SCARLET'S WALK

Hmmm, is Tori Amos really prog enough to be here? I'm sure some people answer that question negatively, but my reaction was only delighted: yet another artist I know quite well and enjoy! She is a POP artist, but an emphasis on the word artist. Unique and very influential to the young generation of female singer-songwriters. I start with this album which is my favourite in the Amos catalogue.

It may be safe to say that it's also among the most accessible of her albums that far. IMHO she did have a bit too mock-artistic approach in e.g. Boys For Pele. Accessibility is of course very subjective thing (from a prog-listener's point of view Tori Amos is more likely over-sweet than unaccessible!), in this occasion I mean that this album is for the most part dreamy and serene, its song are relatively relaxed, not very complex in structure but with wonderful arrangements full of delicate nuances, and it has a suitable amount of down-to-earth nature alongside that dreaminess. It avoids being over-sweet like for example The Beekeeper or her Christmas-related Midwinter Graces are here and there. I guess Scarlet's Walk is meant to be some kind of a "road album" (compare road movie) and a study of "Americana". Tracks seem to be connected with various places all over the States.

It has no less than 18 tracks. The risk of including several fillers is big, but the overall level of songs is very high. I have many favourites here, such as 'Carbon', 'Crazy', romantically soft 'Your Cloud', ethereal but increasingly exciting 'I Can't See New York' (my favourite of all Tori Amos songs perhaps?), urban sounding 'Taxi Ride', melancholic 'Gold Dust'... To some listeners this album may be too soft and lacking of edginess. Don't expect the catchy power of the early hit 'Corn Flake Girl'. But if you enjoy dreamy female vocal pop with the dominance of piano, don't pass by this beautiful album.