[.ca] Precious Things: The String Quartet Tribute to Tori Amos

Uninspired and Way Overrated:
I was extremely disappointed. So in I walked out of Borders Bookstore, excited about my new purchase of this seemingly obscure CD, all about reinterpreting Tori Amos' music through some string quartet. I looked at the tracklist, and was pleased at the songs chosen, songs that the quartet eventually butchered and left to die a slow, uninspired, gut-wrenching death. Without Tori Amos' passion and verocity of piano playing and vocals, the re-interpreted songs are ignorable at best, and just plain painful to listen to at worst. 'Caught a Lite Sneeze', in particular, was horribly done. It was monotonous and unnecessarily loud. The rest of the CD, in general, was just as monotonous and it was so repetitive I might as well have been listening to the tick tick of my clock next to my bed. And at least then, I could make up my own melody. It seems as if the only redeeming quality of this CD lay in its gorgeous cover design. Well, that does Not save the music.

Not a precious thing...:
Being an admirer of Tori Amos, I was anxious what this cd would sound like. Only after a few seconds of some songs I crucified this cd and cried... well, not exactly cried, but I'm very, very disappointed. I can't imagine that Tori was fully aware how her songs were raped blown to pieces. None of the songs are close to the originals, not even bad live tracks. Where Tori keeps impressing me with her beautiful songs, fragile lyrics and where one kan hear the love for music and wonderful poems, this album is a waist of time, money and effort. Now even my cd player refuses to play this album anymore.

Nice try...:
Usually I like what string quartets can do with pop & rock music ie Rachel Barton's rock album and Apocalyptica. This tribute wanted to be good but lacks feeling in all the tracks except for "Pretty Good Year", which was beautifully done. There are some sonic redeeming qualities, especially the intro to "Precious Things" but most tracks seem rushed. These artists could have taken more chances with the music. If you're looking for Tori, she's not here. If you don't know Tori's stuff, this is an interesting strings excercise.

Listen with an open mind:
I became a fan of Tori Amos a few years ago, (My dance teacher played Tori's album, Little Earthquakes, during our warm-up one day, and I was hooked.) and have been slowly building my collection of Tori's music since then. I stumbled upon Precious Things: The String Quartet Tribute to Tori Amos while surfing the Internet and mentioned the CD to a friend who gave it to me as a gift. I was excited but nervous when I first slipped the CD into my player. Even now, I have conflicted feelings toward the album. Several of the tracks are absolutely perfect. "Pretty Good Year" shines above the rest with its emotion and beautiful, true to Tori, arrangement. "Silent All These Years" is also a gem; the arrangement is lovely, and its "subtle electronic flourishes" are a nice addition. "Precious Things" is interesting, though the emotion Tori infuses into the song is noticeably missing. "Past the Mission" was also nicely done, though, again, the feeling simply isn't there. As for the rest of the tracks, they're all fairly nice. The main problem seems to be a lack of emotion. For someone like me who enjoys classical music in addition to Tori's music, this album is ideal. Being a dancer, I can see how some of the songs might make for interesting contemporary ballet pieces. I'd imagine, however, for someone who was not a fan of classical music, this album might become a bit tedious. Really, you have to listen to the album with an open mind. The musicians are obviously very talented, and some of Tori's most beloved songs form the undertones for the music. However, don't listen to the album thinking you're going to find the raw passion and emotion of Tori's lyrics or the haunting strains of her voice. This album isn't Tori; maybe she's a phantom who haunts the album, but it certainly isn't the best representation of her music as she wrote it. However, I must say it is definitely worth a listen if you're interested in hearing a different interpretation of Tori's music. And for the fans of classical music out there, this album's unique sound is sure to delight.

Good...but not a huge departure from the original:
I found this album pleasant to listen to. The problem was that Tori allready uses a lot of classical themes in her music sowhile classical "interpretations" of hard rock type bands are interesting because they differ so much from the original. The result is a somewhat watered down version of her songs, slightly interesting but lacking much of the passion and original musical styling that make the originals so great. This would be good for serious Tori fans who want to hear a slightly different interpretation of some of her best songs. But listen to the originals first beccause they are in every way much better.

• Precious Things
• Caught a Lite Sneeze
• Cruel
• Silent All These Years
• Cornflake Girl
• God
• Pretty Good Year
• Flying Dutchman
• Girl
• Crucity
• Muhammed My Friend
• Past the Mission
• Precious Things \oRemix\c