Music
Review: Tori Amos Processes our Trump-Era Trauma on ‘Native Invader’
Our take on the 15th album from the piano-balladeer
Few artists are as deft as Tori Amos at writing
about the ways people process pain. In these times of national trauma, then, a
new LP from her feels uniquely urgent. Amos confronts the Trump era most
effectively with “Broken Arrow” and “Up the Creek,” darkly
funky protests against white supremacy and climate ignorance. Elsewhere, she
rolls through psychedelia (“Wildwood”), chilled-out trip-hop (“Wings”)
and her trademark passionate piano ballads (“Bang,” “Mary’s Eyes”),
scattering political allusions like seed pearls. It adds up to one of the most
purposeful full-length statements in her quarter-century career.