Album Review | ‘Y Kant Tori Read’ by Y Kant Tori Read
Before Tori Amos’s critically acclaimed debut, her talents graced this 80s hair rock band
Tori Amos is well-known for her hyper-charismatic stage presence and lyrically affecting candor. What many outside of her fan base may not be familiar with is her 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes, was not her first release on Atlantic Records.
The virtuoso pianist had forged a path for years in the industry by attempting to write for other artists, playing in a Kellogg’s Cornflake commercial in 1985 — the irony of this is not lost on me — and even taking on a bit role in the court drama Trail by Jury before her star took flight. Amos gathered together keyboardist Kim Bullard, drummer Matt Sorum (who would later go onto Guns n’ Roses), and guitarist Steven Caton (who would play on all her ‘90s solo albums) to create her first band, Y Kant Tori Read (named after Amos’s childhood aversion to reading sheet music). The album was a commercial failure and quickly fractured the band afterward.
Producer Joe Chiccarelli recalls Tori’s passion for the work displaying the promise of what was to come:
“[Tori Amos] had a very strong vision of what she wanted to do on her first album. And despite the lack of success of that album, it was an…
