Allow me to be personal for a moment. Late 1991, and an unusual song comes on Radio 1, almost the antithesis of everything that’s played at the time. (This was still the era of the station being lampooned, not entirely unreasonably, by the ‘Smashey and Nicey’ characters of Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.) A piano playing a riff that’s closer to classical than pop and a haunting, beautiful voice singing about how she’s got ‘the anti-christ in the kitchen yelling at me again’ and the terrifyingly direct ‘Boy you better play that I bleed real soon.’ This was, of course, ‘Silent All These Years’ and it would be the introduction to a very unique artist, Tori Amos.
That was over thirty years ago, and Tori Amos is very much still with us. She’s notched up 12 UK top 40 hits, and given us 16 studio albums. Diving Deep Live is, as the title suggests, a live album and rather excellent it is, too. The album was recorded on Amos’ 93 date Ocean To Ocean Tour throughout 2022 and 2023 backed by bassist Jon Evans and drummer Ash Soan.
Some artists’ live albums are mere cash-ins, where they run through less good versions of their greatest hits. This, on the other hand, is very much an album for fans, who really know her work, with different arrangements for songs. So, while there are excellent versions of hits – the opening ‘God,’ ‘Cornflake Girl’ and the aforementioned ‘Silent All These Years,’ – there’s songs that may not be as well known to a casual listener – but deserve to be. I remember buying the ‘Cornflake Girl’ single and being even more thrilled with the b-side ‘Sister Janet.’ That appears here too, and it’s wonderful in this new version. Other wonderful deep cuts within the album are the epic ‘Ruby Through The Looking Glass’ and the genre-hopping ‘Climb,’ the latter taking in influences including jazz and classical not on the original.
The advent of the CD player -and then onto downloading and streaming -meant that it became easy – too easy, probably – to start cherry-picking tracks off albums. You wouldn’t do that with a live show (at least, I hope you wouldn’t). This album deserves to be listened to in its entirety, because it really is almost as wonderful as being at a Tori gig. Normally a live album comprised as this one is might not be the most obvious starting place to investigate an artist, but this is the exception. The CD has four more tracks than the vinyl, and I’m intending to spend my own money on this, because it seems like a rather wonderful way to spend two hours, before then re-immersing yourself in her entire catalogue.
Look lively!
