You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.
What was the first thing you thought of when you heard Little Earthquakes for the first time? I thought of Kate Bush. Not that their voices are that alike. Not that the music sounds strikingly similar. What’s undeniable is that both Bush and Tori Amos have demonstrated an incredible amount of maturity in their sound and craft from the very beginning. The debut album “Little Earthquakes” is almost astoundingly consistent and demonstrates exceptional breadth in terms of the songwriting. The singing is nothing short of angelic, too. It all culminates in “Little Earthquakes”, the album’s epic closer.
It’s hard to overlook the quality of lyrics and storytellling when you hear the song’s title. “Little Earthquakes” are like tremors inside our bones. The bass vibrates with bravado below your feet. The piano interludes leave fault lines sprawled across a classical-inspired landscape. And Tori’s vocals cause seismic shifts to the listener’s pulse. Any time you’re compared to a pioneer like Kate Bush, well, that’s a pretty big thing. In this case, it’s no exaggeration. This solo debut is worthy of the esteemed comparison.