. Professional Widow 11. Mr. Zebra 12. Crucify 13. Me and A Gun 14. Bliss 15. Playboy Mommy 16. Baker Baker 17. Tear in Your Hand 18. Sweet Dreams 19. Jackie's Strength 20. Snow Cherries from France

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Redhead dancing girl 15 April 2004
By M. Bird
Format:Audio CD
It would be churlish, perhaps, to criticise a woman, who in twelve years has produced at least three of the best albums of that period ('Little Earthquakes', 'Under the Pink', 'Boys for Pele'). True, commercial success is more elusive these days (this album charted at a lowly #74 in the UK), and many fans have jumped ship after three releases that divide opinion ('To Venus and Back', 'Strange Little Girls', 'Scarlet's Walk'). But to her legions of fans, Amos's abstract musings will always be songs of the goddess.


Should this best of be regarded as a contractual obligation? Well, certainly it is unlikely to win Amos any new fans. Most likely, the people who will buy it will be those who already own her studio output. The new tracks are worthwhile - one good ('Angels'), one fantastic ('Snow Cherries from France'), and the 'rare' bee sides, though less fun than the jaunty originals, provide extra punch. The choice of tracks for inclusion has provided topic for debate, but as Amos has herself said, someone's favourite song would always have been left off. Still, it is difficult to understand how the pretty but unassuming 'Baker Baker' is worthy of a place here, over the actual hits 'Caught a Lite Sneeze' and 'Hey Jupiter' or even the lovely '1000 Oceans'.


Still, what is here is uniformly very, very good. And for the most part the remastering/remixing is well done. The slightly sludgey sound of the earlier material is made fresh and crisp, and the rejigging of 'Winter', 'Tear in Your Hand', 'God' and 'Cornflake Girl' breathe new life into these songs. However, the more recent material fares less well, with the heady atmospherics of 'Spark' strangely muted. And, frankly, the single remix of 'Crucify' is far better than any that has been commited to a long player. The most contentious inclusion - Armand Van Helden's remix of 'Professional Widow' - isn't as jarring as some have made out. It's framed nicely between two of the short songs from 'Pele', and as Amos's biggest hit and a joyously irreverant gesture to those who take her music too seriously, is welcome.


We look forward to May 2004's live DVD release with enthusiasm.

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent archive... 22 Oct 2003
Format:Audio CD
For anyone who knows of Tori Amos, you will already know that she is one of the most innovative, mature and creative female artists of our time, and this collection is the proof. Along with two new songs, Angels and Snow Cherries From France, there are some of Tori's most loved tracks from her Atlantic recording period. The real highlights are the dark and theatrical Spark...perhaps one of Tori's most beautiful and emotionally charged songs to date, Bliss...showing a beautiful affair with electronica, Cornflake Girl...a classic upbeat track and Professional Widow...a raw, almost scary track. Tori has also revisited B-sides Mary and Sweet Dreams, and they sound the better for it, which is no easy task. Mary is a definate stand out and Sweet dreams showing that Tori can handle uplifting, upbeat songs as well as her slower, thoughtful ones.
The new tracks are more reminicent of her newer works, which is no bad thing by a long way, as they capture yet another side to this incredibly talented artists work, both of them are as beautiful and sensitive as one would expect from Tori, Angels being a new masterpiece and will surely be hailed as a classic before long.
Tori has so many important and poignant songs, that it is virtually impossible to narrow them down to a twenty track collection, there are certain tracks that perhaps should have been included here that are not present, but the selected tracks all stand their own ground, and this collection out shines most other contemporary artists 'best ofs'.
An excellent collection, that should be a must for any serious record collector.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great collection for the un-initiated 17 Nov 2003
Format:Audio CD
Always being compared to Kate Bush is very unfair on Tori. This collection should go a fair way to dispelling that myth. This focuses us on Tori Amos songwriting skills hence there are no tracks included from the 'Strange Little Girls' CD and also none from the recent Scarlet's Walk album.

Shame that Pretty Good Year was left off also but the accompanying DVD has a version on. The new recordings are all very good and will no doubt tempt the fans who own the original 1st 5 albums to buy this also.

This would make a sensible buy for anyone intrigued by Tori but so far still hesitant about buying any of her back catalogue.

My advice is buy this for a good compilation of the early tracks but also to buy Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink aswell as they deserve to be heard in full.

10 years on and we are still awaiting a Kate Bush follow up to the Red Shoes. In this time Tori has released 6 albums and now a compilation. We also had a live album on Venus aswell.

You cannot fault her on that at least.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars True collection
If you like Tori Amos then this collection is a true classic compiliation of her work. Cheap and a must have album.
Published 14 days ago by dai73
5.0 out of 5 stars The Incredible Voice of Tori....
Mix the clarity of voice of Janis Ian with some of the lovely strangeness of Kate Bush and you have Tori Amos, this Collection being one of my favourite albums, which still gets... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Tim Kidner
4.0 out of 5 stars first time
This was my first time listen to Tori beyond cornflake girl. It is wonderful. If you like lyrics that can be read as poetry - then you'll be blown away by this collection.
Published on 23 Feb 2011 by Steve Page
4.0 out of 5 stars A Yankie Kate Bush errrrr Not quite
Not being a Tori Amos fan until about 4 years ago I brought this on a wim as I had heard the track Cornflake Girl and liked it. Read more
Published on 9 April 2010 by Stephen
4.0 out of 5 stars Not enough, buy her classic albums instead.
She aint called the world's premier singewr songwriter for nothing, so get at least 4 of her greatest albums instead, the first, choirgirl hotel, the beekeeper, and chose the 4th... Read more
Published on 30 April 2009 by E. Coolican
4.0 out of 5 stars Good collection but only 'good'
I've known about Tori Amos for years as we all have but have only just got round to buying an album. Read more
Published on 30 May 2007 by lasthopeofhumanity
5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Tori
"Tales of a Librarian" was my introduction into the beautiful and inspiring world of Tori Amos. It became an instant favorite. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2005 by Ms. Kate E. Reedman
4.0 out of 5 stars Could Be Better, But Still Quite Good
With seven albums done before this one, it makes sense that it's time for a "Best Of" compilation. However, there are no representative tracks from "Strange Little Girls" and... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2004 by Ez
5.0 out of 5 stars Good, but no way does it do full justice to her music
As a great fan of Tori's work, it is hardly surprising that I love this album. I am usually dubious about best of albums though, as often they provide nothing that the devoted fan... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2004 by Brida
4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, but...
This is a fantastic collection of songs, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

However, understandably a lot of Tori fans will be upset by the choice of songs! Read more

Published on 28 Feb 2004 by Mr. T. S. Guy
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