Popwreckoning Interview (December 17, 2009)

I think you always have some regrets. Sometimes they’re little. It’s how you handle certain situations. I go back to that thing, “Be smart, not right.” I find that when I have to be right over being smart, which can achieve the win that you’re wanting to achieve, that you usually look back and wish you were smart instead of needing to be right.

Dese’Rae Stage had a chance to speak to Tori for music website Popwreckoning and the interview was posted on their site yesterday. While a few of the questions asked revolve around the holiday season, most strayed well off the beaten path of recent interviews that have dealt primarily with Midwinter Graces. As such, it’s a nice departure from the usual!

This interview was also posted on QRO MAgazine’s website

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Little Earthquakes: Track-by-Track

The track-by-track retrospective of Little Earthquakes that was noticed in the table of contents of the latest Rolling Stone has now been posted. In this online exclsive, Tori writes about each song, providing her perspective on each song from this pivotal release.

Thanks to Mark-Alexis for being the first to let us know!

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The KBCO Morning Show Welcomes Tori

On Monday, December 14th, Tori called into the KBCO Morning Show to chat with host Bret Saunders about Midwinter Graces and, as often happens, whatever else comes up in conversation. Fortunately for those who missed it, KBCO kindly offers a mp3 download of the phone-in.

Thanks to Josh for the tip!

Powder The World In Pink & Glitter

Stephanie was the first of many to let us know about Smashbox’s Pink & Glitter Kit — a limited-edition make-up set inspired by Midwinter Graces. Packaged in a special bag, it includes eye shadow, blush and, of course, lip gloss. Purchasing the kit will also get you a code for a free download of the song “Pink & Glitter.”

While this may not be a cross-promotion with the widest of appeals, it certainly is an interesting way to spread the word about the record to some who may not have heard of Tori and her work. And hey, lip gloss!

Bösendorfer Gives Midwinter Graces Some Love

Bösendorfer has reported on the release of Midwinter Graces, in light of the fact that Tori used Bösendorfer piano while recording the record. The brief article doesn’t reveal any new details and covers many of Tori’s talking points about the album: the Solstice being the celebration of the return of light to the world, her desire to be inclusive and that many of the traditional carols of the season had their starts as drinking songs and sea shanties. Still, it’s good to see them give the record some coverage.

Thanks to Steev and Mark-Alexis for bringing this to our attention!

Autostraddle Midwinter Graces Review

Tori Amos’ ‘Midwinter Graces’ Album Review

Tori Amos has released a Christmas, or as she frames it a “solstice” album, entitled Midwinter Graces, and whilst the majority of people who celebrate Christmas and buy Christmas themed albums probably do so in the middle of winter, I live in Australia and was sitting outside on a park bench under a clear blue sky in sweltering heat when I first listened to this. So I suppose I wasn’t exactly in the perfect mood or mindset for reviewing a winter themed Christmas album. Nevertheless I enjoyed it.

Christmas carols, by nature, are mostly pretty schmaltzy. So it’s probably merciful that we only have to be subjected to them once a year. Even so, I think it would be a bit too harsh to relegate this album to the ranks of those that might be played in a shopping mall adorned with plastic decorations and tacky tinsel, with a fat fake-Santa and a display of little people dressed as elves frolicking through faux snow. I think Amos has done a fairly interesting job of reinterpreting these well-known traditional songs and adding five of her own originals.

There are parts of this album that are genuinely beautifully done and affecting. “Snow Angel,” for example, is one of Amos’ own compositions that is quite haunting and is complimented by a restrained string arrangement. “What Child, Nowell” risks becoming overly hackneyed and corny with its harpsichord and string section, but actually turns out quite interesting, with Amos’ plaintive voice and trademark idiosyncratic pronunciation, and a really nice piano line, which you’d expect of someone named Tori Amos.

At other times, songs succumb too much to the cheese and end up being completely cringeworthy. On “Harps of Gold” I’m not sure whether it’s amusing, horrifying, or both, to hear synthesized church bells and 80s-ish electric guitar accompanying a refrain of “gloria in excelsis deo.” I literally almost jumped/started laughing when the opening burst of big band horns started on “Pink and Glitter”. A young Tori Amos started out with a tip jar on her piano, taking requests and playing show tunes in gay bars, and “Pink and Glitter” feels like a return to that vibe — take that for what you will. The title is probably kind of a clue that this song is not exactly the epitome of subtlety and restraint, and the cheese-factor on this song is a little too much for me.

