A must for Toriphiles, but not her best . . .
921168
I bought the album the first day it came out, and I have listened to it 10 times through over the past few days.  First, I think she choose some good songs to cover - but there was something missing.  I have been a Tori Amos fan since Little Earthquakes and I think one of the reasons for my dedication is her ingenious (though enigmatic, at times) lyrics.  When I heard she was doing an album of covers, I was taken aback.  Her lyrical styling was obviously missing from this album, but her vocal stylings make this a good album.  Personal opinion on the tracks, I would scrub the useless Eminem cover, redo the obnoxious guitar-laden Neal Young cover and speed up the Depeche Mode cover.  I would, however, not touch the rest of the album except to suggest doing some covers of artists like Jim Croce, Elton John, Tool, or Prince.  In summary, not for the non-initiate - but a must if you love Tori for Tori.
1709701
After discovering "The Mask and the Mirror" I was elated to find "The Visit" when next I visited the store.  Unfortunately, I was not as rapturous over this collection as I was over the former.  The blend  of Celtic and Indian musical traditions that had so captured my imagination  in "The Mask and the Mirror" is not as extensively employed here  - to the album's detriment.  However, the collection does feature some  excellent songs, in the more traditional Celtic/New Age vein.  Amidst this  is the sensuous, Spanish "Tango to Evora," reminiscient of her  other work.  "Cymbeline," Ms. McKennitt's treatment of the  Shakespearean poetry, is dreamily lyrical and well worth listening.  "The Lady of Shalott" is good, but long and repititious, with  only moments of variation ("I'm half *sick!* of shadows," she  said).  Unfortunately, this collection also features Ms. McKennitt's  attempt at "Greensleeves."  I'm afraid, as much as I admire her  other work, this rendition is absolutely abysmal.  She sounds,  unfortunately and uncharacteristically, like someone who has stones placed  upon her chest.  However, "The Visit" is still a very good  collection from Loreena McKennit, and a good addition to anyone's musical  library.
3196728
Tori Amos is definitely an acquired taste, and I wouldn't recommend this cd to everyone.  But if you were to buy any Tori Amos cd, start with this one.  The songs on this cd sound beautiful, and have a mystical quality as with every Tori Amos.  However, the song lyrics on this cd are her most accessible and understandable to date, and you will be able to tell what she's singing without looking in the lyric book.  She doesn't slur her words or sound as cryptic on this cd as she does on many of her later albums.  I personally loved every song on this cd, especially Winter, Mother, and Silent all these Years. The only song I thought was a little cheesy was China, but it still sounds wonderful.  Give Tori a chance, you might like her. I ended up buying all her later cds after listening to this one, and am now in love with her, so I'm glad I did.
1765875
After last year's strange and IMHO disappointing "detour" with the covers-only Strange Little Girls CD, Tori storms back to form with "Scarlet's Walk". Ok, it's a concept album (which concept, frankly, is hard to make out, and the Amazon editorial review strangely focues on, to the exclusion of the music). I'd rather focus on the music: are these good songs??
The answer is an unequivocal YES. The overall sound of the album is a mix of "Venus Orbitting" (the studio side of "To Venus and Back") and "Under the Pink". Among the 18 songs, there are many highlights. One of the things of Tori's nowadays sound that gets not enough credit is the amazing work from bassist Jon Evans and drummer Matt Chamberlain, both among the top-echelon in their respective crafts: "Sweet Sangria" and "Pancake" demonstrate that so well. (In concert Tori Amos works as a trio, with just Jon and Matt, yet creating an amazing "wall of sound" on the harder songs.)
What keeps this from getting a 5 star rating is that "Scarlet's Walk" is, at 74 min., simply too long. Musically, there are about 4 or 5 filler songs that could have been deleted and made the album much tighter. In all, this is a most welcome return of Tori after last year's disappointing cover-album.
93255
I can't believe I'm about to say this, but Rasputina's new disk is a little underwhelming.  Don't get me wrong, there are some great songs on this disk: the cover art is, of course, beautiful and Meloura herself produced it so how can it not be perfect, you ask?
It is just my opinion, but I found the songs on Ether and Forest to be fascinating, beautiful and virtually flawless.  However, after listening to this cd for the 3rd time, there are about 5 or 6 songs which stand tall, side by side with any track off of the previous two albums, but sadly the rest of the songs have a thrown together quality which made me feel a bit disappointed.
With the other two albums, even her filler (think, "The pilgrims - HUH? -  The pilgrims" and "Dwarf Star") are perfect in every way, but these tracks on the new album sound painfully redundant of stuff on her prior records (especially How I Quit the Forest).
In fact, one of the reasons I love Meloura and her music is the fact that she changes and finds new ways to make her songs beautiful.  In How I Quit the Forest, she sang with this vibrato that made all the songs sound hauntingly original and melodically wonderful.  With this album she continues this trend and does not disappoint with her singing, for she does sing differently - limiting the vibrato and singing in a whine that is strikingly her own and beautiful to the listener.  I suspect her producing this effort may be partially to blame.  Although I loved her remix of The Olde Headboard from HIQTF, sometimes the production gets in the way or takes the place over clever songwriting (which is her specialty).
Please do not misinterpret my slightly disappointed review, the album is good, and under normal circumstances, I would give it 4 stars: but I don't want Meloura to give up challenging herself and become complacent.  I guess I am falling into the trap of reviewing an artists' entire catalogue, when instead, the idea is to just review a piece of work (in fact, I despise reviews where "true fans" shout out praises of everything an artist does no matter how trivial or thrown together the work obviously is). She has and can do better than this effort and I guess that is how I am judging this album.  I expect that this valiant effort will be a minor misstep in an otherwise perfect career.  Please buy the album because it is worth it, just don't expect a third masterpiece in a row.
4894469
I am a fan of much of Tori's  older masterpieces and absolutely think she is one of the best artists of our time. However, sadly, I did not like most the songs on here. No one seems to mention the song "Your Cloud", which I think is underrated by everyone.  Maybe it is just me, but I absolutely love that song, and the whole album is worth buying just for that song!
927777
Okay, It would be one thing if this was actually a TRIBUTE to Tori and her songs.  It seems pretty obvious to me that this chick thinks she sounds like Tori.  She does a pretty good job at mimicking Tori's singing, she even uses the same inflections in her voice and Tori-esque pronounciations.  Sing Tori's songs, don't try to sing like Tori!!!  I was very interested in hearing how other bands or vocalists interpret Tori's music, especially since Tori herself does SUCH a wonderful job on other peoples' songs.  This Jemma Pryce chick has a decent voice, but she needs to stop copying people.  The only other cd she's done is a tribute to Kate Bush? Tori's voice is most often compared to that of Kate Bush.  I really don't think that's a coincidence.  Bottom line?  If you're looking for a different take on some of Tori's amazing music, you aren't going to find it here.  This is more like Tori Amos Kareoki.  Not too bad, only slightly scary, if you're judging by kareoki terms, otherwise, I would NOT want to hear this on the radio :)  Not at all what I hoped for.  I'd like to hear some Tori songs done over by some rock bands.  When Tori did Smells Like Teen Sprit, that really caught my attention.  I want to hear something like that, someone heavy (NIN? Tool?) doing a softer Tori song.  That would be sweet.  If I want to hear Tori singing Tori, I'll listen to Tori.
1408868
Not one of her best, but still good.  I don't like religion messing up a good story, but this wasn't too bad.  I'v read practically all the Anne Perry books, and I have enjoyed them.  I liked the Thomas and Charlotte books better before he was promoted to Special Branch, and I still can't get used to Vespacia and Victor being married.  For dedicated Perry fans, of course you should read the book, but it is not a good introduction to her work.
3836810
I loved Tori Amos from the first time I heard her music.  I have all her albums and four of her EPs and have seen her in concert three times.  So why don't I like THIS album?  Well, Tori seems to have disappeared behind  the band.  I like Black Dove, but that is about it.  My biggest criticism  is that most of the songs are gasp forgettable; I'm not used to that  with Tori...  Yes, there is Raspberry Swirl -- I like the tune, but PLEASE!  leave the orgasms off the album!  Tacky, tacky, tacky...  I don't know if I  will buy her next album -- that's how much of a disappointment this one  was.
3823160
Yes, there are lyrical and melodic motifs that recur from album to album with Tori Amos, but so far I'm finding this album more palatable than Beekeeper or Doll Posse (both of which I enjoyed - Doll Posse immediately, and Beekeeper about two years after my first listen). Of course I miss stunning album closers like Yes Anastasia and Pandora's Aquarium, but I continue enjoying the musical journey that Tori pursues.

