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Tori Amos • Abnormally Attracted To Sin
Abnormally Attracted To Sin
With her tenth studio album Abnormally Attracted To Sin becoming her fourth in a row to clock in at over seventy-five minutes, it’s time to face facts: Tori Amos is, in the most literal sense, generous to a fault. What’s more, it’s a fault that gets more and more frustrating with each overstuffed biannual offering. Equally cursed and blessed with a gift that keeps on giving, Amos could justifiably lay claim to the title of the hardest working person in the industry, and there is much to be admired in her tenacity and acumen. But where is the line between the desire to provide and a staggering lack of editorial control? Somewhere, Amos has crossed it.
In keeping with the spiritual idea of ‘the gift’, Amos has always been convincing in her belief that core parts of her songs are gathered subconsciously out of the ether, and Abnormally Attracted To Sin continues that thread. When the songs first flooded in, she had no plans to make an album. How could she? She was already promoting a book (the impressionistic visual feast of Comic Book Tattoo), prepping a live DVD, and writing a stage musical based on a Victorian fairytale. But Amos hasn’t made it to ten albums by staring gift horses down the gullet and she dutifully tuned in.
It would be somewhat churlish to say that the signal got scrambled but Abnormally Attracted To Sin draws on several disparate elements – many of them familiar Tori-tropes – and consequently suffers from a see-what-sticks approach. As a result, we encounter some extreme shifts from the sublime to the ridiculous, while the sequencing all but decimates the dynamic segues and transitions between songs that are so characteristic of her earlier work. Anyone desperately hoping for a return to something even distantly approaching cohesion should probably switch off after the first four songs.
It all starts out so perfectly, you see. As album openers go, you couldn’t do much better than ‘Give’. An intense hit of sophisticated electronica, it’s like biting into a slab of Moroccan dark chocolate after the enjoyable yet ultimately shallow confections of American Doll Posse. A portentous drumbeat stalks through the heart of the song as Amos delivers perhaps her finest vocal performance in a decade, simmering with a potent rage in the verses and arcing high into her upper register on the chorus. Both piano and electric guitar are used sparingly, while a disorienting wash of synths buzzes across the speakers almost constantly.
Aside from the startlingly theatrical performance, part of the beauty of ‘Give’ lies in how open the lyrics are to interpretation. One take that sort of fits in with the album’s general theme – for once we’re not calling this a concept album – of re-evaluating the notions of “sin”, social acceptability and power is that Amos could be singing from the perspective of a prostitute; equally, there is something distinctly vampyric about its references to sunrise and bloodletting. You could even say it’s simply Amos defending her right to make overlong albums, but that’s just not as exciting.
From this deeply cool beginning, first single ‘Welcome To England’ seems almost Tori-by-numbers on the first few listens but the finer details of the production soon emerge. It’s nice to hear the piano competing with the layered synths and guitars and Amos sounds at ease. If it proves anything, it’s that she can still make catchy singles without resorting to butterflies or attention-grabbing acronyms. Post-immigration ambivalence is much more engaging, and the idea of “daily hell” being transcended through creative imagination is something we can all believe in.
The dense, soulful rock of ‘Strong Black Vine’ arrives loudly on a dramatic bed of drums and strings, with some welcome Hammond organ later mixed in with the synths and electric guitar. Lyrically it seems to be a convoluted stab at drawing together the heavy themes of war, religion and America’s insatiable desire for oil; but this is no ‘Dark Side Of The Sun’. Amos muddies her imagery to her advantage, seemingly urging her subject to expand their mind, perhaps by using some of her old friend ayahuasca (a hallucinogenic vine that grows in South America). By whatever means, the oppressor must be made to submit.
The much gentler ‘Flavor’ seems to find Amos meditating on the power of the media, though not in an obvious way. The flavo(u)r in question is either fear or love and how we are being influenced to think more with kneejerk reactions than considered compassion, especially with regard to misunderstood belief systems. Or at least that’s one take. Musically it has a contemplative, spacey feel and would have fit right in on To Venus & Back. Beaming back to Earth, however, Amos was deflected off course and ended up somehow on a bus with a gambler, a cleaner and a puppeteer. Yeah, don’t ask. Without putting too fine a point on it, ‘Not Dying Today’ is pretty much heinous on every level, and from then on the album becomes an assault course of awkwardly juxtaposed moments.
