Piano Fatigue

Tonight is the second of Tori Amos's two London shows on the American Doll Posse tour. I did not go to either of them. I haven't blogged about the new album either, mainly because I didn't want to have to admit that I don't really like it.

There is some great stuff on there but there's TOO much on there. It's as long as her previous two albums but they were very easy on the ear. American Doll Posse is decidedly difficult listening and by the halfway mark I am really flagging. Trimmed by twenty or thirty minutes, it would have been amazing. But as is, it's just too much.

I have been following the set lists of the tour too and I haven't been exactly overjoyed with what I was seeing. Three songs ("Precious Things", "The Waitress" and "Cruel") have all reverted to their extended and overblown 1998 live versions with the band. "Heart Of Gold", the unlistenable cover version from 2001's otherwise fantastic Strange Little Girls is inexplicably now sometimes being performed. It's a shame that after really hitting her stride playing with a band on the 2003 Scarlet's Walk tour and doing such great things on 2005's solo Beekeeper tour that she should suddenly feel the need to step back almost an entire decade.