After five albums with her own songs, Tori Amos made an almost revolutionary gesture at the beginning of the new millennium: STRANGE LITTLE THINGS from 2001 is a cover record on which Tori Amos takes on songs written and recorded by men in order to highlight the respective women’s perspective. Not with the help of radical reinterpretations, but with subtly different accents or supplementary melodic arcs, which is particularly easy to listen to in their version of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence”. In addition to some songs that could have been thought of, like “I’m Not In Love” by 10CC, Amos plays inexplicable things like “Raining Blood” by Slayer or “97 Bonnie & Clyde” by Eminem, which sounds more interesting than good.
On the other hand, Amos’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” is great and valuable, a piece that Bob Geldof wrote about the true story of Brenda Ann Spencer, who shot at the school across the street from the window of her parents’ house in 1979. The fact that Amos sings as Spencer in her version sums up the true horror. Another highlight is their version of the song “Rattlesnakes” by Lloyd Cole, written about a girl named Jodie. The central line takes on even greater meaning with Amos: “It’s so hard to love / When love was your great disappointment.”
The album is accompanied by a series of photos showing Amos as the main female character of the respective songs. The album is released on vinyl for the first time, the double LP contains four bonus tracks, including Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up” and their great version of David Bowie’s dark waltz “After All”.
