Women of a certain age

If you were a high school or college-age girl during the 1990's, the chances are pretty high you had a Tori Amos CD somewhere in your room. Her introspective, somewhat angst-ridden music - delivered with a high, breathless voice - was perfect for people who were trying to deal with the awkward transition into womanhood and a dawning interest in social and political ills. If you would like to replay those days of your youth, or if you would like to know what all the fuss was about, you can check out Tales of a Librarian: a Tori Amos collection.
Being a librarian, I got a chuckle out of the fact that the titles are all listed with their appropriate Dewey call numbers and LC subject headings. (If you didn't understand all that jargon, you probably wouldn't chuckle at the title list). I was never a huge Tori fan, but I will say that her lyrics can be extremely powerful - "Me and a gun" - her piano playing is fabulous - "Cornflake girl" - and her voice can be very stirring at times - "Crucify". She is unusually whimsical in "Mr. Zebra", a song which is reminiscent of a Lewis Carroll poem. In going through this album, my favorite track would have to be the dance remix of "Professional widow", since it's hard not to get up and dance around the room when it's on. So you don't have to be one of the legion of Tori fans to appreciate this CD, but since some of the lyrics can be a bit graphic and disturbing, it's definitely something I play when my young daughter is out of the room.