Fade to Red Tori Amos Video Collection
July 2006 Reviewed by: Joseph Taylor Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Tori Amos is nothing if not intense. Her dark, personal songs draw their inspiration from her own life, and from her varied interests in the work of other artists she admires. "Cornflake Girl," for instance, is based on a novel by Alice Walker. She’s a musician who is worthy of respect because of her abilities as a player and the amount of musical detail she puts in her recordings. But I can’t imagine anyone feeling lukewarm about her. She demands emotional engagement. If you’re not willing to meet her music on its own terms, or if you are simply in a bad mood, it can be overwhelming.

Amos brings the same level of craftsmanship and force to her videos that she does to her music, as Fade to Red, a two-DVD collection, demonstrates. Some selections, such as "Winter," are fairly simple in their presentation. Others, such as "Past the Mission," are cinematic in the complexity of their imagery and story lines. Amos produced the collection, and she chose not to present the contents chronologically. As a consequence, there are some jarring contrasts between her early, lower-budget videos and the later more elaborate ones. However, nearly all of them are arresting because of the singer’s impassioned performances and because she is such an enthralling presence.

Often, the videos seem to go far beyond the meaning of a song. "Past the Mission" seeks to take on everything from the Spanish conquest of Mexico to the patriarchal oppression of the Catholic Church. At one point, a group of women in a village lie down in protest as a young priest walks around them in a narrow street. The video, while impressive, even visually moving, seems to be saying more than the song is telling us. I find that to be a frequent problem with music videos. Amos’ audio commentary helps fill in some of the blanks, but some connections between the video narrative and its illustration still seem to be strained.

The two-channel sound on Fade to Red is generally good, although I felt it was a bit compressed. There’s also a DTS 5.1 option. Bonus features include a documentary about the making of the surreal "A Sorta Fairytale," a video for "Professional Widow (Remix)," and Amos’ commentary, which helps explain many aspects of the videos. Amos’ fans have noted that some of their favorites, such as "Strange Little Girl," are missing from the collection. Certainly, they are right to expect a more complete package, since I can’t imagine a casual fan picking up this release.

Fade to Red has its share of gripping images and I enjoyed watching it, as long as I took in only a handful of the tunes at a time. Music videos, by their nature, are like short story collections. Savor the contents in small amounts. To rip through a whole collection, especially when it’s as emotionally demanding as Fade to Red, diminishes the impact of the artist’s intentions.

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