From the Choirgirl Hotel
| Tori Amos
From the Choirgirl Hotel
From the Choirgirl Hotel is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos, released on May 5, 1998. A departure from her previous albums, it was more a heavily produced project featuring a full rock band sound (instead of Amos's usual minimalist piano sound). The album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and number 6 in the UK. While falling short of the number 2 debut for her previous album, Boys for Pele (1996), From the Choirgirl Hotel is Amos's strongest debut to date in US sales, selling 153,000 copies in the first week. As of 2008 it has sold 778,000 copies in US. In 1999, Amos received two Grammy nominations: Alternative Music Performance, and Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Raspberry Swirl".-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Guardian
August 12, 2011. On Choirgirl, Amos catapulted herself out of the piano-and-vocal mode that had formed the majority of her work to date. A variety of richly detailed, percussion-dominated arrangements characterise the album: demented electronic loops . . .), swirls of marimbas . . . , crunching cock-rock . . . .
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AllMusic
Until now, it seemed that she could only deliver them on her own, supported by her piano, a guitar, or strings. With From the Choirgirl Hotel, she proves that with a little aural experimentation and muscle, she's as potent and powerful as any modern rock artist.
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People
May 11, 1998. Bottom Line: A mess; don’t linger here for long
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People
December 28, 1998. Once again, pianist-provocateur Amos lets her vocal caterwauling and lyric pretensions . . . overwhelm her marvelous musical gifts.
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Punknews.org
. . . From the Choirgirl Hotel was still a powerful album. If found Amos blazing her own trail while also embracing elements of traditional songwriting she hadn’t before.
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MusicStack
On From the Choirgirl Hotel, Amos comes clean with the rock & roll that's always driven her, . . . .
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Rhino
Among the most intense singer-songwriters to emerge during the 1990s, Tori Amos explores raw emotional terrain few performers would dare touch, and FROM THE CHOIRGIRL HOTEL is no exception. . . . the self-produced Atlantic set features an equally tough sound, and though Tori's trademark piano can be heard throughout, it's framed in tighter rock band arrangements than on previous albums.
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Pon De Way Way Way
Raw Heartbreak and Stunning Soundscapes – Tori Amos’ From The Choirgirl Hotel Remains a Unique Experience.
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Music Critic
From the Choirgirl Hotel is easy to listen to and easy to be entertained with it.
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EW
. . . from the choirgirl hotel finds Amos more grounded, even if it’s still hard to determine her particular planet of origin. We may never fully understand what torments Amos, but at least she’s making her yearnings easier on the ears.
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Rolling Stone
In the past, all elements of her arrangements answered to Amos and her keyboards; now, she replaces that hierarchy with rock interaction.
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The Dent - The Onion
. . . From The Choirgirl Hotel is a welcome arrival: a focused, accessible Tori Amos record that's quirky enough to please her hardcore fans, yet poppy enough to draw in the curious but cynical. Stephen Thompson The Onion
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The Dent - Bilboard
An album with tremendous potential at alternative rock, triple-A, college, and pop radio, as well as among club spinners, . . . .
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The Dent - Focus On The Family
Distorted theology. Emptiness. Sexual innuendo. Christian bashing. All combine to make yet another disturbing Amos project to avoid. Focus On The Family Reviews "From the Choirgirl Hotel" - 1998
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The Dent - Goldmine Magazine
Amos slips up only once on Hotel, a noisy mess of a tune that reeks of self indulgence, something that, for all the records high wire emotional intensity, she manages to avoid everywhere else.
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The Dent - Teen Grrrl
From The Choirgirl Hotel is a beautiful album. It's Tori at her epitome, complete with the beautiful piano renditions and outstanding voice her fans have fallen in love with. Caroline Pelletier
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The Dent - Electric City
Tori Amos is a rare artist in that she gets better with evey new release. While many strive toward this upward achievment, Amos actually does it. Her latest triumph is "From the Choirgirl Hotel."
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The Dent - San Jose Mercury News
Tori Amos' new album reaches out and touches.
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The Dent - SCRATCH Zine
She fits my ideal of what punk is suppose to be. Although, she may not look the part, she definitely can play it. Tori Amos makes music that means something, not only to herself but to her fans as well.
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The Dent - Maxim Magazine (U.K.)
. . . the sum total is honest, strong, erotic, and - her lingering UFO charm notwithstanding - down-to-earth.
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The Dent - Stereo Review Magazine
"From the Choirgirl Hotel" suggests that she's fallen back in love with pop music, and it sports the most shimmering hooks she's ever come up with.
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SPIN
With a vocal mix that often sounds like you're swinging from the epiglottis, she shucks the feminine in all its forms (male included), making it both quiver and deliver. Her very own Hounds of Love, without the dogs.
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Dig Me Out
On her fourth album, Tori Amos assembled an all-star band to bulk up her minimalist piano sound but at the expense of melody.
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Pitchfork
. . . while Choirgirl houses some of Amos' less interesting performances, it also occasionally showcases electrifying work. We'll hope it marks a transition to something bigger and better, but let's not get attached to the idea.
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Robert Christgau
Dud.
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Albumism
May 3, 2018. As its own entity, From the Choirgirl Hotel is an affirmation of Tori Amos not just as an excellent singer, writer or musician, but as a musical elemental in constant motion.
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The Baltimore Sun
Her new album is catchy and accessible, listener- friendly with a sound that moves closer to conventional rock.
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Boycotting Trends
May 29, 2013. The songs on this album haven’t aged, in fact; they’re still leaping off the speakers, fresh, seductive, a bit dangerous, still concealing their mysteries and disclosing them. Which is why, fifteen years after that diary entry, I’m still fascinated by from the choirgirl hotel.
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Adrian's Album Reviews
A stunning album, all told. Perfect from beginning to end, sequenced well, a modern classic growing in stature to rival the reputation of her debut.
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Wilson & lroy's Record Reviews
This sounds like a retreat to commercial norms: there are fewer tracks but also fewer long ones; there's standard rock instrumentation on more tracks; Amos's vocals are more subdued. . . . This could be a transitional piece, or it could be the beginning of a slide into cult-artist irrelevance - time will tell.
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Music Street Journal
This disc has some very solid work and seems to improve with each listening., and it has rapidly become my favorite of her albums.
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Babyblaue Prog-Reviews
"From The Choirgirl Hotel". But somehow the paint was gone, I heard the disc quite often, but the magic of the first two albums just wasn't there.
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Michael Veloso
Turning towards more conventional pop made her music more…well…conventional, bland, sanitized. It’s certainly possible that she felt the need to consolidate her skills in this new arena before stretching its boundaries. But despite some admittedly gorgeous moments, the CD feels disappointing, like a medical school graduate deciding to work as a short-order cook.
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From Rock Music CD Review
I give From The Choirgirl Hotel my highest recommendation. It just plain belongs in any serious music collectors collection regardless of genre preference.
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Soulfeeder
Ultimately, From the Choirgirl Hotel may be one of her most powerfully singular statements of artistic intention, a record that shows off, with proud glee, everything Tori can do and everything she wants to do.
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Metroweekly
The arrangements are complex and the production work is superb.
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Musicfolio
The music now bends and curves with her swooping voice and hammering piano, but it's still Amos' sheer emotional power and anguish that holds it all together.
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Marc My Works
This is the most Rock N’ Roll sounding album of Tori’s career and it is perfection as, in its own way, is therapy to those who have lost someone or something important to them.
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