Tori Amos: From The Choirgirl Hotel

IT'S NOT at all what I expected. I'd spoken to Tori just before the album was completed, and the few finished tracks I'd heard were haunting. Which tied in with what she told me: that she hadn't planned to make a new album yet, but she got pregnant (hadn't planned that either). Then she had a miscarriage (definitely hadn't planned that). Suddenly all these songs flooded in like little spirit babies to fill the empty space. A pained, raw, overwrought, it's-my-postpartum-and-I'll-cry-if-I-want-to record is what I expected, and I was wrong. Choirgirl doesn't sit in the corner hugging itself; it's sensual and full of life. And far more rhythm-based and band-inclusive than her previous girl-plus-piano material.