News: Everything But Urban Night of Hunters Review

Everything But Urban has posted a glowing review by Nivedita Gunturi. Giving the album 5 of 5 stars, she calls it a “stunning expression of the true nature of the female spirit.” Encouraging words indeed!

Thanks to Phillip for the tip!

Review: Tori Amos – Night Of Hunters

Nivedita Gunturi
Sep 7|09:00

Tori Amos, with a fabulously extensive history of making music that pushes the envelope, has managed to produce her most cohesive, compelling album in recent times, Night of Hunters.

Although Amos has been known on past records to allow classical themes and patterns to surface through otherwise playful arrangements, this particular project is unique. She has taken inspiration from well-known classical pieces, both contemporary and historical, and has taken them in a new direction, intensely and effectively telling the story of a woman on a journey of self-discovery.

Featuring a sense of focused intensity which is a significant improvement on her usual seemingly haphazard, chaotic compositions, Night of Hunters is complex but calculated, a trait necessary for the success of a project as extensive as this one.

The album begins with the powerful “Shattering Sea”, the first line of which startles – “That is not my blood on the bedroom floor”, Amos sings, giving the listener no choice but to hear her out. The melody rises in quiet fury, arpeggios layering upon a foundation of seething chords. Deceptively calm as it starts, its fractured harmonies burst forth, arresting and even frightening. It successfully sets the stage for the rest of the album, at once expressing emotional turmoil, love, passion and every other emotion on the spectrum from quiet affection to blinding rage. “SnowBlind” follows, pensive and frothing under a silent surface.

“Battle of Trees” and “Fearlessness” use harmonic dissonance to convey emotional disharmonies, internal conflict and opposing spiritual energies within the female spirit. The quirky and unusual “Cactus Practice”, perhaps the weakest track on the album, tells the story of the titular elixir. “Your Ghost”, a typical Amos ballad, is defiant and victorious, well juxtaposed with the subsequent “Edge of the Moon”.

A stunning expression of the true nature of the female spirit, Night of Hunters is bold, vigilant, intense and emotionally rich. Tori Amos has, as always, paid close attention to detail. Raw and unfettered, the album is beautifully transparent.

Final Words: Be prepared – this album is a window into the collective unconscious – turbulent but free.