Album Reviews

Album Reviews: Abnormally Attracted to Sin by Tori Amos

Tori Amos has always been—and will always be—the kind of artist who uses music to exorcise and absolve her demons, as opposed to plopping on a therapist’s couch in search of a talking cure. This beloved redhead can always be counted on to lay her cards face up on the table, for all her fans to see and that’s precisely why her diehards are so passionately connected to her and would follow her into Hell. We’re happy to report that things haven’t changed on Amos’ latest, Abnormally Attracted to Sin. The reigning queen of alternative piano pop is at her quirky best. While she’s not Madonna and doesn’t need to drastically and dramatically re-invent herself with every release, Amos does like to further experiment and play with current trends. Abnormally Attracted to Sin sees her embracing synthetic keys even more! After disentangling herself from Epic Records, her most recent label home, Amos, now with Universal-Republic, doesn’t sacrifice one iota of her integrity, despite remaining within a major label system. She’s as odd, confessional and confounding as ever.

The daintily subversive Abnormally Attracted to Sin posits Amos in her familiar roles: she is cast as a vixen and a virgin. But this is when she’s truly at her girlish, frothy, flirty and beautiful best: challenging the notions of femininity and the divine in a male dominated world. Her muses remain the, same and she mines the same fertile sources that have always governred her albums.

The music feels good and is exceptionally pretty, thanks to Amos’ ability to tickle the ivories in a way that sends chills down your spine. But lurking even further beneath the depths is Amos’ quintessential lyrical brilliance. She will, once again, have you thinking about, well, women and sin.

The album opens with the sultry, melancholic “Give,” the sexiest song Amos has ever recorded, while “Welcome to England” pits her organic piano against studio-created synths. It’s a juxtaposition of the organic and the inorganic. “Strong Black Vine” is another vampy rocker backed by epic, tense instrumentation, while “Flavor” appears like a breathy come on, but it’s really much more intelligent than that. They say that well-behaved women rarely make history. With Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Tori Amos is aiming for her own chapter in music history books!

— Amy Sciarretto
05.20.09