Wizard of weird, queen of quirk, princess of the peculiar, Tori Amos could not be more diametrically opposed to the modern female music ‘artist’. She has an embarrassment of talent, couldn’t give a fiddler’s fart about celebrity and wouldn’t be seen dead on a reality TV show. Actually maybe dead…she might get a kick out of that.

Back in May, Tori released her tenth studio album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, an album which sees her razor-sharp lyrics cutting through the baggage society insists we carry. An outsider from the beginning of her life, she has the pin-point focus of one who has lived on the margins, looking in and examining ‘normality’, seeing it for what it really is – people struggling.

Since Little Earthquakes came out in 1991, Tori has been adored by disenfranchised youth, giving a voice to young women everywhere. She told us that it’s ok to be a sexual being, that the notion of a ‘good girl’ is poison.

“I wanted to look at power and how we think and how you can reclaim the right to think for yourself, to uncover what you believe in as a spiritual, sexual creature.

You don’t need the approval of your family, or of their religion. You can think, ‘Wait a minute, I’m a spiritual being. Just because I like gold handcuffs doesn’t mean I’m not a spiritual being. These definitions are not for my mother to make about me.’

This is obviously something that resonated more deeply with gay youth and Tori now has as many gay male fans as female.

Album after album she has presented us with 3-minute gifts of poetry put to music; each needing to be listen to again and again, felt from every angle, discussed with friends and then listened to some more. She challenges the listener to hear her, to question her and to come up with your own meaning.

Famously the genius daughter of a minister, Tori was composing piano pieces by the age of five and was accepted to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music at the same age. She was kicked out six years later for her interest in rock and roll and, at 21 began a group Y Kant Tori Read so named as she was constantly in trouble at the Conservatory for her inability to sight-read (play something written down that she hadn’t heard before) even though she had a perfect ear.

After Y Kant Tori Read flunked, she began working with Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio and Dan Nebenzal and came up with Little Earthquakes. It was a huge success, something which amazed her record company who didn’t know what to do with this piano girl in a world of grunge and electronica.

Album followed album and Tori continued to pour her personal life into her music. From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998) and To Venus and Back (1999) deal with her own miscarriages and her new marriage.

More recent albums have suffered slightly by their being concept albums and more cerebral than usual. The Beekeeper (2005) was  influenced by beekeeping (obviously), which she considered a source of female inspiration and empowerment. She also wove in the stories of the Gnostic gospels and the removal of women from a position of power within the Christian church.

I’m a minister’s daughter. The power of the church is insidious, and it permeates everything. A lot of what the Church discusses is not about the compassionate path of Christ, it’s about what kind of lifestyle is acceptable and approved of by the Church when god knows what they’re doing behind closed doors. You have a lot of people waking up every morning who feel paralyzed to act because of these judgments.

American Doll Posse (2007) was based on a group of women who, Tori says, are her alter-egos.

Now, with Abnormally Addicted to Sin, she seems to have come back her her piano-based routes, stealing your heart with that voice and making you think through those lyrics.

Plus, let’s be honest, the woman’s hot!

I’m good old red wine. By letting myself age I think I’m better for drinking beginning in 2009. I want to make audio mescaline.

So are you addicted?

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