Breaking Down Tori Amos:

Tori Amos is the most prolific songwriter in my collection, with 202 songs (and a new album coming out later this year.)  She doesn't make very good use of all this volume, though.  Out of those 202 songs, 72 are listenable, 99 are actual music, and 32 are masterpieces.

Certainly, 32 masterpieces is a worthy number.  Enya only had 29.  But it's frustrating having to wade through so much bad music to get there.  Enya didn't have a single listenable song.  They were all actual music or above.

I have a sense that Tori Amos doesn't give a fuck, she just does whatever and demands the audience accommodate itself to her.  I guess when you're rich self-expression becomes the largest goal for a musician, instead of making actually catchy tunes.  Her arrogance stands in strong contrast to the humility of Sarah Brightman, though, who not only stays within the realms of traditional composition, but also is more likely to cover other people's songs than try and write her own.

Tori is the only singer who I've heard live in concert.  It was a good concert.  I wouldn't own 202 of her songs if I thought she was worthless.  She's also an all-American girl, very rare.  The same is true of the next and last singer on my list, Vanessa Carlton.  It will be interesting to see if she can surpass Tori despite having so many fewer songs to work with.

Album by Album, how do things look?:

Abnormally Attracted to Sin:  11 listenable, 6 actual music
American Doll Posse:             16 listenable, 6 actual music, 1 masterpiece
The Beekeeper:                         8 listenable, 9 actual music, 2 masterpiece
Boys for Pele:                           4 listenable, 12 actual music, 2 masterpiece
From the Choirgirl Hotel:         2 listenable, 4 actual music, 6 masterpiece
Gold Dust:                                1 listenable, 1 actual music
Hey Jupiter:                              1 listenable, 2 actual music
Little Earthquakes:                   1 listenable, 6 actual music, 6 masterpiece
Midwinter Graces:                   4 listenable, 10 actual music
Night of Hunters:                     5 listenable, 9 actual music
Scarlet's Walk:                         1 listenable, 9 actual music, 8 masterpiece
Strange Little Girls:              10 listenable, 2 actual music
To Venus and Back:                1 listenable, 5 actual music, 5 masterpiece
Under the Pink:                                          10 actual music, 2 masterpiece
Unrepentant Geraldines:        7 listenable, 8 actual music

Scarlet's Walk wins by a wide margin as her best album.  As usual, her more recent music has been her worst.