#bfp20

We have FINALLY reached 18 November 2016-the date of the Boys For Pele Re-master/reissue!! I was hoping we would get here a lot sooner, in fact, actually ON that day, but alas.  We’re here now though!!.  Pele has always been my favorite Tori record.  Blood Roses is a whole world to me, it opened a whole new world that I stumbled into in 1997, because a friend of my older sister’s played me Caught a Lite Sneeze and I was fascinated, drawn in by the Kate Bush-like percussion.  I wanted more!! I got all her CD’s from the libraries. I remember I had to go to one of the cities smaller libraries to get Under The Pink because the Upper Arlington Public Library didn’t have it.  As I may have said before, I was reading nothing but Anne Rice in 1997. I read Interview with the Vampire and didn’t stop until I finished Memnoch the Devil.  I was absolutely convinced that Tori had read Interview-absolutely every line was applicable to Louis’ story.  Blood Roses still takes me back to that time!! It was magical, and still is. Tori made the harpsichord RAWK.  Who else can do that? 

1 August 2016: “ Pele smiles to the whole world from her home More smiles coming soon with the details and release date for #BFP20 ″

1996 was a good year for bad girls. Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown, two of rap music’s brashest stars, both stepped into the spotlight within the month of November, the same month that gave us the first LP from the Spice Girls. By that time, the world was already acquainted with Fiona Apple’s stellar debut Tidal, which dropped in July. Even the grande dame of wild women, Tina Turner, released her double platinum-selling ninth album Wildest Dreams that April. But leading the charge on January 22 was Tori Amos with her third full-length album, Boys for Pele.

Boys for Pele, which was re-released in a 2-disc special edition this November, is arguably the most intense work from an artist known for her intensity. With this sprawling, 18-track album, Amos purged her issues with her lovers, with her father, with religious leaders, and with label execs all at once. Or to put it in 2016 terms, this was her Lemonade.

A lot of Pele's power comes from production choices that are, just like Amos's piano playing, intricate and meticulous without sacrificing passion or creativity. A special chamber was built to house Amos and her piano keys separately from the body of the piano itself, allowing for details such as the hammers’ striking the strings and the rise and fall of the pedals to be captured without bleedthrough from the vocals. The first sound on the album is the starting up of a Leslie cabinet, the type of speaker typically used for church organs, which is discreetly employed throughout “Beauty Queen/Horses” to lend a disconcerting tremolo to the piano. Elsewhere, brass bands, bells, even bellowing cows weave their way around amplified harpsichords, contrapuntal vocal lines, and George Porter, Jr.’s serpentine style of bass playing. It’s a lot to take in, yet none of the songs sound crowded. And perhaps most remarkably, it was Amos’s first time as producer.

All of this puts the remastered version of the album (which I’ll hereon refer to as BFP20) under an exacting microscope, especially when “remastered” is so often just code for “a louder version you can play in your car.” Thankfully, this first disc of BFP20 mostly withstands the scrutiny. Unlike Tales of a Librarian or A Piano: The Collection, two previous releases from Amos that sought to recontextualize her earlier work with radically altered mixes of popular tracks, BFP20 generally leaves the source material intact. In fact, it’s hard to pinpoint any differences at all beyond some slight adjustments in dynamics. The first chime of the bells on “Blood Roses” feels a bit brighter and harsher, in the mix, for example. On many tracks the basslines feel warmer, more enveloping, and more pronounced. And the reverb surrounding the vocals is a bit more obvious throughout the album. Whether or not these changes enhance the material, serve as distractions, or simply go unnoticed will of course come down to personal preference and level of prior familiarity. But on the whole, BFP20‘s first disc is a perfectly fine presentation of the album for those who may have missed it on the first go ‘round or were only familiar with the later editions that replaced the original “Professional Widow” and “Talula” with dance remixes.

For most fans, however, disc two—21 tracks of b-sides, live recordings, remixes, and previously unreleased material—is likely to be the main draw of this collection. The sequencing of these tracks is brilliant, somehow making this hodgepodge of supplemental recordings feel almost as much like a unified piece of work as the main album. Transitions like "Sister Named Desire" into "Amazing Grace/Til the Chicken" feel absolutely organic. Even the addition of a bassline originally omitted from the b-side "Alamo," the most dramatic alteration of any track on either disc, makes the song feel more in context with the rest the disc. Personally, I never imagined either "Graveyard" or "Toodles Mr. Jim" would work so well independently of each other, but lo and behold... (I still think they're stronger together, though.)

Unfortunately, disc two is also where we find BFP20′s one glaring error: a fuzzy, buzzing noise that persists in the right channel throughout “Walk to Dublin (Sucker Reprise).” It’s a strange, negligent and, worst, unnecessary blemish on a track that didn't need to remastered in the first place, as it was first released in 2006 on A Piano: The Collection and not 20 years ago. And it’s a real shame because it's such a great song and its placement after "Hungarian Wedding Song" is inspired. I'd implore you to seek out the A Piano version if you don't already own it.

But if you've read this far, I’m guessing there's a solid chance you already own most of these songs. Even on the second disc, there are only 3 previously unreleased tracks. BFP20 isn't going to replace your original copy of the album or any singles you may have, but it will make a nice enhancement to your collection, gathering most everything in one place with beautiful packaging and thorough liner notes that include some background on the making of the album and a few new quotes from Amos herself. And it will sound better in your car.

What’s important is that BFP20 doesn't feel like a quick, cheap attempt to cash in on fan nostalgia, but rather a loving tribute to a key work of Tori Amos’s career and a lovely way to revisit an era when well-behaved women seldom made hits. As Amos sings on “Fire-Eater’s Wife,” what would this world be like without nasty girls? Thank heaven we’ll never have to know.