Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel

If we don't count her false start in '88 - singer in the glamrockband Y Kant Tori Read - then this is Amos' fourth album. A crucial album, because after its three predecessors the expectations were running high. But lovers of Tori's inventive, rather eccentric and shamelessly private songs can rest assured. The sacred duality Sex & God once more gets a chance on From the Choirgirl Hotel. But the main source of inspiration is Tori's recent miscarriage. She deals with this in Spark and Cruel, magnificent songs about rage and lack of understanding, or in the moving iieee. Those who try to analyze Tori's songs, often lose their way. But combined with beseeching sounds, produced by her and her band, it makes total sense. And that's the problem with this lady. She sometimes lives all by herself on the planet Amos. Sometimes you get the impression that Tori rattles on when she's hawking her mental twists. But she makes it all sound very convincing
WIM SPIJKERS
**** (four stars out of five)