Boys for Pele came out when I was in my first year of college. I was really psyched about all the buzz building up to the record release because they were promoting it a lot on TV and radio back then. But, I have to be honest, I wasn’t really ever a huge fan of Boys for Pele apart from the singles. I liked ‘Caught a Lite Sneeze’ and was pumped to buy the album when it came out but I remember being really turned off by it. I didn’t listen to it much, I thought the lyrics were goofy and silly. I also just wasn’t really into the harpsichord sound of a few of the tracks and I remember when she did Unplugged that year and I didn’t really care for it , either. I probably haven’t listened to that record all the way through since 1996.

I was a pretty huge fan of Little Earthquakes and especially Under the Pink. Anyway, I gave her one last shot with From the Choirgirl Hotel even though I wasn’t interested in the leading single, “Spark.” I liked two songs on the album - “Jackie’s Strength” and “Pandora’s Aquarium”. I never bought any Tori CD’s after that and I guess I stopped listening.

Fast forward to now - I’m much older, she’s older, too. And I’m going back and listening to a lot of the work she’s made since. It’s not always so good but it’s been nice hearing it with ‘new ears.’