Predictably, some of the songs have a made-for-Broadway feel and Amos walks a fine line with these. ‘Maybe California’ may not seem like an obvious stage production at first, but when the brushed drums sweep in and the chorus starts to swirl it’s hard not to picture it as one of those pivotal, pre-intermission ballads. Embellished with beautiful strings, it has some genuinely touching moments but lyrically is perhaps too direct. By way of contrast ‘Abnormally Attracted To Sin’ defies any expectations imposed by lifting its title from ‘Guys & Dolls’ dialogue, taking the reference and spinning something totally fresh and unexpected out of it as a thick miasma of synths and Hammond takes us right to the threshold of the church Amos warns us not to enter if saddled with the titular affliction.
The tragedy of Abnormally Attracted To Sin as a whole is that there are really two distinct bodies of work here, and they just don’t belong on the same disc. One is consistently inventive, riveting and (most importantly) believable; the other is a campy romp of character studies that, while typically big-hearted, could have used some fine-tuning. ’500 Miles’ is prime skipping material, while the initially quite promising ‘Police Me’ is destroyed by some horrendous lyrics, sadly a defining feature of the album’s weaker tracks. The brilliant nuances, quirks, allusions and wit we have come to expect from Amos are occasionally lacking. Instead we get clumsy references to “slutty goths” and sat-navs. We’d rather have an ear full of cider. In comparison, ‘That Guy’ and ‘Mary Jane’ are at the thick end of the theatrical wedge and find Amos in a wily, kittenish mood that will probably translate better live.
Of the songs belonging to that other, killer album, ‘Starling’ and ‘Ophelia’ are solid, if a little familiar, while the charming Southern twists and odd pronunciations of ‘Fast Horse’ stack up surprisingly well. ‘Curtain Call’ is Amos at her mysterious best with a good use of tension in the music. The lyrics are intelligent and full of interesting sex and drugs metaphors that feel autobiographical but also expansive in that you can project your own experiences into them. ‘Lady In Blue’ is a wonderfully hypnotic epic that builds deliciously slowly into a lengthy and superb instrumental climax. After ‘Give’ it’s easily the album’s most surprising inclusion, full of smouldering passion and curlicues of smoky, spellbinding intrigue, and easily matches the best of her incredible career. The gorgeously autumnal and uncluttered bonus track ‘Oscar’s Theme’ harks right back to her solo piano days, and as the background hiss fades away you’re left with palate cleansed but wanting more of this Tori, rock’s peerless pianist who can get beneath your skin in just one breath. That is her gift.
We’ll probably never know why Amos has grown to insist upon her recent work trying to be everything to everyone, but Abnormally Attracted To Sin is easily her most uneven listening experience. That’s a crying disservice to the fantastic album contained within its sprawl and it would be a genuine pity for people to hear the likes of ’500 Miles’ and write it off. Amos’s idea of reclaiming the concept of sin from the church doesn’t really provide a coherent thread so it will be interesting to see what the bonus DVD of accompanying “visualettes” contributes, if anything.
It has been six years since she last put out an album that felt like a carefully constructed and concise artistic statement. And as long as Tori Amos remains abnormally afraid of censoring herself, it seems the whole will continue to betray the sum of its parts.
[Island; May 18, 2009]
Comments
Tagged tori amos
Is the album dead? « news, commentary and cultureApril 26, 2009 at 6:32 pm
[...] the album dead? I was reading a review of Tori Amos new album and the reviewer was none too happy about the songs on the album not having one cohesive sound, [...]
magicmonkeyApril 26, 2009 at 7:46 pm
i would have to say yes it is. as i previously mentioned in this thread, she can’t give away her cd’s anymore, thus the massive touring to keep her in the luxurious lifestyle she is accustomed to. she’ll NEVER bring in an outsider, say, a producer.
as mentioned before this thread got hijacked, i also do not like her attempt to sell her album twice. apparently, no one else seems to mind that.
will their be another ‘vip’ scam like in 2007? yes, probably.
but i won’t be party to that scam either.
good to see that matt will be touring with her though. don’t need to see another 2005 beekeeper solo tour.
