And while Tori Amos’ own brand of activism may not be as direct as the former, she demands that her story be heard and related in her newest album, In Times of Dragons. Weaving together a modern odyssey of mythical scales, Amos paints in this 17-track long epic a tale of a woman trapped in a marriage to a violent billionaire husband, who must count on herself and her allies, inspired by her own friends and family and anti-ICE activists – mentioned in “Ode To Minnesota” – to save herself.
As always, we can be sure the ingredients to the quintessential Tori Amos album have been assembled; yet another cryptic story shaped by the current political landscape, delivered over frantic piano chords. The tale starts with “Shush”, the wake-up call for Amos’ fantasy-universe double to leave her spouse and get her voice back. As the song crescendos progressively, the songwriter’s throaty delivery increases in power and assurance, a motif that only gets more intense throughout the record, up until the cathartic “23 Peaks”. Our hero’s journey, told through Amos’ whisper-raspy voice, is punctuated with folktales (“Fanny Faudrey”), prophecies told by her with queer friends (“Provincetown”), and a ballad in tandem with the singer’s own daughter (“Veins”). If shifting tones and genres so dramatically might prove perilous for others, the author of the children’s book Tori and the Muses stands at her strongest when she decodes the current zeitgeist through her whimsical mind. Here, though, its strange twists aren’t so celebratory as in the times of sexual revolution of her youth, but yearn to find this freedom once more.
At times, the album feels like an overwhelming compilation of the artist, from the avant-garde weirdness of Boys For Pele, the mesmerizing ballads of From the Choir Girl Hotel, the whimsy permeating The Beekeeper or the maximalist confessions of her “Cornflake Girl”.
Yet, the singer dips into her incredibly rich inner universe and shapeshifting abilities for renewal. And the staggering amount of feelings spent and tales fabricated draws the listener into the story as much as it may pull them out of it. In Times of Dragons puts love and solidarity at its core. While some will pick up charity gigs, Tori Amos turns this anxiety-ridden world into a dystopic epic with a swift turn of her pen-turned-sword. Though one might hold a preference for either, one can’t help but to admit the red-head’s capacity to charm her way into our hearts, and make us feel like pawns in her world-sized chess game. Which leaves us, inevitably, with a flicker of hope for the brave hero’s side.
