TORI AMOS
OCEAN TO OCEAN
DECCA
★★★★
Over the years, Kate Bush – like Björk – has become a go-to reference for anyone looking for comparisons with a certain type of (ahem) eccentric female artist. The analogy, though, is frequently lazy, and it would certainly be inappropriate to suggest Tori Amos’ 16th album, written in Cornwall after an apparently difficult, introspective lockdown, is nothing more than a pale imitation of the legendary recluse’s work. Nonetheless, she’s never going to shake off such associations as long as she begins records with songs like Addition Of Light Divided, whose opening piano lines, Babooshka-like bass and girlish vocal harmonies recall Aerial’s mature songwriting, nor by writing tunes like Spies, on which her melody suddenly swoops upwards before a chorus of elfin voices rises to accompany her.