Album Review | ‘Abnormally Attracted to Sin’ by Tori Amos
Amos’s 10th album brings in a much more electronic sound as she explores sinful behavior.
Coming to the end of Amos’s tenure with Epic, she ends off her series of concept-heavy-based projects with 2009’s Abnormally Attracted to Sin. While recording with the Dolls on tour for the American Doll Posse cycle, it began to become clear to Amos a story needed to be told:
“I worked with a filmmaker, Christian Lamb, and he was filming the live show in San Francisco, and he jumped on the bus to just get montage stuff for the live concert footage, and he would show me every day what he was filming, of the crew and the earth and of course I was there too, sometimes. And I would look at these stories he was putting together, and I would say, ‘Christian, shut the music off,’ and it would be the music from the live shows. I said, ‘Stop, turn it off, and let’s just watch it.’ And new music, there was a different story to be told. So I started writing furiously to some of the things that I was seeing, our real lives that were happening and all the things everybody experienced as we travelled the world, and the world was changing so quickly, and is changing so quickly. And then I started writing a lot this summer, and then we filmed again, after the songs were created.”
This project expands further into a dark electronic territory compared to her last, more rock-oriented project. Some of this expansion is interesting, while others tend to fall flat.
We open up the album on the dark and spacey “Give.” The space the piano occupies with the synths both perverts and purifies the concept behind the song.
This works to help tell the story Amos is working on:
“Instead of taking from people, [the narrator of the story] needed to understand the need that she, to survive, had to give of herself… But that can be very ‘Welcoming the vampires’ as well. There’s a double-edged sword to that story… Once I saw that, it became much more of a technology experiment in order to make the song sound like it does, with the piano being there but in this strange world… this idea of experimenting with sound.”
She knows that for her to feel whole and worthwhile she must give love to those around her, but she is also aware that many can turn this around on her.
“Welcome to England” is the first single off the album. The programmed string synth sample used in the song is very grating to my ears. I noticed its use on several live tracks from the American Doll Posse tour and was sad to see it appear here (especially seeing that ‘98’s “Iieee” used a much better sample).
The song looks at Tori’s attempt to live in her husband’s world:
“It’s a story about one person leaving their world to go to their lover’s world. It’s England but it could be anywhere. When you leave your friends and your family and your life, to live in their world. Sometimes their world just doesn’t become your world, and if then they become the center of your world, problems ensue, because that should never happen. And so she is having to find the pieces that she has scattered all over the place in order to live in his world… and she can’t even pretend that it’s her world because it’s not.”
In her attempt to feel more at home, Amos has to bring the light from her homeland to England, “welcome to my world/ You better bring your own sun sweet girl/ You gotta bring your own sun now don’t you forget — / you bring your own sun, just enough for everyone.”
“Strong Black Vine” calls out the malevolent nature that many religious people seem to weaponize against so many. Tori seeks to cure them of the intolerant mindset that the powers at be have imposed on them, “Shut your mouth/ I’m spinnin’ it tight down south/ I’m on raid/ tie you down cause boy I can/ save you from that evil faith.” Through this breaking with the extremist mindsets, Amos hopes to get these people to submit to compassion, “Strong Black Vine/ submission/ Is my mission for a/ Strong Black Vine/ you just might see that/ sweet jesus.” The sultry, dark 70s vibe works in the song’s favor. I much prefer the synth strings here, too. They sound much fuller in the mix.
“Flavor” tackles the many conflicts surrounding religion and the lack of compassion pushed in the name of God(s). This is another song that feels much more poignant in today's evangelical divisive politics. You can hear it in the song's opening lines, “Battle of the minds/ cries Below cries Above
You must pick a side/ Will you choose fear?/ Will you choose love?” The “flavor” that Amos wants to spread is sweetness. It’s to counteract the extremism of many in the name of a higher power, something she sees should be a uniting force rather than a violent force. The production gives off a large spatial feeling, like you’re looking down at the planet. It’s one of my favorites of the album. The song would receive a club remix release in 2010 and a total reinvention on a more classical level on 2012’s Gold Dust.
“Not Dying Today” sounds almost like an outtake from American Doll Posse. It’s much more rock-oriented than the more electronically-infused pieces on the album. Something about the guitar and organ mix doesn’t work for me. It feels artificial. Like several songs that came before, she calls out to long-time, “Neil is thrilled he can claim he’s mammalian/ ‘But the bad news,’ he said, ‘Girl, you’re a dandelion’/ Dandelion, hey I need to think about that/ Yeah, I thought about that and I said, ‘What the Hell?’/ He said, ‘Nope, you are Earth bound/ Blow them seeds away and maybe one will make a sound/ Make a sound, make a sound’ friend and author Neil Gaiman in the second verse.” All of this seems to point towards Amos’s ability to release such prolific work over a short time. Through all this, Tori reassures us that she’s not going anywhere, and the creative reservoir is still full.
