Tori Amos
Strange Little Girls
On Sale Now
For $13.75

Let it be known that this writer now officially names Tori Amos as one of the most influential, innovative and important women in rock. Even if her previous discs were inconclusive on the subject, Amos' 2001 release, Strange Little Girls , is proof in many, many ways.

On this album Amos fractures her voice and personality into twelve cover songs (originally penned by male artists) and twelve photographs. Each portrait represents a different woman and each picture is linked to a specific song.

Likely to be the most talked about song here is the Eminem track, "'97 Bonnie & Clyde." Remember that one? It's the one where Slim kills his wife and dumps her body in the lake while his daughter watches from the car. Well, this time the rap is slow and set against a symphonic backdrop. With the singer's haunting delivery, the perspective reverses. Very, very freaky. I doubt old Em had really counted on the ghost of the dead speaking to his daughter. Or the world.

Amos does an amazing job interpreting both popular and obscure songs with various musical arrangements. On the Stranglers' "Strange Little Girl" the guitars are amped up while keyboard minimalism prevails on Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' "Rattlesnakes" and Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence."

The singer also expertly twists Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," the Beatles' "Happiness is a Warm Gun," and the Joe Jackson gender question anthem, "Real Men." But one of the most compelling tracks here is "I Don't Like Mondays," the Boomtown Rats classic that was written in response to a school shooting in the seventies. On this one, Amos' voice is quiet and intimate, completely betraying the horror of the lyrics.

Recording an album of cover songs speaks volumes about an artist. Strange Little Girls is a pointed statement that delves into gender issues of all kinds. Focused in its intensity while often quiet in its tone, Tori Amos demands that her listeners think and feel through each of these tracks in a way that's never before been contemplated.

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