 Tori Amos Tori Amos is another artist we love for her EP savvy – she's brilliant with the EP aesthetic, and is prolific enough to keep her extremely devoted fans very satisfied. The Cornflake Girl EP is essential Tori, mainly for the inclusion of "Honey," which is probably Tori's best song, and her hugest lapse in judgment (keeping it off the album, I mean). Under The Pink would be an entirely different (and better) record with the song on it, but there's no use crying over spilt b-sides. Undoubtedly Atlantic will compile Tori's odds and ends into a (preferably 2-disc) b-sides and rarities collection, but until then you can't be a Tori fan without this disc, that's for sure, it's some of her best fifteen minutes. "Cornflake Girl" was a great single from back in the day when radio stations would play either Tori or Sarah McLachlan (remember 1994? Me either) – not both.' Nowadays with our Sherylses and Alaniseses and Jewelseses, the game has changed quite a bit – and ironically Tori is the one most frozen out of radio airplay. Maybe that's because her songwriting has gotten more obtuse and her personality has gotten more flaky. Well, anyway, this was a great single and is still a strong song, knocking them Jewelses down and breaking their tiny "Hands" and whatnot. The b-sides are "Sister Janet," a very strong, dramatic song very much in the spirit of Under the Pink but sort of pointing toward the sparseness of Boys For Pele (but minus the outright mental breakdown). Great song, extremely deep, awesome melody. "Daisy Dead Petals" has a verse like one of Tori's more whimsical songs (like that one from the movie Toys), but has a chorus right up there with the best moments of Little Earthquakes – Tori in her best Kate Bush mode. And then there's "Honey," which is astoundingly perfect, a bit scary, totally gripping, and in short, a total masterpiece. One of the five best songs of the decade, no foolin'. Its relative obscurity owes itself to Tori's self-described cowardice in including it on the album – she literally dropped it at the mastering stage. I say it would have been a single, easily. Well, it's always been a big hit on the radio station in my brain and has appeared on many a mix tape outside of my brain. A textbook example of what an EP should be in the alternative rock era. A must have for Tori fans and even for the merely curious. Amazing music, never fails to rock my world. (Notice that without the comma, that sentence becomes a motto: "Amazing music never fails to rock my world." Well fuck you, I never said it was a good motto.)
Review by Edwina Edema |