Ocean to Ocean is as fresh as the morning sea spray – TORI AMOS | ALBUM REVIEW

TORI AMOS

Ocean To Ocean (Decca)

It’s been 30 years and 15 albums since Tori Amos released Little Earthquakes. She now occupies the well-deserved position of an untouchable writer of song and inspired creator of art, commercial concerns having long since been discarded. Left to her own devices, with her producer partner (nicknamed Mac Aladdin), atop the coastal cliffs of Cornwall, she has brought forth another album of songs, Ocean to Ocean, which is as fresh as the morning sea spray.

The Kate Bush comparisons will always be there: the subtle chord shifts that never go where expected, the sudden jumps in vocal register. But there is a deeper groove to Amos’ work, something more rhythmic that comes from her fantastic piano playing. Regular bandmates, Jon Evans on bass and Matt Chamberlain on kit, tap into this and create the most incredible interplay, despite being recorded on the other side of the Atlantic – an ocean apart but musically inseparable.

words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES