This review also appeared in the Austin American-Stateman on February 5, 1998.

Read This Great Expectations Soundtrack Review.

"Soundtrack City: There's been a plethora of soundtracks put out recently and most are worth your dime. "Great Expectations" (Atlantic) is the prototype of modern soundtracks as it features artists that cross all genres of the rock radio spectrum. Adult Album Alternative will love Tori Amos' "Siren", which is more linear and mainstream than anything she's done in a while. "Wishful Thinking" by Duncan Sheik proves that this guy may actually have a career in him yet. Other artists include alt rockers Poe and Blur, but you also have to put up with Reef and the Verve Pipe, and a very bad crossover pop track from Scott Weiland. If this is his music cleaned up, get back on the smack, Scott. The best cut comes from Soundgarden refugee Chris Cornell, whose lilting "Sunshower" is beautifully rendered. By Ken Capobianco

E! Online

The movie's release was delayed, which isn't a great omen, but this soundtrack is all good--or, almost. Chris Cornell's blubbery Steve Perry-esque ballad and Tori Amos' title-theme gasping are the worst of it. But, Amos makes up for her noodling excess with "Siren." Duncan Sheik's "Wishful Thinking" proves he's the master of midtempo moodiness, and Poe's got the thrashing, brooding, youthful thing going full speed on "Today." Pulp, the Verve Pipe and Scott Weiland also contribute solid cuts, but Iggy Pop's "Success" might be this soundtrack's breakout, à la "Lust for Life." But that's probably raising expectations too high.

MetroJoe82 reports that in an early January 1998 edition of the New York Daily News, they listed Tori in an article called "Early-bird artists have jump on '98" by Jim Farber. The article says, "After three platinum LPs, the world's most self involved modern singer-songwriter, Tori Amos, is releasing her fourth full length album. The buzz on Amos has been increasing and so has her audience. Expect another hit." Self Involved? The article gives a release date of March, but we know that is too early. Since this was a syndicated article, it appeared in other newspapers as well, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Jan 15, 1998 (Thanks Jess!) and in the Indianapolis Star on Jan 18, 1998 (Thanks Brad Shultz.) The title of this article seems to change from newspaper to newspaper by the way.

"Anyone who has seen and heard the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation (due Jan. 30) of Charles Dickens' 19th-century novel knows what not to expect: This is no buttoned-up-to-the-chin period piece with some wooden instrumental score. The story now unfolds in 1990s New York City as Ethan Hawke's and Gwyneth Paltrow's characters yearn, burn and exchange come-hither looks, and much of the soundtrack expresses equal passion. Tori Amos is all breathless ecstasy on 'Siren', Mono's 'Life in Mono' slinks along like a four-minute sigh, and solo efforts by former Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell and Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland abandon the hit-and-run wallop of grunge for more sensual sonics. Modern rock has rarely sounded so seductive.
--Jeremy Helligar"

Tori Amos: May (Atlantic). The willowy chanteuse, who is one of the most intense of the heralded '90s generation of female pop singers-songwriters, has put together three straight platinum albums, and Atlantic is optimistic that the new, still-untitled fourth album will continue the streak. The album reportedly features a more expansive, band-oriented sound than Amos' 1996 album, "Boys For Pele." She'll also be doing limited touring. "

You can read the entire review now..

• There is an article with the title, "ATLANTIC RECORDS: From the start, it's been about ears and instinct and an abiding love of music." It covers the history of Atlantic Records. Toward the end of the article, it mentions Tori but misnames her first album:

  Music was never a problem for Atlantic, and the label has continued to break new artists in the "90s. The first time [Doug Morris, president of Atlantic] heard Tori Amos" debut album, "Silent All These Years," he didn"t know how he was going to break the album in the U.S. "I didn"t get the album and I told her that. And then I fell in love with it, listening to it quietly at home. I called her back and said, "It"s beautiful. It"s going to be hard to break here, and if you have the courage, I"m asking you to go to England for a year and live and work there and we"ll put the record out there." The album went directly into the U.K. top 10, and Amos was later established in America.

• Another article covers Atlantic's Greatest Hits during it's first 50 years. In a chart of THE TOP 50 ATLANTIC ALBUMS, Tori's Boys For Pele was #32. This chart was based on an album's performance on The Billboard 200 albums chart in the U.S. The #1 album was 4 by Foreigner.

• Another chart took a look at Atlantic's International Best-Sellers. This chart covered sales outside the U.S. Tori was listed at #24 with sales of 2,515,129 CDs, cassettes and albums. Led Zeppelin was #1 with 29,553,665 units sold.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Great Expectations (Atlantic)
"It figures that a film in which Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow make goo-goo doll eyes at each other features mopey melodies for sensitive college grads. The suprise is how hooky many of them are, especially cuts by slickster songwriters like Duncan Sheik and Lauren Christy; even Tori Amos shows renewed focus on 'Siren'. Despite throwaways by the likes of Stone Temple Pilots lead recoverer Scott Weiland (who thinks his future lies in pretending to be Jim Morrison singing a waltz), Great Expectations surpasses our own lessened expectations for alt-rock movie grab bags." B

The following review of the Great Expectations soundtrack appeared at the Jacksonville.com web site (published by the The Florida Times-Union) on January 14, 1998.

Read The Great Expectations Review.

POP/ROCK: Great Expectations: The Album (*** out of four) - High expectations are met in this soundtrack to the Dickens update starring Gweneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. Excluding vintage tunes by the Grateful Dead and Iggy Pop, "modern" defines the 16-track collection, which spotlights such alterna-stars as Tori Amos, Poe, the Verve Pipe, Reef and Pulp. Lauren Christy's edgy "Walk this Earth Alone" and Duncan Sheik's wistful "Wishful Thinking" are absorbing entries, but the strongest lures are the left turns taken by two newly solo alt-rockers. Former Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell wails majestically in the acoustic "Sunshower," and ex-Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland brings dark drama to the violin-laced cabaret of "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down." - E.G.

and the caption under the picture goes...

