i feel odd beams of pride listening since that's the "md/dc" song, and it refers, among other things, to her memories growing up in the urrea... but yeah, that song really touches me.


>but i never thought scarlet's walk held up against the first
>4
>i'll listen to it a bunch more in the near future

i can easily see in a few years time my elevating it to that status, it's just that those 4 have so many more listens on it, and i was listening when they were new.

until recently, i was frustrated with every new tori album being a "concept" album in the last decade, starting with 'strange little girls.' i'm not saying it's a bad concept (covering male songs from a female perspective), but the selection and execution were a little lackluster IMO. besides the lead single, "a sorta fairytale," for which the video deceived me into thinking she had gone adult contemporary (i listen to this song completely differently now than the few times i heard it as a single back then), 'scarlet' put me off because it seemed to be about some character, and every song was about a different part of the country. it seemed gimmicky enough that i didn't bother with it, although i did buy, watch, and greatly enjoy her welcome to sunny florida live dvd when it was released. now that i've listened to 'scarlet,' i see that the "gimmick" is what makes it so great and inspired some of her best work, even if it's filtered through "scarlet." there is such depth on this album. i mentioned before my routine listening to albums for the first time, particularly ones i buy that have lyric booklets. besides following along with the lyrics, the map illustrating what part of the country each song corresponds to and listening to the album as the story of a girl's road trip (and emotional journey) got me hooked immediately. i just completely "got" what she was conveying about naivite, desperation, youth, freedom, being taken advantage of, self-expression, everything.

still, i doubt i will come to appreciate the subsequent albums as much. nothing i heard from 'the beekeeper' ever grabbed me. tori always used different keyboard instruments and not just her famous piano, but i understood this to be an album heavily using organ, which just didn't entice me. then there's 'american doll posse.' some of the songs i heard from this album really put me off. again, the songs are conceptual, she's in character, but purely on a musical level, it just didn't pull me in at all. i'd love to be wrong.