Glory days, in the wink of an abducted girl’s eye.. « Ich Lüge BulletsApril 26, 2009 at 8:22 pm
[...] mag in question was Wears The Trousers, and bizarrely enough is still going. Check out their recent Tori Amos review here. I was particularly enamoured of this comment one guy left… Someone should abduct her [...]
magicmonkeyApril 27, 2009 at 12:59 am
ha, i love it! and great to see someone besides myself actually having the nerve to say and understanding that tori was never raped.
one big urban myth/lie.
kinda like ‘wmd’s’ in iraq, and jesus christ as a ‘god’.
good stuff, i left a comment’
emmeApril 27, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Thank you for writing such a great review! I have listened to Tori Amos for years and was beginning to feel embarrassed about it. I haven’t listened to an album since Strange Little Girls and not felt that it was overproduced and under-edited. The best thing that could happen to Tori Amos is for her studio to go broke, and for her to be recorded by Steve Albini. Piano, mic, and maybe some drums.
The argument excusing the meandering releases seems weak to me: being able to edit yourself is an integral part of being an artist, and songs like “Goodbye Pisces,” “Martha’s Foolish Ginger,” “Secret Spell” (“I wrote it on the treadmill”), and that weird “Posse” song on ADP FREAKED ME OUT and sometimes continue to haunt me by running through my head when I’m falling asleep.
I understand why her ego has gotten so big, but whenever I go back to Little Earthquakes, Boys for Pele, and From the Choirgirl Hotel I get kind of angry at the trip-hop New Age bullshit indulgences that have watered down the power of her music for the past decade. I think that the gimmicky feel of the 20 track “concept records” is the result of a confluence of factors: too much money, and a musician’s phobia of repeating herself. Anyone who has made a lot of money has earned for herself a lot of security; why would she risk that? I’ve noticed that a lot of famous artists, and women in particular, suffer from the latter (see PJ Harvey’s later records), and it usually gets blamed on the fact that they’ve had a baby–obviously untrue in Tori Amos’ case, considering SLG and Scarlet’s Walk were both much better than the albums that followed–or that “they’re too happy.”
The one point I disagree with in this review is that “Welcome To England” is a good song. The first time I heard it, I wanted to like it, and then I realized–if I heard this on the radio without knowing who wrote it, I would probably be laughing at it. But then, I thought the only song with any real feeling, that was more than a parody of Tori Amos, on ADP was “Code Red” (and maybe the two bonus tracks)–interestingly enough, the lyrics included “do this last one and I’ll grow me some wine.” I couldn’t help but think of that as the lady under the wig screaming, please let me retire to Napa!
After playing through the 30 second clips, I agree with the reviewers that “Give,” “Curtain Call”, “Abnormally Attracted To Sin”, and “Lady In Blue” sound the most promising, while “Not Dying Today” and “500 Miles” sound as if I will probably be skipping them altogether to avoid another “Goodbye Pisces.”
AaronApril 27, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Congrats on the exclusive Alan!
As for the review, I respect your word. You are, as you put it, an Amosian Scholar. As for me, I am a little excited about what I have heard. I suppose I will wait and see.
Just wanted to write congratulations!
-Aaron
Wears The Trousers magazineApril 27, 2009 at 3:27 pm
hey Aaron! Long time no hear from. Not sure I would ever describe myself as an Amosian scholar but thanks for the props. I hope you’ll like AATS, it really does have some excellent songs. Write me when you’ve heard it; interested to hear your thoughts. A.
AaronApril 27, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I think anyone who gets their name on Undented.com could use the title Amosian Scholar.
I will let you know indeed!
magicmonkeyApril 27, 2009 at 6:45 pm
awesome! i wonder, hmmm, if the posters on here who attacked me for mentioning tori’s humongous ego will attack you for doing the same? methinks,,, not.
in OTHER FANTASTIC NEWS! TORI’S CONCERT DATE TONIGHT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR MAY 11TH!
WHY IS THIS NEWS SO GREEEEAT???