“Maybe California” illustrates a woman at the end of her rope. Amos is talking her off the ledge as she’s unraveling at the dissolution of their relationship, “Hey Mrs. see, please don’t jump/ ‘why not, nothing is making sense anymore to me/ I don’t know when I stopped making him smile./ Now the kids see me cry all the time.’” I quite enjoy the swirling of strings around Amos’s piano melody. The sound feels like a blueprint for some of the work on her Christmas album a year later. I also really appreciate the sense of caring I get from her, “So let’s be, be strong you and me/ The night is o-opening/ Our angels are falling/ and they will warm/ they’ll warm us/ She asked, ‘Right Now?/ Right Here?’/ I’m feelin’ soon,/ soon my dear,/ maybe California.”
“Curtain Call” is where Amos’s contemporary and electronic inspirations come together quite well.
We look into the lust of the public into the lives of others:
“The public blows through their next mistress. Those of us that occurred at the time we did… In some ways it was just a different time. Now people need something new. ‘I don’t care if it’s a perfectly good pink shirt. I need another one!’ Why are we so enamoured with excavating the personal journal of someone we don’t know instead of growing with somebody we do?”
The chorus calls to this notion, “By the time you’re 25/ they will say, ‘you’ve gonna and blown it’/ By the time you’re 35, I must confide,/ you will have blown them all/ Right on cue just act surprised/ when they invite you to take/ your curtain call.” Her ominous cadence sells this feeling of “get with it, this is how it is babe.” An interesting side note: I hear a sonic similarity to her 2021 opening track, “Addition of Light Divided,” in the opening piano melody here.
“Fire to Your Plain” feels much more akin to some of the textures she experimented with on To Venus and Back. Although the more dance-oriented drum and momentary blips of synth chords feel odd, it all works well together here. We’re dealing with the sin of lust as Amos’s character realizes she’s being cheated on. She sees that this other woman is only going to ruin him, “‘Cause she’s up/ And I am low/ Watching him/ Watching her play this game/ yeah she’s bold/ Bold enough/ to set fire to his plain.”
What I like about this song is the meaning behind her lines. The bridge points to her mindset of wanting to act in hatred or seethe forever in depression, “she said, ‘Get in and set the SAT-NAV to hell’/ Or would it be Purgatory/ I gotta get this right.” This is probably one of my favorite alt songs on the project.
One of the oddest tracks on the album is “Police Me.” It’s dark and oddly electronic in a way that doesn’t work when all the various synth tones marry in with the more 60s psychedelic guitars come in. The policing seems to be double-edged. She wants the other person to police their actions, not hers, “Perhaps the answer to the question/ Lies in the question/ Perhaps you should read my thoughts/ Line them up like soldiers/ Police yourself/ Police yourself/ Police me.”
I think there is a good sentiment in the song, but it does not work for me sonically. I hate the synth strings (they sound very artificial), and the other synth tones just don’t mix well. This is a skippable track to me.
“That Guy” appears to have been inspired by Tori’s writing process for her musical The Light Princess (which would come out six years later):
I think “That Guy” very much was inspired by the musical process, without question — to the point where “That Guy” might end up in the musical [The Light Princess], because I can’t say that the song wasn’t influenced by writing the musical. And I’m still in the process of writing the musical. Certain songs have come out of that. Just because it ended up on the record doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be in the musical as well.
She was going for a more sixties-inspired orchestral sound here. One thing that I think cheapens the sound of the song is the staccato string plucks from her synth. The second half of the song loses this sound and swells into a Bond-like soundtrack sound with an orchestra and a similar vocal cadence.
“Abnormally Attracted to Sin” is a much more sensual look at the judgment of sexuality versus the power of owning your desires. Here, Amos plays the sly smirk towards those women who are called temptresses, “I know who you are/ Tales of longing sway/ Lost without a verse/ Hymns of swing lay low/ there by the church,/ ‘don’t go in if you are abnormally attracted to sin’.” This ownership of a woman’s sensuality calls back to songs like “The Wrong Band” and “In The Springtime of His Voodoo”. Tori leans more into a femme fatale electronically laced alternative sound for the song. It’s just so-so. I wish she had opted for something more organic than the wubby synth sounds.
“500 Miles” is probably the flattest-sounding track on the album. The electric and acoustic guitars absolutely bury the keyboard work Tori illustrates here. There are some flute and string synth bits, which I think would have sounded better and brought out more, but you have to really push to hear them. The sentiment behind the track centers around attraction and love lost.
