Abnormally attracted to boredom! Tori Amos sent me to bed with her new album! Despite all the respect I have for Amos' work I find it hard being positive about her newest effort. Let's say that I don't feel disappointed and pissed off after listening to it, but I had higher expectation and they were not met...to some extent.
"Abnormally Attracted To Sin" is the tenth proper studio album released by Amos and it continues her traditionally lengthy records, which usually exceed 15 tracks in a single CD. Definitely a blessing for the fanatics and a tease for the regular listeners like me. Not that I don't like to hear more material by my favourite singers, but Tori just goes beyond the acceptable for me. With her 17 brand new tracks Tori has absolutely nothing for us. We have already heard all the whining, all the emancipation, all the ambiguity and the despair, all the lust and pride, and still could use a little change. The whole album would have sounded perfect if wasn't her tenth already. Come on, Tori, is that all you've got?
I personally liked a lot the idea with the various alter-egos in the previous album "American Doll Posse", which was a fresh breath after several years of pretended wisdom and exploited sensuality. Well, yeah, old boring Tori is back on track ready to sing a few more lines about women, sinning and power of the sexes...blah, blah, blah. I start to believe that she has had the same little red book with lyrics, which she finds so amazing that after a few changes they are ready to be used in the newest album. Is Amos out of ideas? Has the music prodigy become a victim of her own talent? The answers are kept deep inside of "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" and if you manage to thoroughly listen to it more than three time you might have them for yourselves. If not, feel excused if you have dozed off while being attracted to sins.
Unless you are a die-hard Tori Amos fan, the chances to be abnormally in love with it are less probable. Still the album has a charm of its own built up by tracks like "Give", "Welcome To England" and "Flavor", which are the strong beginning of the record, which gradually goes down the interest index. The second part of the album is quite monotonous and I really had to make a few break while listening to it as I could hardly concentrate when the songs started sounding alike. "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" will definitely find no place in Amos' top three best albums and is no crucial add to the singer-songwriter genre as a whole. What's more a singer like Bat for Lashes came up with a more quality album, which despite being genuinely inspired by Tori's work has much more variety to offer than Amos herself. Watch out Tori, you are abnormally attracted to repetition!
Tracks to hear: "Give", "Welcome To England", "Flavor", "Maybe California" and "Police Me"
Personal rating: 6 out of 10