BECAUSE, DOR, MARIA, JOHN, ETC YKNOW TORI’S REAL STALKERS FLEW OVER THERE JUST FOR THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMFAO! LOVIN EVERY MINUTE OF IT!
magicmonkeyApril 27, 2009 at 7:15 pm
YESSSSS! I’M STILL CELEBRATING DOR AND MARIA GETTING ROYALLY BURNED!!!!!! KARMA BABY, LOVE IT. STALKERS FLEW TO LONDON FOR NOTHING!!! TORI LOVES YA! AHAHAHA. hows it feel???? this is soo sweet
LauraApril 27, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Eh, I don’t find this review unfair or biased in any way. I’m a long-time Tori fan (you know the type; gets all the albums, downloads the web exclusives, hunts down obscure b-sides) but this review reflects what I’ve thought about her for the past three albums or so. She needs an editor, her albums would be much stronger if she cut out the chaff. Less is sometimes more.
Come on people, you can like and support an artist without thinking they’re perfect and can do no wrong and you don’t need to attack someone for expressing an opinion contrary to your own. Tori’s a big girl now, I’m sure she can take it.
magicmonkeyApril 29, 2009 at 12:36 pm
omg. i dont believe this. dor dotson, supertrustfunder and tori stalker exraordinaire recent tweet says: leaving london tonight, BACK IN 9 DAYS! no no way. and peeps call me crazy?! lol
2 TRIPS TO LONDON FROM N.Y TO SEE ONE CONCERT!? i would freak out with joy if THAT one got canceled too! lol, damn, how much of daddy’s loot does this nutter have?
don’t forget, i’m the crazy one, too funny
magicmonkeyApril 29, 2009 at 12:48 pm
amazing! according to her own twitter comment, dor dotson is leaving london tonight, returning in 9 days to see the rescheduled tori concert on may 11th!
imagine blowing thousands just to see one concert!
but remember, i’m the crazed stalker, lol, damn you idjits GOTTA grow a brain sooner or later
magicmonkeyMay 2, 2009 at 1:11 am
tori’s new album sux = me insane! i get it now!
magicmonkeyMay 2, 2009 at 1:12 am
nuts! new tori sux! one has to be crazy to think thusly!
NewFanMay 7, 2009 at 6:26 am
magic m. I have a question for you. I promise not to judge you
and come back here and leave a snarky comment.
Do you feel sports fans who buy season tickets, go to all the games, and
hang out in the VIP lounges with the players are stalkers? Or are they
rich people enjoying thier wealth? These folks also travel to play-off games,
and expensive championship games too. BTW I have never seen Tori in concert, I
just became a fan last year after I got Comic Book Tattoo. Just curious about your thoughts on this.
magicmonkeyMay 7, 2009 at 11:35 am
hi there! to answer your question, no no i don’t. what i have an issue with is that I’VE been labeled ‘stalker’ not just of tori, but of strangers ive either never met, or met once! so, hey i can blast back, why not? esp at real stalkers. flying to london twice just to see a tori concert?? really?
NewFanMay 8, 2009 at 4:14 am
Hey thanks for answering. I’m clear now on your posts & where you are coming from.
Sünde sei mit uns « MaedchenmannschaftMay 11, 2009 at 2:34 pm
[...] Auch wenn Tori Amos hier ihre bereits mehrfach abgeschrittenen Pfade erneut durchläuft, manche Dinge gehören einfach auf A-Rotation. Ob das auch für ihre Musik gilt? Kritik zur Platte gibt es hier. [...]
booMay 11, 2009 at 10:51 pm
How do two people write one review? One review with one consistent opinion? That seems dishonest to me… I had high hopes for this Tori album –which keep falling with each new review I read.
Wears The Trousers magazineMay 12, 2009 at 9:21 am
There’s nothing dishonest about it. Quite the opposite, in fact.
ghgMay 13, 2009 at 6:19 am
I did not like this album much. Individual songs were OK. I dont like it enough to spring the cash for it. A
tori amos: live at the savoy theatre 11/05/09 « wears the trousers magazineMay 15, 2009 at 10:23 am
[...] elegant Savoy Theatre to promote her new album Abnormally Attracted To Sin (out on Monday [review]), she wasn’t talking about the flawless version of ‘Crucify’ she’d just [...]