The shortest song on the album is the cold Russian-inspired “Mary Jane.” As the name suggests, the song is a very thin-veiled look at marijuana use. Here, the young male character wants to experiment with psychedelics while Amos’s maternal point of view wants to make sure that he is doing it for the right reasons, “Then I said, Son you want to permeate/ And discover the realms of the unknown/ With Mary Jane/ After all the other boys that are your age/ They only wake to medicate.” This is one of the songs I would expect a little more mystery and depth coming from Tori compared to what she delivers.
“Starling” has some of the most interesting effects, giving it a bit more of a psychedelic 60s tone. Amos is broken by her partner’s cold and sharp tone: "what, what does it take to make it through another day/ if a feather lined with his words becomes a blade.” His attention to other details has left her jealous and alone. She feels an outcast in her own home, “Starling you were right I am the jealous kind/ whoever would have guessed/ Starling now I am shut out and confined/ even within my nest.” The starling she speaks to acts as a source of clarity in her more fragile state. I think the delayed guitars and mellotron work very well for the sound she is going for.
“Fast Horse” continues with the mellotron alongside Amos’s trusty piano. This song has slowly grown on me. Again, it would fit perfectly on her last record (something Tori or maybe Isabel would have sung). Amos calls out the need to be someone you aren’t, “You got you a Fast horse darlin’/ But all you do is complain it ain’t a maserati/ You had a soul that you left back in Memphis/ but your mama ain’t New York she is pure/ Tennessee.” It’s a look at owning out to who you are and what you have.
“Ophelia” is a much more classically Tori-sounding song. Tori sings about these women whose various relationships have them taking on a meek and submissive place:
“‘Ophelia’ is a group of young women that are tangible, that actually exist. I do think that there are moments when you think that you’re out of that stage. But you can fall back into that self-destructive place. It’s almost a chain of being drawn to rejection. Have you ever wondered why some women, some people, are drawn to that regressive, invalidating sort of a relationship? There’s a lot of it and maybe Ophelia, along with the idea of breaking this chain, where for people to feel powerful, they have to have power over somebody else. Sometimes that isn’t a lover, sometimes it’s a boss, or you may have a parent like that or some other family member. You just have to find ways, once you’re not under their roof anymore, to decide, ‘Am I drawn to this for some reason, is there a pattern in your life where you’re drawn to people which you had never realized?’ It’s this chain or pattern that you have to break.”
Throughout the song, Tori is trying to reach this woman to wake her up to how controlled she’s being, “Ophelia you must break the chain/ some girls will get their way/ some fathers will control from the grave.” The song’s chorus is a call to break the cycle of subservience and allow herself to be free to do and be what she pleases
The album ends with the longest track, “Lady in Blue”. This has quite possibly the most femme fatale/sultry energy of the bunch. I do like the spacey synths that give you this haze. The mellotron is also brightly highlighted, showcasing its sampled flute tones. Lyrically, play back and forth between this blue lady and the man she left. There’s a tragic vibe between the two, “Cigarettes recommended/ ‘Need a Light to use?’ said the Lady in Blue after the rain/ What is left?/ What is right… you may understand,/ I left the right man./ said the Lady in Blue,/ ‘I left the right man.’” We get a playback to this “right man” line that brings to mind something potentially dark happening to her from this falling out. I was sort of with the track until the rock-oriented piano break at the end. The guitar drowns out most of her piano work too. Honestly, if the song had ended at about the 5-minute mark it would have been great. As is, it feels like a waste.
Sonically, Abnormally Attracted to Sin can feel a bit costume to me. It’s wearing the outfit of a ’60s/’70s experimental rock album but seems to lose the Tori charm that other albums shine with. I find this to be a shame as I think there is some good songwriting on some of the songs, but musically, the inconsistency loses me.
Part of the blame is the synth programming she is using. I don’t know what keyboard she switched to between 98 and 2007, but it sounds thin and synthetic (in the worst way). I miss the Kurzweil she once used. If she’s going for a more late Beatles/Prog rock/Alt sound, I hear it; I just think the execution isn’t there.
My overall thought on Abnormally Attracted to Sin:
Loved it: “Give,” “Flavor,” “Maybe California,” “Fire on the Plain,” “Starling” & “Fast Horse.”
Liked it: “Welcome to England,” “Strong Black Vine,” “Curtain Call,” “Abnormally Attracted to Sin,” & “Ophelia.”
Disliked it: “Not Dying Today,” “Police Me,” “That Guy,” “500 Miles”, “Mary Jane,” & “Lady in Blue.”
My overall rating: 5.0 out of 10.
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