I would express disagreement with the opinion stated elsewhere that Tori's music would be LESS safe if she recorded in L.A. rather than England. That flies in the face of everything we know to be true about the record industry.
2673313
This is the second review I've written on this video.  I first watched it a year and a half ago, and stopped half way through impressed with her musicianship but bored with the product.  That was my first impression to Tori.

Since then, I've listened to four of her CDs, watched her "Fade To Red" video collection and her "Welcome To Sunny Florida" concert DVD, and read her biography "Pretty Good Years".  I finally gave this another try, after being familiar with several of her songs.

I went a little further into this CD, but stopped at "Precious Things".  While I enjoyed the music a little better, including some of my favorites "Cornflake Girl" and "Winter" (my favorite Tori song), her performance of "Precious Things" disturbed me.  That is a song that I loved musically and hated lyrically (as a born-again preacher), but that performance gave me the creeps.  It seemed like something wasn't right with Tori.  The same could be said about her dancing or whatever she did prior to doing "Cornflake Girl".

I commented in my review of "Welcome To Sunny Florida" that I admired her improvising with some of her songs.  However, I think her improvisions on "Winter" almost ruined the song for me, making it hard to follow and sing along with.

In the original review, I commented that this video was not the best intro to Tori's music, and I still concur.  However, I feel I cannot recommend this video, especially to a Christian.  It makes me wonder if I should continue listening to Tori, and motivates me to pray for her all the more.

