How crazy that almost ten years after buying this album I still love it as much as I did on that very first day. Strangely I was introduced to Tori Amos not by any of my peers but by a rather gawkish pen pal who I wrote to for a couple of years while I was in high school. I think as far as Tori goes this is probably the least commercial of her albums, which is probably why I love it so much. I mean let’s face it: nothing grabs one’s attention like the opening words “father I killed my monkey”. PErhaps for me Tori was a way of tentatively stepping out on my own, which does sound insane of course but anyone who accurately remembers what it’s like to suddenly find yourself not caring so much about the approval others so much as your own personal approval will know what I mean. It’s as cathartic and as liberating as swimming naked – and for me Tori provided the soundtrack. Even today I know all the words to 1000 Oceans and my son gets a verse or two sung to him at night when he struggles to sleep.