 | |
List Price: $17.99 | | Label: Universal Republic
Salesrank: 1307
Released: May 19, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.85 |
| Used Price: $9.92 |
|
| Media: Audio CD |
|
Abnormally Attracted to Sin Track Listing:
1. GIVE
2. WELCOME TO ENGLAND
3. STRONG BLACK VINE
4. FLAVOR
5. NOT DYING TODAY
6. MAYBE CALIFORNIA
7. CURTAIN CALL
8. FIRE TO YOUR PLAIN
9. POLICE ME
10. THAT GUY
11. ABNORMALLY ATTRACTED TO SIN
12. 500 MILES
13. MARY JANE
14. STARLING
15. FAST HORSE
16. OPHELIA
17. LADY IN BLUE
Editorial Review:
This Deluxe version of "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" will include a bonus fan DVD that include 17 visualettes (special music videos) for songs on the album.
Abnormally Attracted to Sin Reviews:
Mostly Good 
2009-12-02 - I'm a huge Tori Amos fan, and so I tend to think her music is like pizza. Even when it's not that great, it's still pretty good.
The majority of the CD is good music, but there were a few that just could have been left out. They were boring and detracted from the rest of the music. This CD was the opposite of Little Earthquakes which left me craving more. Here, a basic 12 track CD would have sufficed. I've always liked that she would put so many songs on an album but that was when they all fit together cohesively and none of them were filler or felt like a silly little ditty she came up with in two minutes time while playing on the piano and then perhaps later fluffed up into some semblance of a song. That makes for fun B Sides, but not for a regular album. Her voice and pronunciation on CD lately has been different than live. Really, in her live shows she doesn't sound that much different from the older music. But in the studio she's really playing around with the sound of her voice and her pronunciations and the whispery and hissing sounds aren't doing a thing for me. She has a powerful voice, but I feel like she's not using it. She has always pronounced things strangely, and it was always an asset to most of her fans who liked her strange ways. To this fan, it's starting to become a liability. It's just a little.. "ex-tray" as should would say.
While far less important than the music, I thought the pictures in the booklet were very cool looking, but a bit overdone on the Photoshop. She's naturally pretty and well shaped, so I don't understand the need to make herself look like a wax figurine.
Few things in this world would stop me from being a Tori Amos fan, but overall I'm left wondering where she's going with her music. And though I want to follow alongside her into all the detours and byways she's taking in her music, I secretly hope she returns back to her roots one day and makes that Bosendorfer bleed! I don't expect every CD to be Little Earthquakes or Boys for Pele, but she has departed from the music that originally drew in so many of her long time fans, both sonically and in her lyrics. I enjoy this album for what it is, I think it is her best in the last 5 years -- but as an avid fan of 15 years, something still feels amiss. The raw piano and stark lyrics has been replaced by overproduction and a softer orchestral feel with the occasional one-liner that reminds you what she could be capable of. Or, in other words, she went from alternative experimental rock to adult contemporary that dabbles in rock.
not great 
2009-11-28 - I tried with this one; I really did, but I just can't seem to like any of it. Which is a shame.
Other people have commented that it really is not fair to compare this CD with previous ones. I understand that point, and that is actually not why I dislike this CD. I don't like it b/c I personally cannot stand the way she is pronouncing words these days. It seems very affected, in the sense of artifice, and strange to my ears. If I didn't know better, I would swear she is not a native speaker of English.
There are some songs I like, or I would like them without having to listen to her bizarre enunciations. Fast Horse is one of these; Lady in Blue is another one. Also Starling, 500 miles, and Ophelia. I have tried a number of times to get used to the way she is singing now, but I can't. Which is too bad b/c I think the music itself is still pretty good. The problem is I can't hear the music without hearing the way she is choosing to sing, and I just don't like that.
Most cohesive start-to-finish album since "Choirgirl" 
2009-11-21 - I was there in 1992, joining the ranks of early Tori fans with the Little Earthquakes (5 stars in my opinion) tour. The momentum carried on Under the Pink (4.5 stars), and although Boys for Pele (4 stars) was a bit strange, it was still a logical path into a perplexing soul. To me, From the Choirgirl Hotel (4.5 stars) was her debut of coherent and passionate rock and roll, well-produced for the era. The ballads at that point couldn't hold up anymore when compared with the Little Earthquakes - Under the Pink tandem, but her expansion into other rock and dance styles was remarkably successful.
