1979–1989: Career beginnings and Y Kant Tori Read By the time she was 17, Amos had a stock of homemade demo tapes that her father regularly sent out to record companies and producers. Producer
Narada Michael Walden responded favorably: he and Amos cut some tracks together, but none were released. Eventually,
Atlantic Records responded to one of the tapes, and, when
A&R man
Jason Flom flew to Baltimore to audition her in person, the label was convinced and signed her. In 1984, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit in the
Washington, D.C. area. In 1986, Amos formed a musical group called
Y Kant Tori Read, named for her difficulty with
sight-reading. In addition to Amos, the group was composed of
Steve Caton (who would later play guitars on all of her albums until 1999), drummer
Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and, for a short time, keyboardist Jim Tauber. The band went through several iterations of songwriting and recording; Amos has said interference from record executives caused the band to lose its musical edge and direction during this time. Finally, in July 1988, the band's eponymous debut album,
Y Kant Tori Read, was released. Although its producer,
Joe Chiccarelli, stated that Amos was very happy with the album at the time, Amos has since criticized it, once remarking: "The only good thing about that album is my ankle high boots." Following the album's commercial failure and the group's subsequent disbanding, Amos began working with other artists (including
Stan Ridgway,
Sandra Bernhard, and
Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called "Distant Storm" (which she did not write), which was used in the film ''
China O'Brien.'' In the credits, the song is attributed to a band called Tess Makes Good. Amos recorded the vocals for the song in 1988, for $150; she was unaware for several years that the song had actually been heard in a film. Other than the appearance in the film itself, "Distant Storm" has never been commercially issued in any format.
1990–1995: Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink Despite the disappointing reaction to
Y Kant Tori Read, Amos still had to comply with her six-record contract with Atlantic Records, which, in 1989, wanted a new record by March 1990. The initial recordings were declined by the label, which Amos felt was because the album had not been properly presented. The album was reworked and expanded under the guidance of
Doug Morris and the musical talents of
Steve Caton,
Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio, and Dan Nebenzal, resulting in
Little Earthquakes, an album recounting her religious upbringing, sexual awakening, struggle to establish her identity, and sexual assault. This album became her commercial and artistic breakthrough, entering the British charts in January 1992 at Number 15.
Little Earthquakes was released in the United States in February 1992 and slowly but steadily began to attract listeners, gaining more attention with the video for the single "
Silent All These Years". Amos traveled to
New Mexico with personal and professional partner
Eric Rosse in 1993 to write and largely record her second solo record,
Under the Pink. The album was received with mostly favorable reviews and sold enough copies to chart at No. 12 on the
Billboard 200, a significantly higher position than the preceding album's position at No. 54 on the same chart. However, the album found its biggest success in the UK, debuting at number one upon release in February 1994.
1996–2000: Boys for Pele, From the Choirgirl Hotel, and To Venus and Back Her third solo album,
Boys for Pele, was released in January 1996. Prior to its release, the first single, "
Caught a Lite Sneeze" became the first full song released for streaming online prior to an album's release. The album was recorded in a church in
Delgany,
County Wicklow,
Ireland, with Amos taking advantage of the church's acoustics. For this album, Amos used the
harpsichord,
harmonium, and
clavichord as well as the piano. The album garnered mixed reviews upon its release, with some critics praising its intensity and uniqueness while others bemoaned its comparative impenetrability. Despite the album's erratic lyrical content and instrumentation, the latter of which kept it away from mainstream audiences,
Boys for Pele is Amos's most successful simultaneous transatlantic release, reaching No. 2 on the UK Top 40 and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 upon its release. Fueled by the desire to have her own recording studio to distance herself from record company executives, Amos had the barn of her home in
Cornwall, UK converted into the state-of-the-art recording studio of Martian Engineering Studios.
From the Choirgirl Hotel and
To Venus and Back, released in May 1998 and September 1999, respectively, differ greatly from previous albums. Amos's trademark acoustic, piano-based sound is largely replaced with arrangements that include elements of
electronica and dance music with vocal washes. The underlying themes of both albums deal with womanhood and Amos's own miscarriages and marriage. Reviews for
From the Choirgirl Hotel were mostly favorable and praised Amos's continued artistic originality. Debut sales for
From the Choirgirl Hotel were Amos's best to date, selling 153,000 copies in its first week.
To Venus and Back, a two-disc release of original studio material and live material recorded from the previous world tour, received mostly positive reviews and included the first major-label single available for sale as a digital download.
