Meet Isabel, Clyde, Pip, Santa and Tori, the five women with something to say on this new Tori Amos album, American Doll Posse. Each five of these women take turns in presenting the vocals on various moments through out Posse, even though these five women are actually all Tori Amos. It’s just her playing assorted characters rather than duetting with a bunch of unknowns. Isabel takes photos for a living and is quite political, Clyde is coming to terms with being let down on an alarmingly consistent basis, Pip is a bit like Xena: Warrior Princess, Santa has nothing to do with Christmas but plenty to do with sexuality, and as for Tori… well, what can be said about a woman sharing her albums release with her multiple personalities? It’s just all so delightfully bonkers…

The incredibly satisfying thing about this record is that it’s just such a vast improvement on the sombre 2005 release of The Beekeeper, which left a slightly unfavourable taste in my mouth. It wasn’t that I didn’t like The Beekeper, but - much the same with Bjork’s last one, Medulla - I just felt it could have been much better. And, unlike with The Beekeeper, it doesn’t take too long for things to gain excitement. “Bouncing Off The Clouds” is quite easily the records absolute shining glory moment, with a gorgeous melody and poignant lyrics coming from the emotionally confused character of Clyde. “Teenage Hustling” throws a few loud guitars into the mix, whilst “Secret Spell” introduces itself in the form of a Dixie Chicks song. “Beauty of Speed” could have sat perfectly on To Venus And Back, “You Can Bring Your Dog” absolutely sweetens your ears with its strikingly Vintage-Tori feel, and “Roosterspur Bridge” - another Clyde track - is Balladry Tori in classic form. As you’d expect, high on piano’s, a surprising bevvy of very big choruses and, of course, schizophrenic behaviour by the truck-load. There are a few of those interludey things as well, and instead of serving the purpose of exercising the action of placing your index-finger-to-the-skip-button, they’re actually put together nicely enough to sit through each of the four 45 to 90 second bursts. In particular “Fat Slut” and “Programmable Soda” - the “Mr Zebra” of 2007 perhaps?

This is a good record from someone who’s last effort just wasn’t felt much by me at all. There are some duds (about 5 or 6), but seeing as it carries 23 songs, that still leaves about 17 delights… 17 more than can be found on the Christina Aguilera album of a similar mountain-top length.

I just hope the whole ‘conceptual art’ thing doesn’t cause harm to the success and general outcome of this project. Quite a few mouths have labeled it all a bit self indulgent, a comment so flippantly thrown around by people who’ve not even heard the album yet to make a proper final judgment. I don’t think the idea behind this album is terrible at all; if actors like Eddie Murphy can get away with playing 73 different characters in every single movie they make, why can’t a singer/songwriter do the same for an album? Essentially, this is the combination of an actor expressing themselves through a series of songs. There are interesting political, love, loss and life points raised through out American Doll Posse, and whether it be Clyde, Tori or the other three crooning about it, it’s all actually INTERESTING to listen to. Clearly this is no From The Choirgirl Hotel or To Venus & Back, but it is most definitely a step back for Amos in the right direction after a wrong turn.