3/5
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Tori Amos might’ve lost her costume wig collection at the end of 2007’s American Doll Posse tour, but just two years later, she seems to have a new alter ego ‘mdash; ’50s housewife and suburban mother by day, dominatrix/assassin/ninja/diva/evil medieval lady by night. Her blockbuster-length Abnormally Attracted to Sin chronicles this remarkable heroine’s journey through her garbled universe (obligatory reference to Neil Gaiman included).
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It’s too bad her descent into wonderland sounds more like the worst of a nightmarish hailstorm. The new sass-tastic Amos takes piano-chord half-steps in a chanting Crone voice, screeching ‘Aaaall geeeeeeeeeve’ in a pitch that wouldn’t be out of place in a costume shop’s Halloween soundtrack.
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‘Not Dying Today’ almost breaks free of the subterranean slime with a jogging bass thud, interspersed with irreverent guitar shreds and Amos’s dipping, shaky wail. But the blood-pumping anthem flees with its tail between its legs upon the first notes of ‘Maybe California,’ which contemplates a mother’s suicide. ‘From one motha to thee otha,’ asserts the heroine, rife with melodramatic keys and cascading string sobs.
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The ladled-on darkness does nothing to hide Abnormally’s dead chords and stale lyrics. Even top-notch ‘Lady in Blue’ ‘mdash; delivering the clearest of seven-minute catcalls down a heated alleyway ‘mdash; is shut out in the cold by an overnostalgic ‘Lady in Red,’ where a riff only barely threads the track together. Amos is too busy watching the boys play and aching for that last cigarette. ‘Wronged the right man,’ she echoes, reduced to a shallow puddle of emotional slop.
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Tori Amos will play live at Humphrey’s by the Bay on July 16.