Rolling Stone (4/2/92, p.46) - 3.5 Stars - Very Good "...Amos' songs are smart, melodic and dramatic; the deeper you listen, the hotter they get... a gripping debut..."
Spin (9/99, p.134) - Ranked #31 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
Q (12/99, p.74) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Village Voice (3/2/93, p.5) - Ranked #36 in the Village Voice's list of the 40 Best Albums Of 1992.
Q (1/93, p.68) - Included in Q's list of the 50 Best Albums Of 1992.
Q (2/92, p.82) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...[Amos can] write seemingly effortless melodies...Lyrically, she's something special: a granite-like hardness with a journalist's eye for detail and compassion..."
Personnel: Tori Amos (vocals, acoustic & electric pianos, keyboards); Jef Scott, Steve Caton (guitar, bass); John Chamberlin (mandolin); Eric Williams (ukulele, dulcimer); Will McGregor, Matthew Seligman (bass); Eric Rosse (drums, programming); Ed Green, Carlo Nuccio, Chris Hughes (drums); Paulinho DaCosta (percussion).
Producers: Davitt Sigerson, Tori Amos, Eric Rosse, Ian Stanley.
Engineers include: John Beverly Jones, Ian Stanley, Eric Rosse.
With this debut, Tori Amos rose above the inevitable Kate Bush/Joni Mitchell comparisons, producing a stunning set of brutally honest and emotionally wrought songs. A skilled and imaginative pianist, Amos also proved a versatile vocalist, moving from whisper to scream in an instant. She concentrates on intimate stories of her religious upbringing, childhood traumas, and predominantly, sex, self-discovery and unhappy relationships. "Silent All These Years" was the first to hit a nerve with the public on single release, but all the tracks--memories of her father in "Winter," the bittersweet "Happy Phantom," the harrowing account of her own rape, "Me And A Gun"--combine to make this inspiring, if rarely comfortable, listening.