This being said, I will say that one thing Ms. Amos did right was get the charity R.A.I.N.N. started, a group which benefited from this concert.
972561
I think this record is a very solid and even piece of work. Tori is very talented artist, but one of the things that irritated me about her work is that her songs tended to meander on and on. Well not on this record. The songs range from strong, to funky, to heart felt, and the endings are much sharper and more focused than on her recent works.

I thought her last effort "American Doll Posse" while good in some spots, was just bizarre, but this record seems much more straight forward and down to earth, and I loved it! I think this is her best work since "To Venus and Back", and "The Choirgirl Hotel".

 A+
260412
How can you go wrong? It's Tori! And you even get the bonus of a DVD!
This album has a more gentle feel. Don't expect the feeling of Choir girl Hotel or American Doll Posse.
But it's worth the song "Promise" with her daughter Tash. And of course every song has it's own flavor.
A must have.
13739
This was my first Tori album, so I didn't really know what to expect.  All I knew is that various Web pages I'd visited had given me this name for several months now, and the samples on amazon.com didn't sound that bad.  So I figured that I should give it a shot.  It paid off. This is Tori's  quintessential "girl and piano" album, although Under the Pink  fits the bill quite nicely as well.  The lyrics are fairly  straightforward... well, compared to Tori's other work.  (Basically, that  means I understood everything the first or second time through.  I've  listened to Boys for Pele fifteen times or so in two weeks since I got it  and most of it is still incomprehensible.)
 If I believed in such things  as "desert island discs" (the answers to the question "What  five CDs would you take to a desert island?"), this would be one of  them.  It got me hooked on Tori - actually, it was this CD that got me  carrying a CD player with me so that I could hear music wherever I was.  This was one of those CDs that touches the soul - but while it's emotional  it's also enjoyable enough that I sung the songs over and over again even  when I wasn't playing the CD.
 But even though the lyrics seem  straightforward, it's possible to keep coming back to the songs because  something new shows up every time.  For example - what's "Silent All  These Years" really about?  Is it a song about Tori's experiences with  being sexually abused?  Well, yeah.  But it's also about so many other  things.  This song got me hooked - one of those songs that I just had to  memorize the lyrics to - and the line that got me was "So you found a  girl who thinks really deep thoughts/What's so amazing about really deep  thoughts".  It's interesting to me that Tori claims to have a problem  with really deep thoughts, because looking at her work she's anything but  shallow.  Maybe she's saying that it's not so amazing that she's deep - it  just comes naturally to her.  That grabbed me.
 Of course, Silent All  These Years is obviously meant to be sung by a female - guys don't get  pregnant - but I would still sing it really loud while walking to the train  station.  Thank God there's no one there to hear me - I'm a guy, and it  could be embarassing if people heard me yelling "boy you best pray  that I bleed real soon".
 It's a song about anybody finding their  voice.
 Now on to the rest of the album... at least the highlights.
  Crucify - again, another ambiguous one.  Is she against religion, or just  tired of having to work so hard for some pointless cause?  A great song for  Tori's anti-Christianity - although some people disagree with me and tell  me that Tori's *not* anti-Christian.  But after hearing some of these  songs, you can't argue about it?
 Winter - somewhere, described as  "the best father-daughter song ever written".  That pretty much  says it.  And Tori comes off as really innocent here (as she does to a  lesser extent on "Mother") - playing the inexperienced little  girl; that contrasts with a song like "Me and a Gun" -  emotionally intense in a different way, since it's just Tori singing.  (I  hear "Me and a Gun" as a suicide song - and yes, I know, it's  about rape.)
 Happy Phantom - it's a happy song.  But it still gets you  thinking.  That's the thing about Tori - never one-dimensional.
 Probably  the highest praise I can pay to this album is to point out that everyone  steals Tori's lyrics, and even uses them for album titles.  Jewel -  "Pieces of You"? From "Tear in My Hand".  Shelby  Starner - "From In The Shadows"?  From "Girl".  I'm  sure there are others.
 In summary, this album never gets old - there's  always something new.  The lyrics are incredible, and the music only  slightly less so.  If you pass this one up, you'll be crucifying yourself -  so don't say I didn't warn you.
1541343
I feel bad for her fans who say that this CD is not up to snuff. Change is hard. I never heard of Torri Amos before that show and I bought this CD before it was over! Tori has replaced Fiona as my favorite.
1618624
this cd left no doubt in my mind that tori was not only talented as a musician, but that her albums were actually improving. The only probblem is that most of the songs have a "love it or hate it quality" which  may not do the princess of kook any favours as far as reaching new  listeners is concerned. Best way to decide to see if this album is for you  would be to 'try before you buy', but die hard tori fans will no doubt be  pleased none the less
648900
The disc has a nice selection of her songs, all of them catchy, however some things fell short for me. For one, many of the songs seem abridged. Also, the audio and recording quality from track to track is different. They didn't do enough re-mastering. Still enjoyable though, and a great cd to play in the car on a boring drive. ;-)