Tori Amos had a difficult time during the pandemic. She entered a place of personal crisis that was exacerbated by the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. But instead of allowing it to bring her down further, the singer-songwriter channeled that energy into Ocean to Ocean — her 15th studio album and most personal work in years.
“This is a record about your losses, and how you cope with them,” she said in a statement. “Thankfully when you’ve lived long enough, you can recognise you’re not feeling like the mom you want to be, the wife you want to be, the artist you want to be. I realised that to shift this, you have to write from the place where you are. I was in my own private hell, so I told myself, then that’s where you write from – you’ve done it before…”
The result is an urgent, introspective record reminiscent of her 1992 debut Little Earthquakes.
“We have all had moments that can knock us down,” Tori Amos continued. “This record sits with you where you are, especially if you are in a place of loss. I am fascinated when someone has gone through a tragedy, and how they work through their grief. That is where the gold is. When somebody is actually at that place, thinking ‘I’m done,’ how do you reach that person? Sometimes it’s not about a pill, or a double shot of tequila. It’s about sitting in the muck together. I’m going to meet you in the muck.”
Ocean to Ocean is slated for an Oct. 29 release via Decca Records with a Spectacular Vinyl Release set for Jan. 28, 2022 and can be pre-ordered here.