It’s far from enough to just release a record today. An artist seeking cultural cache must release an album with some marketing elan. Of course, we needn’t share that with Tori Amos. She’s all over it.
Tori Amos has had five albums debut in the top 10 in the USA. That puts her in an elite category of female performers including Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. Her ninth, called “American Doll Posse” is due out May 1.
Los Angeles Times describes the advance release of her cover art as a well conceived viral marketing ploy.
In it, the American-born, England-based singer-songwriter — notable for both her piano-driven pop and naked emotionalism — is photographed with a Bible in one hand and the word “shame” scrawled across the palm of the other. Looking willfully weirded out, she stands in front of a suburban tract home wearing a shimmering, burgundy-colored dress; a trickle of blood wends down her leg to her broken high-heel shoe strap.
Her vacant stare also alludes to the Stepfordization of American culture.