Tori Amos

This month, October 28th to be precise, Tori Amos's album Scarlet's Walk (her first with Epic Records) turns an amazing 20 years old. The album has always felt like a beacon amongst the artist's back-catalogue, arriving as it did almost a year after the tragedy of September 11th 2001. Scarlet's Walk felt then - much as it does now - a friend to the lost, a spiritual journey which offers hope through darkness. Her fans and the music world at large evidently needed to hear Scarlet's message, because the album reached number 7 in the US, selling an impressive 107,000 copies in its first week alone.

The 18 track project is a concept album that tells the story of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Tori Amos herself. Each song is a story of her time as she traverses the landscapes of her home country, America. It is like a sonic diary, each track like the pages torn from an intimate journal.

At the time of Scarlet's Walk release, Amos had been on the scene for many years (her solo debut, Little Earthquakes was released in 1992). Therefore, she had more than earned her place as one of the most respected female icons of the music world. Amos's music has always been a deeply personal affair; lyrically she has often explored extremely personal and emotional issues, which she has tackled with her trademark honesty and vulnerability.

It is Amos's quality as a lyricist that shines in Scarlet's Walk, as we follow her across America. Amos logs this journey, track by track, as she digests and mourns over what has become of a country she loves, post-9/11. It may be a personal album on the face of it, yet Scarlet's Walk certainly strikes a universal chord, with songs that many can likely relate to in the aftermath of experiencing such a dark, traumatic time. Scarlet's Walk feels like seeing America uncovered, as Amos rips apart the history, myths and legends of the past and examines the country's roots.

I studied where the Native American nations held land before the European invasion,” Amos said in an interview with the Sunday Times, where she described Scarlet's Walk as one of her most important albums. “Scarlet's Walk is a metaphor for walking the walk of the Good Red Road, which was sacred to our Native ancestors. After I released the album, the Native community opened its arms to me, trying to teach me about the meanings of their spiritual ways."
Scarlet's Walk is delicate and soft sounding, yet the lyrics are – in Amos's style – raw, gritty, honest and powerful.

Scarlet takes us on a journey that encompasses all of America, every side of her, including the sacred and the profane. These are themes Amos has explored throughout her career, and there is something almost mythical in the way she traverses the landscapes of her home country in this release, something other-wordly, not least because of the use of Native American prayer and the hypnotic layers of harmonies she brings to several of the tracks. So many of the songs bring a level of spirituality to the experience; indeed it is easy to feel as if the listener is treading along consecrated ground with the artist herself.

In the lead single from the album, A Sorta Fairytale (which is one of the artist's biggest hits in the US) one can imagine Scarlet looking back at a perfect, hopeful time now far gone, a distant memory of something beautiful that feels lost amidst the chaos of change. Amos herself explores this track more deeply in the promotional CD that accompanied the album. “A Sorta Fairytale finds Scarlet in LA with a man she has convinced herself is her life's soul mate. They take the big trip in the classic car up the Pacific Coast highway and across the desert. But as they go on, the masks drop away and they discover the fantasy they have of each other isn't who they really are. They end up back where they started and Scarlet leaves. They did care. But somehow they lost each other. Which is why it's only "A Sorta Fairytale."

I Can't See New York seems perfectly aligned with the events of 9/11, as Amos sings with a sense of distinct grief and mourning. In this standout centerpiece from the album, Amos sings, “I can't see New York, as I'm circling down through white cloud, falling out, and I know his lips are warm, but I can't seem to find my way out of this hunting ground...” It's a majestic track that evokes a powerful reaction in the listener.

In Amber Waves, Amos sings about a woman who has been taken advantage of, or who has sold much of herself to survive. “You said he's got a healing machine,” Amos sings, “it glows in the dark. You say "there's not a lot of me left anymore, just leave it alone. But if you're by, and you have the time, tell the Northern Lights to keep shining - lately it seems like they're drowning.”

In this track, we see a double-thread that's being connected between the character Amos sings about, and the concept of America as a country facing up to the land she has become. How did she/America get there, and why? Who has used and abused her for their own gain? How much has she sold of herself and at what cost? As a person, as a land, the song begs us to answer these questions.

There's a rawness to the song Pancake, in which Amos sings of destruction and of the conflict religion can bring. “I'm not sure who's fooling who here as I'm watching your decay,” she sings with vocal fry, “We both know you could deflate a seven hurricane. Seems like you and your tribe decided you'd rewrite the law, segregate the mind, from body and soul...” Amos is well-known for her unique vocal twists and pronunciation of words, and the song Pancake doesn't disappoint in this. The track highlights her experimentation with vocal delivery. It's an arresting, hard-hitting song and sits up there amongst the best on the album.

Other album stand-outs include the title track, Scarlet's Walk, a haunting tale which explores the narrative of a land being pulled apart and dominated. With Amos's beautiful soprano, the song is an ode to land that has been abused and savaged by man. In Gold Dust, we are treated to a powerfully majestic and breath-taking orchestral arrangement by John Philip Shenell, Amos's long-time collaborator. Shenell's strings offer a layer of unforgettable magic to this haunting 6 minute track.

Of course, one place in which the artist thrives is on stage, where she engages deeply with her audience. Amos brought Scarlet's Walk to life on the world tour, which ran from November 2002 until May 2003. The tour consisted of 95 shows and one of the dates – Florida – was released on DVD (Welcome To Sunny Florida). Every show began with Wampum Prayer, which brings curses to those who invaded America's land for their own gain.

Although it was written at a very unsteady time in America's history, the beautiful thing about Scarlet's Walk is the way it reflects the evolution of the country, as a whole. Even now, after the Capitol Riots of 2021 and Roe V Wade debate that divided opinions in American, it seems Scarlet still speaks to us, even after all these years. She seems to offer us a voice of calm, reason and introspection in a way only Tori Amos can.

It's easy to see why Scarlet's Walk remains a much-loved album for the artist's staunch fanbase. From inception up until today, as she hits 20 years old, Scarlet's Walk has a lot to say, and most of us are happy to keep listening.