Tori Amos - American Doll Posse

If you have some spare time on your hands and you're up for some analyzing, you can sit down with the liner notes to Tori Amos' latest album, American Doll Posse. Grab some wine while you're at it—actually, make that a lot of wine, and some gin as well—so you can drink up while you learn about the five "different" women who make up The Posse, all of whom are actually Amos in a wig with a funny pseudonym like Santa or Pip. Fortunately, if you'd rather skip the notes and enjoy the music, Posse delivers the goods to do just that. After the adult contemporary sounding, mid-tempo blur that was 2005's The Beekeeper, Amos returns to a more energetic, angrier sonic space for Posse. The album starts off with one of Amos' least subtle numbers, "Yo, George" in which she sings "I salute to you Commander/ and I sneeze/ 'cause I have now an allergy/ to your policies it seems." First single "Big Wheel" is a thumping rock number that makes ironic use of slightly gross pop culture acronym M.I.L.F. Likewise, "Teenage Hustling" is likely to get the feet stompin' and the blood pumpin'. "Bouncing Off Clouds" and "Secret Spell" are a testament to Amos' ability to write a catchy, accessible pop melody in spite of her more difficult, sometimes pretentious, lyrical tendencies. Totaling eighty minutes, Posse manages to switch from one musical genre to another: radio-ready pop ("Bouncing Off Clouds," "Secret Spell," "Girl Disappearing"), glam rock ("Body and Soul," "Teenage Hustling"), dirty alternative ("Big Wheel," "You Can Bring Your Dog"), powerful ballads ("Digital Ghost," "Beauty of Speed"), and quirky avant-garde ditties ("Programmable Soda," "Fat Slut," "Velvet Revolution"). So diverse is the record that it almost seems to lack cohesion. But that may have been Amos's intent, having created four alter egos (in addition to familiar ol' Tori) as part of this project. Whatever your preference, it must be said that any mix of songs of this quality, cohesive or not, beats the mushy studio gloss of The Beekeeper and parts of Scarlet's Walk. The concept record, when done correctly (see Aimee Mann's The Forgotten Arm), is an especially exciting experience. But sometimes a concept just isn't necessary. American Doll Posse works well without the wigs, so set aside a chunk of time, press play, and enjoy Ms. Amos, all five of her, because she's back in an electrifying way. [www.toriamos.com]