2001–2004: Strange Little Girls and ''Scarlet's Walk'' Shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Amos decided to record a
cover album, taking songs written by men about women and reversing the
gender roles to reflect a woman's perspective. That became
Strange Little Girls, released in September 2001. The album is Amos's first
concept album, with artwork featuring Amos photographed in character of the women portrayed in each song. Amos would later reveal that a stimulus for the album was to end her contract with Atlantic without giving them original songs; Amos felt that since 1998, the label had not been properly promoting her and had trapped her in a contract by refusing to sell her to another label. With her Atlantic contract fulfilled after a 15-year stint, Amos signed to
Epic in late 2001. In October 2002, Amos released ''
Scarlet's Walk'', another concept album. Described as a "sonic novel", the album explores Amos's
alter ego, Scarlet, intertwined with her cross-country concert tour following
9/11. Through the songs, Amos explores such topics as the history of America, American people, Native American history, pornography,
masochism,
homophobia and
misogyny. The album had a strong debut at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. ''Scarlet's Walk'' is Amos's last album to date to reach certified gold status from the
RIAA. Not long after Amos was ensconced with her new label, she received unsettling news when Polly Anthony resigned as president of Epic Records in 2003. Anthony had been one of the primary reasons Amos signed with the label and as a result of her resignation, Amos formed the Bridge Entertainment Group. Further trouble for Amos occurred the following year when her label, Epic/Sony Music Entertainment, merged with BMG Entertainment as a result of the industry's decline.
2005–2008: The Beekeeper and American Doll Posse Amos released two more albums with
Epic,
The Beekeeper (2005) and
American Doll Posse (2007). Both albums received generally favorable reviews.
The Beekeeper was conceptually influenced by the ancient art of
beekeeping, which she considered a source of female inspiration and empowerment. Through extensive study, Amos also wove in the stories of the
Gnostic gospels and the removal of women from a position of power within the
Christian church to create an album based largely on religion and politics. The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, placing her in an elite group of women who have secured five or more US Top 10 album debuts. While the newly merged label was present throughout the production process of
The Beekeeper, Amos and her crew nearly completed her next project,
American Doll Posse, before inviting the label to listen to it.
American Doll Posse, another concept album, is fashioned around a group of girls (the "posse") who are used as a theme of alter-egos of Amos's. Musically and stylistically, the album saw Amos return to a more confrontational nature. Like its predecessor,
American Doll Posse debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. During her tenure with Epic Records, Amos also released a retrospective collection titled
Tales of a Librarian (2003) through her former label, Atlantic Records; a two-disc DVD set
Fade to Red (2006) containing most of Amos's solo music videos, released through the Warner Bros. reissue imprint Rhino; a five disc box set titled
A Piano: The Collection (2006), celebrating Amos's 15-year solo career through remastered album tracks, remixes, alternate mixes, demos, and a string of unreleased songs from album recording sessions, also released through Rhino; and numerous official bootlegs from two world tours,
The Original Bootlegs (2005) and
Legs & Boots (2007) through Epic Records.
2008–2011: Abnormally Attracted to Sin and Midwinter Graces In May 2008, Amos announced that, due to creative and financial disagreements with
Epic Records, she had negotiated an end to her contract with the record label, and would be operating independently of major record labels on future work. In September of the same year, Amos released a live album and DVD,
Live at Montreux 1991/1992, through
Eagle Rock Entertainment, of two performances she gave at the Montreux Jazz Festival very early on in her career while promoting her debut solo album,
Little Earthquakes. By December, after a chance encounter with chairman and CEO of
Universal Music Group,
Doug Morris, Amos signed a "joint venture" deal with
Universal Republic Records.
Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Amos's tenth solo studio album and her first album released through Universal Republic, was released in May 2009 to mostly positive reviews. The album debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, making it Amos's seventh album to do so.
Abnormally Attracted to Sin, admitted Amos, is a "personal album", not a conceptual one, with the album exploring themes of power, boundaries, and the subjective view of sin. Continuing her distribution deal with Universal Republic, Amos released
Midwinter Graces, her first seasonal album, in November of the same year. The album features reworked versions of traditional carols, as well as original songs written by Amos. During her contract with the label, Amos recorded vocals for two songs for
David Byrne's collaboration album with
Fatboy Slim, titled
Here Lies Love, which was released in April 2010. In July of the same year, the DVD
Tori Amos – Live from the Artists Den was released exclusively through
Barnes & Noble. After a brief tour from June to September 2010, Amos released a live album
From Russia With Love in December the same year, recorded in Moscow on September 3, 2010. The limited edition set included a signature edition Lomography Diana F+ camera, along with two lenses, a roll of film and one of five photographs taken of Amos during her time in Moscow. The set was released exclusively through her website and only 2000 copies were produced.