To my ears, the studio Venus and Back (3.5 stars) tried to duplicate, but did not match Choirgirl on any level. Strange Little Girls (2.5 stars) was strange, and the Scarlet's Walk (2.5 stars) and Beekeeper (2.5 stars) dove into themes that after about 5 listens each forced me to give up trying. I didn't even bother with American Girl Posse - so I can't comment.
So for me, "Abnormally Attracted to Sin" is finally a follow-up that matches the listenability from start to finish that I haven't had the chance to enjoy since Choirgirl. Lots of styles, lots of tracks, but unlike any other Tori album, the sequencing is excellent in that there aren't the harsh style-to-style transitions, the flow is much more seamless. In the absence of a proclaimed theme (as advertised for Scarlet's Walk, Beekeeeper, and American Girl Posse), "Sin" is a coherent album where the music draws in the listener (as did Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, and Choirgirl), and allows the listener to develop his/her own themes based on the lyrical narratives and music style transitions. Which is what was most appealing to Tori fans that came on board in the Little Earthquakes era in the first place.
So for early fans who "gave up" on Tori at any point after Choirgirl, "Abnormally Attracted to Sin" is a real good opportunity to return to Tori, and enjoy finally a perfect follow-up to what Choirgirl was able to do as a complete recording and listening experience.
Brian Williams
Compilation Producer - Jane's Renaissance: The Complete Jane Relf Collection, 1969-1995
An abnormally rich record! 
2009-11-12 - This is another great production from of Tori Amos. A Spectacularly haunting album. If someone were expecting another Little Earthquakes or Under the Pink, he's gonna be dissapointed. In my case, i've learned to hear her records alone without keep constantly comparing one album to another. This record - just like all the others - has it's richness of it's own and it's wonderful. It's not a record for those who wants only piano, but for those who likes music. She's going to different directions, but always keeping her trademark. She does perfectly with synths and guitars. The songs Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Give and Lady in Blue are ones of her best songs ever. And I just love her political and theological views as she shows in Strong Black Vine and Flavour. A dark, satisfying piece of work.
I like the DVD very much. She's a good actress. The visualletes of Strong Black Vine, Ophelia, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Maybe California and Police Me are perfect! This is her best Deluxe Edition so far. I hope that she in her next albums releases a Deluxe Edition with a DVD full of live versions of the songs.
This album must be heard at least four times to be understood. Once you have an open hear and mind, you'll eventually love this record.
Editing could bring it up to ***, but AATS is ** as is. 
2009-10-31 - I recently went back to The Dent and read my online review of the first Tori concert I attended in 1998. The last three albums have found me drifting increasingly further from Tori Amos. I experience this with an inexplicable and overwhelming sense of mourning. The only traces of the woman who moved me so profoundly at that show eleven years ago are found within a paucity of tracks including "Give," "Starling," and "Flavor." There are some other tracks that work individually, but not as part of the tapestry assembled here.
Tori, I'm going to give you a little tough love here. You need to try something else. Take some time off and hopefully you will find new themes that inspire you. We don't need another album about the spiritual/sensual dichotomy. We get it! We get it! We get it! Move on. It's out there. We've been around this block three times on a tricycle. Teach us something else. Enough with the concept albums. We're still listening, but we're bored. How about focusing on a collection of cohesive and strikingly original music?
Collaborate with new producers. You might be surprised by the genius that emerges if you surrender some control and inject new blood into the system. Give Nellie McKay or Joanna Newsom a call. Get in that studio with some new faces. Maynard, Imogen Heap, Bjork, SOMEONE! Kick off your producer shoes for once. You continue to fall short on your own.
Cut it down. The Beekeeper couldn't be saved even if you did edit, but this one would certainly be strengthened by whittling down the number of tracks.
I love you. I really do. But I can't seem to find you from the other side.
