u/Repulsive_Chard_3652

Hellooooo again! You may remember me from the last few months - discovered Tori's music in the spring and have been making my way through her discography...

I'll soon be making an update post about the 8 albums I've listened to so far and how they "rank" for me, but right now I want to discuss one album in particular: American Doll Posse!

This album hit me hard the very moment I put it on! It is ahhhhh soooo good!!! I'm almost as obsessed with it right now as I was with In Times of Dragons (my first Tori listen)!

This album rocks so hard!!! I didn't know she made music like this!!! The first few songs, with Big Wheel, Bouncing off Clouds, and Teenage Hustling, just make me moooooove! They rock but they also groove! Even the pretty ballad, Digital Ghost, still manages to rock... and You Can Bring your Dog rocks out in the sexiest of those bluesy ways!

I'm also really, really into the archetypes - I love that she went so far as to make 5 separate characters, and then credit them in the liners! 😂 I do honestly find the characters believable via their songs - Pip is my favourite, though - well, I mean her songs rock omg. Body and Soul is fucking uuuuggghhhh!!!! <3 She did a really good job of creating these characters and making the songs really sound like they're from different characters. I mean, Pip is the most recognizable for me, but I also find Santa and Clyde very unique in their song styles. Maybe my only complaint is that all these characters are obviously parts of - or versions of - Tori, so it's a bit strange that one of the characters is Tori. That's the one character that doesn't entirely work for me, as she doesn't really feel like she has a unique, identifiable character in the group. But this is a weakness I can live with ;)

One other interesting thing to mention is that, while the album has 23 songs, even on the first listen, I was clearly still listening all the way to the end because "Posse Bonus" jumped out at me and got stuck in my head already after one listen :D The album is strong from start to end, so it has every reason to be as long as it is!

Other highlights on the album include ALL of the first 6 songs, Body and Soul, Secret Spell, Programmable Soda, Code Red, Roosterspur Bridge, and Velvet Revolution... but Smokey Joe fucking blows my mind.

I will need more listens to be sure, but right now I feel like this might end up being my second favourite after Dragons - and that's where my curiosity lies! This album seems to be often mentioned in the sub as very much not a favourite or even kind of disliked, and I'm curious to hear why! Is it perhaps that Tori fans are generally not fans of rock music and were put off by a rock album coming out after 8 others? Like when Eminem put out a rock/pop album that was actually quite good if you're into that kind of music, but the hip-hop driven fan base hated it? Do fans miss her piano being at the forefront? I mean, I could honestly see that - I don't really notice the piano much on this album, but I'm soooo into what she's doing vocally with all these characters... and she's chosen styles of rock (mostly rock n roll) that still makes space for plenty of piano prominence! Or otherwise, what is it? I have no other guesses! 😂

This is easily her sexiest album I've listened to so far, imo. Danceable, groovy, fucking stunning!

Edit: omgggg soooo many serious comments in reply to this shitpost... what is up with this sub ❗ ❗

(Reminder of the disclaimer: not a serious post)

So, I'm re-watching the American sitcom, "Parks and Recreation", and for anyone familiar, there's a scene with Ann and April in the car for a road trip, and Ann says she made a CD mix for the road trip, and says "Hope you like Tori Amos!"

April says "great!", grabs the CD, and tosses it out the window.

My issue here is that the writers clearly had never listened to Tori, because:

1. there's no way in hell Ann is a Tori Amos fan - Ann is definitely into Pink and maybe like Katy Perry. Tori is too "weird" for Ann for sure. Ann likes safe, simple, comfortable pop music - if Ann was written now, she'd be a huge Imagine Dragons and Adele fan. Tori would scare the shit out of her.
2. April would fucking love Tori omg even if not the music itself, the attitude, vibe, and lyrics lol I see April tossing herself about her and Andy's house to iiieee and Blood Roses and Caught a Lite Sneeze. Girl, I always wanted to know an April in real life and bond with her over weird-ass music - introducing her to Tori would be a ride.

I think the writers confused Tori and Sheryl Crow 😂

Might be an unpopular opinion haha

I'm just listening to all her LPs today in reverse order... and it's mind-boggling to me how I kinda fall asleep/tune out during most of Havoc... but Flavours has my attention the whole time and is top 3 for me of her LPs...

But she co-wrote all the songs on both with Guy Sigsworth and he also produced both...

It's not even like the songs themselves on Havoc are bad or anything... it feels like it's mostly down to the production... it's just very flat to me, while Flavours is very dynamic...

Recently I've set up my mat next to people who ended up being kind of frustrating and distracting to be next to during a practice. The two worst were a person who placed their mat super close to mine despite there being a lot of space on the other side of them (so much space that it was extremely obvious and seemed like an intentional choice) and then constantly physically ending up on my mat, and also making very audible sounds (like, ahhhh, ohhhh, mmmm) when arriving in various poses; and another person who brought their phone and airpods in to the studio, was on the phone and with airpods in right until the beginning of the class, and then kept checking their phone every 5 minutes or so (the studio even has a sign on the door saying no phones inside).