2011–2015: Night of Hunters, Gold Dust, and Unrepentant Geraldines In September 2011, Amos released her first classical-style music album,
Night of Hunters, featuring
variations on a theme to pay tribute to composers such as
Bach,
Chopin,
Debussy,
Granados,
Satie and
Schubert, on the
Deutsche Grammophon label, a division of
Universal Music Group. Amos recorded the album with several musicians, including the
Apollon Musagète string quartet. To mark the 20th anniversary of her debut album,
Little Earthquakes (1992), Amos released an album of songs from her back catalogue re-worked and re-recorded with the
Metropole Orchestra. The album, titled
Gold Dust, was released in October 2012 through Deutsche Grammophon. On May 1, 2012, Amos announced the formation of her own record label, Transmission Galactic, which she said she intended to use to develop new artists. In 2013, Amos collaborated with
the Bullitts on the track "Wait Until Tomorrow" from their debut album,
They Die by Dawn & Other Short Stories. She also stated in an interview that a new album and tour would materialize in 2014 and that it would be a "return to contemporary music". September 2013 saw the launch of Amos's musical project adaptation of
George MacDonald's
The Light Princess, along with book writer
Samuel Adamson and
Marianne Elliott. It premiered at London's
Royal National Theatre and ended in February 2014.
The Light Princess and its lead actress,
Rosalie Craig, were nominated for Best Musical and Best Musical Performance respectively at the
Evening Standard Award. Craig won the Best Musical Performance category. Amos's 14th studio album,
Unrepentant Geraldines, was released on May 13, 2014, via Mercury Classics/Universal Music Classics in the US. Its first single, "
Trouble's Lament", was released on March 28. The album was supported by the
Unrepentant Geraldines Tour which began May 5, 2014, in Cork and continued across Europe, Africa, North America, and Australia, ending in Brisbane on November 21, 2014. In
Sydney, Amos performed two orchestral concerts, reminiscent of the
Gold Dust Orchestral Tour, with the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the
Sydney Opera House. According to a press release,
Unrepentant Geraldines was a "return to her core identity as a creator of contemporary songs of exquisite beauty following a series of more classically-inspired and innovative musical projects of the last four years. [It is] both one further step in the artistic evolution of one of the most successful and influential artists of her generation, and a return to the inspiring and personal music that Amos is known for all around the world." The 2-CD set
The Light Princess (Original Cast Recording) was released on October 9, 2015, via Universal/Mercury Classics. Apart from the original cast performances, the recording also includes two songs from the musical ("Highness in the Sky" and "Darkest Hour') performed by Amos.
2016–2024: Native Invader, Christmastide and Ocean to Ocean On November 18, 2016, Amos released a deluxe version of the album
Boys for Pele to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original release. This follows the deluxe re-releases of her first two albums in 2015. On September 8, 2017, Amos released
Native Invader, accompanied by a world tour. During the summer of 2017, Amos launched three songs from the album: "Cloud Riders", "Up the Creek", and "Reindeer King", the latter featuring string arrangements by
John Philip Shenale. Produced by Amos, the album explores topics like American politics and environmental issues, mixed with mythological elements and first-person narrations.
Native Invader obtained a score of 76 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On November 9, 2020, Amos announced the release of a holiday-themed
EP entitled
Christmastide on December 4, digitally and on limited-edition vinyl. The EP consists of four original songs and features her first work with bandmates Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans since 2009. Amos recorded the EP remotely due to the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic. On September 20, 2021, Amos announced her sixteenth studio album,
Ocean to Ocean, which was released on October 29. The album was written and recorded in Cornwall during lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and explores "a universal story of going to rock bottom and renewing yourself all over again". Amos embarked on a European and United States tour in support of the album in 2022, and continued to support the album in 2023 with a European Tour in March and April and additional US dates in June and July . Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans were featured on drums and bass guitar respectively, their first collaboration with Amos on an album since 2009's
Midwinter Graces. For the 2022 and 2023 tour, Amos was joined by Jon Evans and the drummer Ash Soan. She appeared at the
EPIX original docuseries
Women Who Rock which premiered on July 10, 2022. In 2023, Amos and
Trevor Horn covered
Kendrick Lamar's "
Swimming Pools (Drank)". She also released a remix dance single titled "Tequila," produced by
Paul Woolford. On November 1, 2024, Amos announced the release of a live album,
Diving Deep Live, on December 6, 2024, consisting of recordings from her 2022-23 tour in support of
Ocean to Ocean. it was released on double vinyl, on CD and digitally.
2025–present: Tori and the Muses and In Times of Dragons On February 28, 2025, Amos released a surprise album,
The Music of Tori and the Muses, as a companion project to her illustrated children's book
Tori and the Muses, published on March 4, 2025. The album featured nine original songs and featured Jon Evans on bass guitar and Matt Chamberlain on drums. Touring drummer Ash Soan featured on drums on the tracks "Knocking", "Spike's Lament", and "Rain Brings Change". Amos announced her eighteenth studio album,
In Times of Dragons, on October 6, 2025; it was released on CD and vinyl on May 1, 2026. Amos described the album as "a metaphorical story about the fight for Democracy over Tyranny, reflecting the current abhorrent non-accidental burning down of democracy in real time by the 'Dictator believing Lizard Demons' in their usurpation of America". ==In print==