It’s been awhile since I wrote about music – I’ve been caught up and tumbling around in the throes of dissolution, melt down and inevitable breakup. You wouldn’t believe how much energy it saps – or how little one feels like writing when your heart is breaking. Some people run straight for self destructive pastimes (get tequila drunk, shatter iPhone’s and try pick up girls with wildly ridiculous name like Shu-Shu AND still think they’re totally together guru’s). I head for bed, curl up and try read myself into a coma. Sure, I’m engaging in escapism but at least I wake up in the morning without a headache (or the gnawing regret of how much money got spent trying to get laid/drunk/high/all of the above).  Anyway…

I finally set up the stereo and unpacked my CD’s (yes, I know that’s quaint and almost twee in the age of iPods and MP’s but I’m an old fashioned kind of gal – I still buy books and prefer them to the chilly electronic touch of Kindles and iPads). Laurie Anderson, Iron and Wine, The National, U2, José González, Placebo and Wilco have been doing a lot of spinning. But the lady who’s coming up trumps on the decks of late has to be Tori Amos. The 1st album unpacked was appropriately entitled ‘Scarlet’s Walk’ which could well have been the score for the comic-tragedy of what was Dax and I.  It’s an awesome album, a soundtrack, a cross-country roadtrip, a meandering story, a modern day fairytale. Her long time friend and confidant (my creative hero) Neil Gaiman captures it’s essence:

“The CD’s about America – it’s a story that’s also a journey, that begins in LA and crosses the country, slowly heading east. America’s in there, and specific places and things, Native American history and pornography and a girl on a plane who’ll never get to New York, and Oliver Stone and Andrew Jackson and madness and a lot more. Not to mention a girl called Scarlet who may be the land and may be a person and may be a trail of blood.”

Ironically enough, there’s even a B-side called Operation Peter Pan. Oh yeah, the universe is FULL of signs.

Tori made references to Neil in her music but perhaps my favourite (linked as it is with one of The Players) is in Tear in Your Hand (from Little Earthquakes) where she sings:

“If you need me, me and Neil’ll be hangin’ out with the DREAM KING * Neil says hi by the way.“

Delirium (image via http://www.ambrosia.com.br)

And he’s made references back, most notably linking/likening her to Delirium. There’s also a Tori ‘tree’ analogy in Stardust. Now, where’ve I seen this before?

A legendary album: typically Tori-ish with it’s harsh reality, mildly sarcastic lyrics and her soulfully broken voice, heartrendingly pure and sad. The purrrrrrrrrfect post breakup therapy. Opening with Amber Waves “he fixed you up real good til I don’t know you anymore”; bleeding Strange “you said ‘we’ll build a nest’ so I left my life”; drowning in Crazy “not saying you weren’t worth the fall, but I was alone when I felt it was real” and flattened by Pancake “segregate the mind from body from soul ”. Grab your passport and get ready to follow Scarlet’s footsteps into the setting sun…

the path is mapped

ps check out her website, hereinmyhead where you can even get a daily tarot reading – if that kinda thang jingles your bells.