Both of these people were very, very disruptive to my practices, but I try to focus on my zen as much as possible at the studio and getting into a conflict would take me out of it even more than this behaviour of theirs... but I also feel like letting them keep doing it without saying anything is just going to disrupt more people's practices...

What would you do? Very curious! Am I overreacting? Being too sensitive?

So, I'm running Graphene, and till now I was using the FUTO keyboard, but I've just learnt how very deeply connected they are to fascism (see: https://drewdevault.com/blog/Whats-up-with-FUTO/ ), and this is truly a bridge too far for me. Cuntis Yar vin is way, way evil. So I'm looking for other suggestions for keyboard - are they any that are actually truly open-source? (FUTO claims to be but is not fully, anyway.)

Just sad and wanting to vent - we had this lovely small gym in the neighbourhood that had normal lighting instead of the blasting overhead fluorescent crap, subtle music instead of loud crap, and no TV screens around the space... it was also not loud and echoey, and the people were all from the neighbourhood so it was chill and friendly, never had to deal with any obnoxious jerks or weirdos and never had any men touch me or hit on me - the only gym where I've ever enjoyed that peace...

I went yesterday after work and found a sign on the door saying that after 10 years, they have to shut their doors, as their lease expired and the rent has just become unaffordable... I'm soooo fucking gutted. I guess some commercial chain will be able to afford the rent and move in there... and idk if or when I'll be able to find a replacement for this one...

Just needed a good vent... anyone else ever faced their gym they loved closing? Totally sucks.

This whole thing is kind of hilarious... I'm not all that tech savvy, but back in the day I dated software engineers and such... and through them, I ended up with a lifetime of using open-source programs. I'd wanted to switch to Linux for like 20 years, but it just seemed so daunting... I was terrified of the learning curve!

I finally installed Mint on an old laptop and I honestly love it so far - it seems to me that perhaps the biggest learning curve for most people is learning how to use new programs, but I've been using these the whole damn time! 😂

But there are still things to learn and it's going to be a minute before I'm ready to install this on my main laptop. It is really awesome to have brought some new life to my 8-year-old Dell, though! There were things that no longer worked and are working again now with Mint - like the HDMI port works again, and I can print and scan to my printer again!

If y'all have any suggestions for a newborn baby who's only ever used Windows until now, I'm all ears!!! Glad to be here! :)

One question to start it off: my work heavily relies on video calls and collaborative documents. A lot of my clients are in companies which run entirely within the Microsoft ecosystem. Would I be able to keep up with that in Mint, or would I want to dual boot my main laptop in order to use Windows for work?

I've been for 7 different kinds of classes by 7 different teachers, and I have an absolute favourite - hands down, no contest. It's a rocket-style class, and she's just a 10-out-of-10-teacher - her energy, her tone of voice and overall delivery, the way she gives instructions and explains things, the way she seems to care about the students, the way she approaches and asks if she can assist before doing so, etc...

I've been going for a couple months, and today I put aside my social anxiety to go and thank her - to tell her how much I love her class and the practice. She seemed genuinely touched and said it was so wonderful to get the feedback because she teaches so many classes, and sometimes it's hard to not burn out - she said she feels like she just does the same thing over and over and over again and she wonders if it's worth it, if people really get much from it. I said I was surprised she doesn't get such feedback more often, and that she should! We hugged and I've felt extra fulfilled from my yoga experience today because of this little exchange.

Why am I sharing this? Because I want to encourage others to do the same - take the time to personally thank any yoga instructor who's made a difference in your life, whose practice really resonates with you. They may not hear it enough, or as often as they should. I honestly refrained for a while because I assumed she probably gets that a lot and I didn't want to be annoying, but it seems I was wrong.

And to all the yoga teachers in this sub, know that there are probably people like me in your classes who just are a bit shy to come tell you how much they love your classes. <3

I know it's technically not degoogle - I've entirely degoogled, but am working on demicrosofting, as well... I use microsoft's whiteboard program a lot for work and I'm curious what open-source whiteboard programs people like!

The background:

I just discovered Tori a month ago, and I've listened to nothing else for a month now. :D

I've only listened to six albums so far - dragons, hunters, pele, earthquakes, invaders, and choirgirl. So these are the songs I know ;)

The present situation:

I'm having a party this afternoon/evening, and I kinda don't wanna stop listening to Tori ahahaha of course I will switch it up at some point ;)

But I'd love to have a playlist of upbeat vibe songs for at least an hour or so!

I'm thinking songs like Raspberry Swirl, Professional Widow, Gasoline Girls... Caught a Lite Sneeze!

What would you add?? Considering there are still 12 albums I've not heard yet, I'd love to hear your suggestions!!!

