Track Listing

1. Beauty Queen/Horses
2. Blood Roses
3. Father Lucifer
4. Professional Widow
5. Mr Zebra
6. Marianne
7. Caught A Lite Sneeze
8. Muhammad My Friend
9. Hey Jupiter
10. Way Down
11. Little Amsterdam
12. Talula
13. Not The Red Baron
14. Agent Orange
15. Doughnut Song
16. In The Springtime Of His Voodoo
17. Putting The Damage On
18. Twinkle

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6940 in Music
• Released on: 1996-01-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Boys for Pele, the title of Tori Amos's epic third album, is as awkward and confusing as the music inside. Though it sounds like a recruitment slogan for Little League soccer, the name actually refers to the lost temples of feminine divinity. Pele, you see, is the Hawaiian volcano goddess; the boys, well, they're the sacrifices that quell the rumbling lady's rage. Attempting to regain fires stolen long ago, Pele rewrites the crucifixion to star a girl Jesus and in doing so conjures a forgotten matriarchal mythology. While Amos's characters--Jupiter, Muhammad, Lucifer--are male by name, the aural landscape into which they're thrown is as symbolically and expressionistically female as Georgia O'Keeffe's skull-and-roses paintings. Pele is a complex and formless--and often impenetrable--work of gothic-pop chamber music, both beautiful and ghostly in its nearly complete reliance on Amos's rolling Bosendorfer grand piano, chilling harpsichord (which she bangs like a courtly punk rocker), and acrobatic voice (as earthy as Joni Mitchell's and as otherworldly as Bjork's). Unfortunately, she takes us only halfway: her songs engage and challenge us to understand, but the imagery offers few clues to help us crack their frustrating opacity. Pele ends up as much a pretentious and self-indulgent trip as it is a synthesis of talent, imagination, and skewed vision. Still, there's reason to celebrate that an album as formalistically and thematically alien to pop audiences as Pele would win such quick success upon its original release. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews

Does anybody actually read these reviews?
I wonder.
This is a great album. Not as catchy as most of her material except for "Caught A Light Sneeze" but the others are excellent. I bought a cassette version for my car (that came w/ a tape player!) and have listened to it over and over. It is becoming my most listened to album now. Good for long drives and even a quick trip to the liquor store!;-)
It is like a nice long and deep conversation w/ a good friend. A quiet, beautiful and sensitive friend. Listen with care. You are amazing Tori Amos.

One of today's truly great musical artists
This is the first, but not the last Tori Amos album I have bought. It is amazing and weird. The harpsichord was a stroke of genius, and brings a new light to one of my least-favorite instrumental timbres.

Amos uses her voice as an instrument and as a canvas on which to splash color and texture. She is a true musical artist, as opposed to a commercial, typical diva that we have had way too many of.

Putting the Damage On
Let me say this first: Boys for Pele, in its entirety, is perhaps my favorite album of the 1990's. Though my concept of musical tastes is increasingly diverse, Pele remains at the top.
This could be the best journey through the end of a relationship I've ever encountered. There are a lot of different ideas flowing on this particular LP, From the haunted opening of "Beauty Queen > Horses" to the subtle, somber, and yet somehow hopeful "Twinkle," this album will surely not disappoint. From anger to sadness, acceptance to understanding, it's all here. Lyrically it's a "typical" Tori Amos album, a bit on the abstract side, but reading between the lines is what draws me to her earlier releases. A lot of these songs have a strong backbone in the harpsichord, which gives it a timeless quality, and it's difficult to look at this specific release in individual tracks. The whole concept behind Pele is not like that of her other releases, it's almost as if she opened her journal and put everything she had on tape. In fact, I have the tree (on the disc itsself) tattooed on my back. This album is a gem to be cherished for years. I think I owe Tori my sincere gratitude.

"Thank you to Pele, and those who brought me to Pele."