The Sacred and the Profane (Lo Sagrado y lo Profano)

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Tori Amos: Native Invader (Released 08 September 2017)

01 Reindeer King (7:06)
02 Wings (4:09)
03 Broken Arrow (5:20)
04 Cloud Riders (5:23)
05 Up the Creek (3:22)
06 Breakaway (4:36)
07 Wildwood (4:41)
08 Chocolate Song (4:41)
09 Bang (6:11)
10 Climb (4:02)
11 Bats (4:18)
12 Benjamin (2:42)
13 Mary's Eyes (5:16)
14 Upside Down 2 (3:23)
15 Russia (2:44)

In her fan newsletter, it states in Summer 2016, Amos took a road trip through North Carolina's Smoky Mountains with intention to reconnect with the stories of her mother's family. That winter, her mother suffered a stroke. With that and the 2016 United States election, the album took a different direction. Amos states, "It wasn't going to be a record of pain, blood and bone when I began. It wasn't going to be a record of division ... I listened and watched the conflicts that were traumatizing the nation and [wrote] about those raw emotions."

Regarding writing the songs, Amos has said that "[T]here's an intake and an outtake period. That's when I'm finding works. So there was a deluge for Native Invader after quite a while of waiting for the muses to come. And then once things aligned and there was enough pressure [from] what was going on in the world and what happened to Mary, then all of a sudden, it's kismet and it all lined up. Now, it doesn't always work like that where it comes as a rush where I'm working on 7 songs at a time but that's what started to happen and you start filing really quickly and go 'Oh, you're not a part of this structure are you. Oh, no you are! You’re a "Reindeer King"! You're three different songs at once!'"

A major source of inspiration for the album was Amos' belief that her white Appalachian ancestors from North Carolina and Tennessee were of Cherokee descent. During her trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, Amos acknowledged that she had Confederate ancestors. Both Tori Amos and her sister Dr. Marie Amos Dobyns have claimed Eastern Cherokee heritage and her sister has created ties with Native American organizations, such as by joining the Association of American Indian Physicians, an organization that allows people to join based on self-identification as Native Americans. While the album incorporates Native American themes, Tori Amos stated that she is an "observer" of Native American culture who is "not in a position to speak for First Nations people– that’s a sacred task."