People seemed into my previous posts about my journey getting into Tori, so I thought I'd offer another update after having spent time with 6 of her albums :)

Disclaimer: note that I am not a lyrics person, so for the most part, the lyrics are irrelevant because I haven't listened to them yet. So these feelings, thoughts, and reactions are purely based on music :)

The albums I've listened to (and I've listened to each one at least 5 times, though my favourites have reached double digits for sure):

Little Earthquakes
Boys for Pele
From the Choirgirl Hotel
Night of Hunters
Native Invader
In Times of Dragons

I'm not too into ranking things, but if I had to rank these in terms of how often I am enticed to put it on and listen again, it would go like this:

5. From the Choirgirl Hotel
6. Boys for Pele/Native Invader
7. Little Earthquakes
8. Night of Hunters

1. In Times of Dragons

I've gathered from this sub that this should be a very unpopular opinion :D But I have my reasons! Hear me out! ;)

Choirgirl has been the hardest for me to get into, possibly because it is the most pop-oriented, very digestible and straightforward musically. It's the most accessible of these, which isn't a bad thing by any means, but it's probably the one I would've been most likely to get into when I was a teenager. And definitely don't get me wrong here - I like all six of these albums, including Choirgirl. It has some very nice songs - I think iieee is my favourite, but I also really like Raspberry Swirl, Playboy Mommy, Hotel, Northern Lad, and I like Black Dove quite a bit. There aren't any songs I dislike, but the others I guess are a bit more forgettable for me. I also think one reason this album doesn't hit as hard as others for me is because it feels like a somewhat disjointed collection of songs, rather than a cohesive album. But it's still enjoyable from start to finish, and that my least favourite of 6 albums is still this good is very promising!

I can't decide between Pele and Invader - I like both more than Choirgirl, but in different ways.
Pele is very interesting. I love how this album starts off, and my favourites are Blood Roses, Professional Widow, Caught a Lite Sneeze, and Muhammad My Friend, and In the Springtime of his Voodoo. This album is the one that I feel influenced Regina Spektor a lot vocally - whenever I'm listening to this one, there are various vocalizations that make me go "wow! Regina?" I think the rest of the album feels more forgettable for me right now, but probably in time I will grow to enjoy more of the tracks. The downfall of this album for me, though, is I'm just not into some of the very "weird" things she does vocally here. I get what she's going for, I respect it, but it just isn't aurally aesthetic for me.
Native Invader is much more pleasant to listen to overall, but it's also less adventurous - I do like a lot of the "weird" on Pele, and Native Invader doesn't take as many risks. But it's very nice to listen to. My favourite tracks are Broken Arrows, Up the Creek, Chocolate Song, and Bang. One thing that will probably set me apart from most of the fan base is I definitely like her older/more mature voice more than her younger voice. Like with Pele, the more forgettable songs are likely to grow on me in time.

Little Earthquakes is the first of these that is all hits for me. I like every song on this album, and it's interesting since it's her very first album - you'd think then I'd be more into her early work. I like her voice more on Native Invaders and Dragons than on this one, though. It's hard for me to pick favourite songs from this one because they are all very good. Silent All These Years is amazing, though, with the transition to the chorus, the piano in the chorus, and the harmonies... the winds and strings in the verses... Crucify is such a powerful way to start your solo career lol HELLO HERE I AM! China/Leather/Mother is an incredible run... Precious Things is so cool. Also just a random note: the verses of China are very reminiscent of Alanis Morissette's "Perfect" off Jagged Little Pill. I'm guessing it's a coincidence, but I do wonder if Alanis was influenced at all ;) Very different songs, though, in terms of vibe/atmosphere/instrumentation...

Night of Hunters is simply mindblowing... it is an absolute masterpiece. There were some songs I didn't love as much at first, but by now they've all grown on me. This is a banger from beginning to end. I made an entire post about this album lol fucking genius. Even though I haven't dug into the lyrics, I can feel it's a concept album - you can feel it in the music and its connectivity, how the album flows from track to track. It's one cohesive story, and that's part of what makes it so good!

In Times of Dragons... well... what can I say? This is one of the best albums I've ever heard. I've gotten so obsessed with it that I did actually start to look into the lyrics, and I adore the concept and the story she's telling here. But even before I started to do that, I also could feel the concept album through the music... her voice is absolutely otherworldly... I love every song and don't even really view them as individual songs... it's one thing for me. I wouldn't listen to songs on this or Hunters individually or on shuffle. These are start-to-finish albums. I also made a post about this album :D

So far I like all of them... and there isn't a single song I would skip. I guess skips will come along in time, as I go further into the discography, but it's still impressive to have 6 albums with no skips!! I think I still want to spend more time with these albums before moving on to other albums, but I'm still in awe that I'm only 33% of the way in :D There's still so much more!!! <3

Still grateful to the public radio station I listen to for playing Stronger Together enough times that I started to wonder if I should check her out! <3 And to the majority of this sub for positively engaging in developing my new fandom! :D edit: minus the person who downvoted this post :D :D :D not you ;)