After setting herself up as one of the most talented and unique artists in pop music in the 90s, with challenging albums like “Boys for Pele” and “From The Choirgirl Hotel”, Tori Amos’ career has gone off the radar slightly following a string of disappointing recent studio albums. You should never judge a record by its cover, but needless to say the cover of Midwinter Graces didn’t exactly inspire me with confidence from the outset. I’m not sure exactly how to describe this interesting ‘artwork’, but the words ‘photoshop hell’ spring to mind.

Moving on however, despite whatever recent missteps Tori has made in terms of production and photoshop, after experiencing her live in concert a few weeks ago I am happy to report that she still totally has it live. Watching a Tori Amos show is kind of indescribable and it feels like you’re watching someone so extraordinarily talented it seems like they’re from another planet. She also has a remarkable knack for transforming some of her lackluster songs into something greater in the live arena, which I found to be the case with a few tracks from Midwinter Graces.

“Winter’s Carol” and “Our New Year”, two of Amos’ original songs, hark back to her earlier albums such as the brilliant Little Earthquakes, and finish the album on a strong note. Midwinter Graces may not have succeeded in making me completely un-Grinch-like, but I think it’s fair to say that it did succeed in leaving my lump-of-coal-for-a-heart at least lukewarm. A word that coincidentally summarizes my overall assessment of this album.

Worcester Telegram & Gazette Midwinter Graces Review

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s Craig S. Semon has kind things to say about Midwinter Graces in his overview of 2009 holiday albums. The couple paragraphs of the article that address the album, which interestingly fail to mention Tori’s rewriting of traditional carols and focus on the original songs, are reproduced below:

Leave it to Tori Amos to come up with a holiday album that transcends the season with “Midwinter Graces (3 stars).

The Methodist minister’s daughter-turned-ivory-tickling chanteuse is spellbinding on the elegant and intimate traditional hymns, including “What Child, Nowell” and “Silent Night, Holy Night” but it is on her originals that she truly shines. On the ’40s-style, big band romp, “Pink and Glitter,” Amos celebrates all the little girls born during the Christmas season because all the attention seems to be bestowed on a little boy born in a manger in Jerusalem.

While Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year, Amos knows it can also be the loneliness and most painful. Amos looks for romantic reconciliation on the somber piano ballad, “A Silent Night with You,” the earthy and organic pagan opus, “Winter’s Carol” and tempestuously orchestrated, “Our New Year.”

Tori Goes One on One With Marvel Comics

Tori swung by the Marvel Comics office during the whirlwind week of Midwinter Graces promotion in New York City and chatted with editor Ryan Penagos about the seasonal album, mythology and, of course, comics! Check it out below!

Thanks to Mark-Alexis for the heads up!

Janice Long Interview

Despite some initial confusion about whether it would be live or not, the conversation between Tori and BBC Radio 2 presenter Janice Long recorded during the first week of December while Tori was promoting Midwinter Graces in London, has finally been aired.

It was broadcast during Janice’s December 16th program — last Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning.

If you missed it, like we did, you’ll be able to listen to it on the BBC iPlayer for another six days.

One assumes that their conversation was the source for the clips used in the December 15th BBC 6 Music News podcast but we haven’t been able to masquerade as a member of the UK public yet to download the episode.

Pepsi Music Blog Interview (December 14, 2009)

I’m not part of any religion. I’m inspired more by I guess the native American tradition, and many other cultures that I’ve experienced around the world. So I’m kind of a mixture. I’m a busy pigeon.

Chris Willman spoke to Tori on behalf of the Yahoo! Pepsi Music Blog and the interview was posted yesterday. The meat of the interview deals with Midwinter Graces but Tori also mentions some holiday music that she has enjoyed (hint: it’s instrumental piano work and not really a holiday record) and talks about the songs she wrote for the record in addition to discussing her rewriting of the traditional carols.

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