I have been listening to Tori's latest album since it came out last week, and to be honest I never made a connection to the Pussycat Dolls. Tori has always talked about her many personalities - which every woman has whether we let them out or now. And that's why the songs on the album blend so well. She's brought all of these girls out to meet each other. They're not separate or the same - and they are DEFINITELY not meant to reflect pop culture like the Pussycat Dolls do so very well.

Different songs are from the perspective of the different girls on the cover.

It's supposed to be a critique of the Pussycat Dolls? What with the story-song aspect, I assumed it was a joke on American Girl Place. http://www.americangirlplace.com/agp_home.php

Then again, maybe I'm the only one who thinks American Girl Place is super-creepy.

I haven't heard it yet, but it sounds very interesting....apparently each of the five "characters" are loosely based on personalities from Greek mythology....Persephone, Artemis, Athena, Demeter & Dionysus, Aphrodite....if anything Tori seems to be offering an alternative, multifaceted view of femininity, rather than just a criticism of the Pussycat Dolls....here's an interview with her about the new album, for those who are interested....

http://www.tingen.org/toriamos07.htm

Hmm... I bought the album the day it was released and have been listening to it steady. I never made the connection to the Pussycat Dolls, but it doesn't seem ludicrous. Amos is well known to be very thoughtful and deliberate. I thought (like blucas) that it was a critique on the American Girl Dolls, but I'm sure that there is more than that.

It really is a great album - the first song "Yo George" is about "the madness of king George"... :) This is not the bland boring Tori of the past couple albums. She's fierce again.

ahhhh. that makes so much more sense than the onion's take on her album:
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/61355??utm_source=hater&utm_medium=RSS

and it makes the fact that she's sultrily holding a chicken (instead of the much sexier chihuahua chosen by american celebrities) really quite funny (instead of worrying). i also like the use of corpse chic.

music-wise, i've only heard snippets of the anti-bush song so far, and sneezing just never has been as important a sentiment to me as to ms. amos, apparently.

love love love. One of Tori's best for sure.

But I would be shocked if she was purposefully and specifically reacting to the Pusscat Dolls. That's not really tori's style.

American Girl Place is creepy. I walk by it every day on my way to work and there are always lines of little girls clutching their personalized dolls - sometimes even wearing the same clothes - like some kind of demonic familiar. They've turned dolls into a lifestyle, and it freaks me out to no end.

Um...considering the review said that lyrically this new album wasn't a match for Boys for Pele, I think I'll pass. It was the insipid lyrics on Boys for Pele that put me off Tori in the first place.

For sheer musical poetry, I prefer AATT to TA anyway.

Its pretty good - not Scarlet's walk or under the pink good, but better than the beekeeper. Its got more of a to venus and back feel to it. I read (heard?) it more as a commentary on the socially-defined categories that women are supposed to fit into. A direct response to a reasonably insipid pop culture trend just doesn't seem like her style.

It's not Pele good (but I don't think she'll ever surpass Pele) but it's pretty damn good.

Any relation the PCD seems to be loose and a stretch. of course, I don't think of them usually so....

and it makes the fact that she's sultrily holding a chicken (instead of the much sexier chihuahua chosen by american celebrities) really quite funny (instead of worrying).

Dude, this is the same Tori Amos who posed for the cover of Boys for Pele nursing a pig.

Also: love the new album, SO MUCH BETTER than Beekeeper. Not sure yet if it's up to snuff with Scarlet's Walk (probably my favorite of hers, though it depends on my mood) but definitely really good. I don't think it's a reaction to the PCD--like blogjunkie said, that's not really Tori's style--but it's definitely reacting in a lot of parts to America (duh) in general, of which he PCD could be said to be a particularly toxic symptom.

i totally don't get why it wouldn't be Tori's style to do a pop culture critique/deconstruction. she did an entire album (Strange Little Girls) of covers of songs by male artists about women and has always peppered her lyrics with this sort of thing ("made my own Pretty Hate Machine," etc.). I think the PCD critique is certainly plausible, if not the informing trope for the whole project. I think the record is fierce, overall.

The concept of this album is about reclaiming all sides of the feminine (based on the Greek pantheon) and rejecting the violence of the patriachy. The "Doll Posse" represents all parts of one woman, Amos or any one of us. I don't see a deliberate connection with the Pussy Cat Dolls in the concept, but surely a reference to their ilk in the song Teenage Hustling (directed at the music execs).

Stand-out feminist tracks are Girl Disappearing, Father's Son, Body and Soul, and Smokey Joe.

Musically, this album is among her best. It may even uproot Choirgirl Hotel as my favorite, one day. Very varied sound.

I probably played Little Earthquakes 24/7 on auto-reverse cassette the year it came out which drove my neighbors nuts. I liked Under The Pink too.

Little Earthquakes- my favourite album of all time. Sometimes I stray from Tori for a bit but I always come back to her. Must get the new album!