WayneMay 19, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Tori’s moment is over. She hasn’t put out a good album in ages, and she’s become a joke. Where she was once quirky and vulnerable and beautiful, she’s arrogant and vain. Obviously, artists are going to grow and experiment, but Tori is a once-talented woman who squandered everything to become what the New York Times calls “a drag queen version of herself.” She has nothing to say. She’s got money coming out of her ears, and sycophantic fans who worship her and turn a blind eye to her hubris and mediocrity. She used to be wonderful. She isn’t anymore. The plastic surgery isn’t helping either. She’s self-indulgent, hypocritical, and her views on life are laughable. This album sounds ridiculous, and the “visualettes” (*barf*) are really just vanity productions–Tori standing around like a space elf looking at some far-off horizon. She’s got nothing left to say, but she loves herself too much to stop talking.
AaronMay 22, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Ok Alan.
So far, I am up to ‘Flavor’, as I have a hard time getting past tracks that I like. But my initial reaction is that it is a return to form. I am really enjoying this record; it reminds me of listening to her in my undergraduate years, which involved a lot of LSD and significant moments. I even liked “Not Dying Today” right off the bat; a sonically strange bird in the Tori universe.
I will write more later when I get to the rest.
P.S. The guy who wrote above me is a complete tool. Devil! Why would I say that? I don’t know him. But I bet I am right.
JoMay 24, 2009 at 3:09 am
It’s nice to actually see someone giving constructive criticism. We don’t have to defend the album with such ferocity – if it were really that great, there would be no need. I do like some of the songs, but I have to admit, part of the marketing stance of this album was that people are falling on hard times, both financially and spiritually. With the iTunes/Ticketmaster ticket pre-sale scam going on in both the US and the UK, we need to ask ourselves if something got lost in the translation between Tori and her production crew. I won’t even call it selling out — but I will say that when you put such a project in the hands of so many who are so obviously uninterested in the well-being of the so-called “general public”, then it’s really not her work anymore. It’s pretty tragic. Anyway, thanks for being honest and writing a decent argument
magicmonkeyMay 24, 2009 at 3:53 pm
awesome! i couldnt agree more! right now, im posting as rip_tori on toriamos.com. go there, hit forums, then go to tori discussion. haha, you will love it
EmmaMay 27, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Wasn’t overly wrapped in this album…the sound is kinda synthesised and kinda confused as to whether it wanted to be classical or dance style…enjoyed opthelia and some of the more classical style songs on the album..but im a fan of tori’s old style of classical piano…tori is an amazing person regardless.
BreJune 26, 2009 at 3:25 am
Magic Monkey, I’m just curious. How do you know Tori was never raped?
BreJune 26, 2009 at 3:35 am
You’re correct that a person who can play an instrument well is a musician. But a person who can reach people through their music is an artist. This is what makes Tori amazing.
I don’t think just anyone could play the piano like that, even if they started at 2. It is somthing that comes from inside the person, you know, like talent.
BreJune 26, 2009 at 4:15 am
She’s a composer. That’s what she does for a living. So she still makes music because people still want to buy it. She’s in the industry, so she produces material like the visualettes to give to her fans something to look at, the same as all the other artists do in fashion and music magazines and on T.V. This doesn’t make her vain. This makes her a part of the market.
I admit, as a Tori consumer, I enjoy watching her walk around in foreign lands in really elaborate dresses with close-up shots of her shoes. I think it’s amusing that she’s showing us different sides of herself as if she has split into like eight other personalities. I’m also mature enough to understand a performance when I see one, and it’s just as exciting because everything in art helps to show us who we are.
As for her views on life, they’re simplistic because that’s what the world needs. A simpler way to understand that we all have been hypocritical, self-indulgent, and jaded by the world. That it would be better to let go of fear and choose love.
Perhaps it’s too simple for people to understand.
I agree that her last five albums are very different than what we were used to, and sometimes disappointing based on my expectations. But I’ve discovered some great things from each of them, and it lets me know a little bit about where she is in life. People go through phases, changes, in order to find themselves. But at least they’re doing it, and they’re not afraid to show it.
BreJune 26, 2009 at 5:09 am
Thanks. I completely agree with your comment and the above comments that support this very insightful opinion.
BreJune 26, 2009 at 5:15 am
I do think you’re joke about Tori looking like a space elf with far-away eyes is pretty funny, ’cause it’s pretty true!
BreJune 26, 2009 at 5:16 am
oops–”your” joke, I mean.
