Tracks

1. New Age

2. 97 Bonnie And Clyde

3. Strange Little Girl

4. Enjoy The Silence

5. I'm Not In Love

6. Rattlesnakes

7. Time

8. Heart Of Gold

9. I Don't Like Mondays

10. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

11. Raining Blood

12. Real Men

Performer Notes

Recorded at Martian Engineering, Cornwall, England and The Nut Ranch, Los Angeles, California.
STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. "Strange Little Girl" was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Personnel: Tori Amos (vocals, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards); Adrian Belew (vocals, Wurlitzer organ); George H.W. Bush (vocals); Jon Evans (acoustic guitar); John Philip Shenale (strings, synthesizer); Matt Chamberlain (drums).
Audio Mixers: Marcel VanLimbeek; Mark Hawley.
Arranger: John Philip Shenale.
Although the CRUCIFY EP found Tori Amos serving up an entire program's worth of covers, STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS takes a different approach. This time out, she's purposely chosen material exclusively written by men, and delivered the songs from a distinctly female point of view. Stripping down many of her arrangements, this eclectic artist achieves chilling results with her whispered/spoken vocals representing the dead woman being dumped in a lake by her husband in Eminem's ''97'Bonnie & Clyde" and the ethereal delivery saturating Slayer's ominous "Raining Blood."
Elsewhere, Amos uses a delicate touch to do justice to Tom Waits' stirring "Time," then goes in an opposite direction, inviting Adrian Belew to pump plenty of fuzz-guitar into a swirling take on Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold." Also notable is the use of cleverly patched-in sound-bites referring to John Lennon's murder and statements from proponents of the Second Amendment on the Beatles gem "Happiness Is A Warm Gun." Other highlights include Tori's infusion of desire into the Velvet Underground's "New Age," and the sassy swagger that coats the Strangler's "Strange Little Girl." Tori Amos may be strange, but her eccentricity is the key to her musical genius.

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (9/27/01, p.68) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A record that is huge in its strangeness: 12 covers of songs written by men...in which Amos sings from the other side of the anxiety and sorrow. It is dangerous work..."

Spin (1/02, p.76) - Ranked #10 in Spin's "Albums of the Year 2001" - "...These songs will get under your skin..."

Entertainment Weekly (9/21/01, p.84) - "...Part off-the-rails feminist art project, part sheer genius." - Rating: B

Q (10/01, p.116) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...In which Amos performs 12 songs written by men as if they were being sung by the women who suggested she do them....Pick of the bunch is undoubtedly the Bjorkish revamp of Slayer's 'Raining Blood'..."

Alternative Press (11/01, pp.74,77) - 7 out of 10 - "...Amos conveys genuinely disturbing feelings largely without straightforward, words-and-piano compositions..."

CMJ (9/17/01, p.10) - "...Heavy stuff, but the singer's unwavering vision never comprises her art."

Mojo (Publisher) (10/01, p.112) - "...Marvelously ambitious...Amos seems to have claimed others' songs as if wielding a branding iron or a tatooist's needle..."