"Tori Amos: Alternative star helps give the 'Great Expectations' soundtrack a modern feel. Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke star in the Dickens update."

The Score

Great Expectations: The Album opens cinematically enough with a track called "Finn (Intro)," a new composition by Tori Amos. Finn, the moniker provided by actor Ethan Hawke after he decided Dickens' original name Pip wasn't "American" enough, certainly gets the new-age treatment here complete with a "whistler" credit. But it's not until the second track, another newbie from Amos, kicks in that the grand sweep of this film and itinerant soundtrack revels itself. Love, in all its various guises, is taken on here by Amos in the song "Siren" and her rich, breakneck vocals and signature blend of piano and percussion cut straight to the angst and leave the warm fuzzy feelings to the rest of the bands on the album. The lyric "just means She's got a Cellular handy" certainly hints at the liberties this film intends to take with Dickens' original setting and faster than one can say "Romeo and Juliet," the album rolls out the de rigueur trip/hop throwaway called "Life in Mono."

There are some disappointments here, but the good far outweighs the bad. There are even flashes of brilliance when one can almost ignore the fact that most of the bands on this album not only reside in the Atlantic stable, but also have new albums ready to drop in early 1998. With Stone Temple Pilots currently pulling an Amelia Earhart, former-frontman Scott Weiland pulls off the album's most sublime moment, the Brechtian "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down" that puts his Jim Morrison swagger to good use. Sheryl Crow turns up to lend a hand on the accordion on this one and it's moments like these that make it almost possible to believe the film's composer, Patrick Doyle, when he says, "The music is like another leading actor."

-- Tony Phillips

I received a report from Whitney C that In the January 1998 issue of UNCUT, a British Magazine, there is a large photo of Tori and a quote from Rolling Stone's Women in Rock issue from last November. If anyone has more information on this, please email me.

Just wanted to let you know that this Sunday's Indianapolis Star contains a pic of Tori (from the contents page of the BFP songbook) and a snippet of her name in an article on Gender Politics.

The caption of the pic reads "GIRL POWER: Tori Amos owes her career to the "riot grrl" music movement, which emphasized coquettish dress but angry lyrics about victimization."

The portion of the article pertaining to Tori reads "Similarly, the "riot grrl" movement sprung up in the early '90s in the Pacific Northwest, a kind of hard-edged music whose purveyors dressed in a coquettish, girlish way but belted angry lyrics about the victimization of women. They reveled in the contradictions--part girl, part angry woman. And they paved the way for a flock of mainstream singers like Alanis Morrissette, Gwen stefani, and TORI AMOS, all of whom sing about hurt and anger--and often do it in the midriff- baring baby T-shirts popular with young women."

Billboard Magazine had a review of the Great Expectations soundtrack in their January 10, 1998 issue. They said:

Various Artists
Great Expectations: The Album
PRODUCERS: various
Atlantic 83058

The soundtrack to the high-profile 20th Century Fox film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke features a host of talented rock, dance, and world music artists contributing mostly new material, some of it written especially for the movie and some of it in collaboration with score composer Patrick Doyle. Among the highlights are Tori Amos" rocking "Siren," cutting-edge dance group Mono"s "Life In Mono," Poe"s "Today," and Reef"s snarling "Resignation." Also noteworthy are the solo debuts by two of the most identifiable voices in alternative rock: Chris Cornell of Soundgarden ("Sunshower") and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots ("Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down"). The first single is Duncan Sheik"s tuneful "Wishful Thinking," which should appeal to his adult rock fan base. A project with plenty of inherent musical quality, aided by a powerful marketing campaign.

MUST CD
by Dan Aquilante

WHO: Various Artists
WHAT: "Great Expectations: The Album"
WHY: Even though the "Great Expectations" soundtrack is less than expected there's enough goodness in its 16 tracks tomake the New Year worth a spin. Tori Amos haters be warned: in two painful tunes she wails like a wounded dog.

The well-named Mono is mopy to the max, but top songs by ex-Soundgardener Chris Cornell, sexy Poe, Pulp, and one from Scott Weiland-currently flying solo from Stone Temple Pilots-even out the balances. The oddball inclusion is the dusted-off Grateful Dead recording of "Uncle John's Band." Why its here is a mystery that arouses curiosity about the silver-screen version of the classic Dickens tale-opening January 30.

Read this Great Expectations Review.

Ears With Feet Marc Alain reports:

On page 27 of the Jan. 30, 1998 edition of Circus Magazine (With Trent Reznor featured on the cover) is the "expression of the month" featuring a caption above the drawing reading:

Trent Reznor and Tori Amos
by Brandi Lyons
Castle Rock,CO

The black and white drawing features a portrait of both Trent Reznor and Tori Amos, both of them having wings, yet Tori's look more like a butterfly's and Trent's look like a vulture.

Toriphile Danica kindly sent me a scan of this drawing that appears in Circus of Tori &Trent. Click here to see it!

Ears With Feet Ally reports:

Flipping through the pages of the latest Q magazine (UK - January 1998) there is a section that recommends the best videos of the last three months. It included Tori Amos: Live From New York (Warner Vision), as well as Paul McCartney "In the World Tonight", Manic Street Preachers "Everything Alive" and Black Grape "The Grape Tapes". They described Tori's video as an affecting and emotional benefit concert for the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network.

It included a small picture of her (the size of a thumbnail, shown here) wearing a white teeshirt with a blue beaded necklace and her red hair severly moussed up.

Many thanks to Danica for sending me the photo.