BreJune 26, 2009 at 5:20 am
No. Just ignorant and insecure.
Q2: 50 most read reviews « wears the trousers magazineJuly 1, 2009 at 9:37 am
[...] the last 3 months. Catch up on any you missed. It’s too hot to work anyway. 01 Tori Amos – Abnormally Attracted To Sin [Alan Pedder/Alex Ramon, posted on 20/4] 02 Cheyenne Mize & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy [...]
free music friday: tori amos « wears the trousers magazineJuly 17, 2009 at 9:32 am
[...] set was the live debut of ‘Ophelia’ from her recent album Abnormally Attracted To Sin [review]. Leaving drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Jon Evans on the tour bus, Tori turned in an [...]
werd999July 31, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I agree with the statement that she hasn’t put out a cohesive album in a while. When she releases an album I have mixed feelings because I know it’s never going to be a Boys For Pele. I think she needs to move on from talking about the church. 17 years later we don’t give a shit because you keep sayin’ the same damn thing! When I first heard her music I thought she would be an artist that would continue to evolve her sound and lyrics, but I think she has kinda flatlined :/
k2August 18, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I have always felt that Tori’s talent is as a live performer, and that her studio recordings do not do her justice. I just saw her in concert last night, Aug 17th, for the 3rd time. She continues to astound, amaze and blow away most other performers out there. As one of her more mature fans (I am two years older than Tori, who is 47), I have always honored her inborn musical talent apart from the CDs and pop-hoopla. A musician who is pushin’ 50 & has her own recording studio on her property can do anything she wants, and doesn’t have to answer to an “editor” or a producer if she doesn’t want to. Give us a break. If you had YOUR own studio, and boatloads of talent, you’d do the same thing. I agree, the vignettes that came with “Abnormally…” are amateurish and poor-quality. But other than that, I think Tori is still one of the most talented musicians we have in our generation and we should be proud that she can actually play an instrument and write melodies and lyrics. Bon Jovi has a song called “Last Man Standing”. Tori is in that same category — she writes and performs her own, very good, music. Get over yourselves! Listen to “Abnormally…” again. It grows on ya. I didn’t like ADP either, at first, but it grew on me. The live versions of the songs are miles above the studio versions anyway, and that’s what counts — her concert performances are second to none.
Wears The Trousers magazineAugust 18, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Not sure how you got the impression we are not strong advocates for Tori as one of the most important musicians of our generation. She undoubtedly is, and she never fails to deliver on stage. Perhaps you should look around the site and see how many times we have praised her to the skies.
AdamAugust 24, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Dude, YOU’RE the joke! EVERYONE knows what a fuck-tard you are. Get a life and stop bothering all of us with your pathetic comments. NO ONE CARES and NO ONE is listening…except you. Buzz off and die, please.
AdamAugust 24, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I’ll bet your mother is doing the same thing. Fag!
AdamAugust 24, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Actually, flatulent monkey, aren’t you in your forties…or fifties, even?! I think pathetic is trolling around websites and posting really stupid, immature comments over and over and OVER AND OVER again!! THAT sounds pathetic for an old man, OLD MAN! Get a life. It’s about time.
AdamAugust 24, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Sounds like you’re a little jealous, old man.
Robert SchraderSeptember 22, 2009 at 12:39 am
It took two people to write this nonsense?
kayduuJuly 12, 2010 at 3:23 pm
It’s great to hear appreciaters of Tori music give balanced views, taking her music across the eras for what it is and honestly critiquing it. It’s good to see others write of recent disappointments in her work as a whole. I’m another long-term fan who seeks out all new Tori releases and listens to every one, song by song, finding some to be satisfying & interesting listening experiences (eg: “Give”) & some to be very short of the mark (“500 Miles” and “Goodbye Pisces” are indeed good examples, for those who’ve mentioned them in the thread above). Personally I’m glad that I can take this slightly detached stance, taking every new Tori offering at face value and seeing, on an intuitive level, whether it offers me anything good, experience-wise. Live, I suspect (or at least hope!) that she will be mesmerising for some time to come, reliably delivering the goods and spell-binding audiences the world over: I hope to see some of that very stage magic when I see her live in the UK this week. Greater editing in the future would be a good move towards greater output quality though – that’s for sure!