[vulikox]

I really love the piano melody and I do like how their voices mesh and rise up, though I know some peeps can't really stand it.

[R1king]

SPIRIT 2 SPIRIT!!!!11

Easily the most memorable part about this song.

[Unamannuato]

I love the melody and the medieval/ renaissance feel it has. In places it sounds too much like a psalm and I feel like sitting in a church. I'd love to hear a solo adaption of this.

[iH1wMOhE]

^ yes, that's referencing the "salve regina" which is a religious chant (hymn?) to the virgin mary (i think the rose is also a symbol for that). it's possibly my favorite part of the whole song. it's maybe also inspired by tori's own experience since she's - if you didn't know it - a "minister's daughter".

i wonder if it could work solo, because the two vocals create that effect, without them it's basically a classical piece of music.

and yes, the lyrics are cheesy, but somehow i don't mind. i think i like everything else about it enough to not mind. it's maybe that thing where i'm not religious but still like to listen to choral music because of the vocal performance (and it's all in latin anyways, a lot of it at least)

[casinobonbone]

I love the music of the middle ages and sacred music. I deleted this song off iTunes, though, because of Kelsey's vocals and the lyrics. The title track is usually one of the stronger ones, but I don't think it's the case here.

[Effofqueeno]

Lovely song, but the lyrics really don't do it for me. My other half loves to mock the "keeping watch over children's dreams" part. I really enjoy the instrumental version of it, though.

[sueplydup]

Within the context of the album, the rest of the lyrics really come out of left field though. "children's dreams" "holy father you must ask forgiveness from the earth" It's just too much cheese in what should have been the barn-storming center of the album.

This is my biggest problem with the song. It throws a huge wrench in the album's story for me. I cannot understand what she's talking about or why, and it really takes me out of it. It feels like I'm reading a book and someone tore out 50 pages and replaced them with 50 pages from another book.

[XarokLasa]

You don't think Battle of Trees (which I love by the way) is convoluted and full of seemingly unrelated themes?

[iH1wMOhE]

"night of hunters"



let's talk about "night of hunters"

she takes this scarlatti sonata which itself is already very delicate, kind of classical but also romantic...
Vladimir Horowitz: Scarlatti sonata K.466

... and makes it this subtle afterthought that comes up in between that opulent festive sound which mimics the religious chant aspect of the "salve regina"

it's amazing when sometimes you have those pieces and they come from a certain era but they sound kind of like ahead of their time, not willing to be put into just one category.

which is how you could also this song. you listen to the song and there are moments you're saying how baroque it sounds...
Händel: "Streams of pleasure...thither let our hearts aspire" (from Theodora)

...and then you hear those parts that remind you of what a modern vocal ensemble would do with such a theme (here performed by those two voices)...
David Lang: "It was terribly cold" (from Little match girl passion)

... and you wonder in your head if the song would maybe profit from having a choir, but then you realize that the two voices there are actually expressive enough to carry it by themselves...
... then you're reminded of something tori has done in the past...
Father Lucifer

... maybe you're even tempted to say you've heard it in a musical...
Sondheim: "Your fault / Last midnight" (from Into the woods)

... I really like how she references all these different sounds and still they all come together as a whole.
what makes this one of my favorite songs not just on the album, but in the last ten years or so, is how she uses the vocals. you can actually hear how essential they are if you compare it to the instrumental version. it's a totally different thing.
and the instrumentation, she may overuse the woodwinds and the strings and whatnot on some other songs, sometimes it sounds like they're just there for the sake of it (from the album "the tori amos woodwind ensemble/chamber orchestra plays romantic piano pieces")
you don't get that feeling here. it's really well used, everything in its place, at the right time, you know where it came from, and you know what it is supposed to be.

[DesautocaD]

It's not one of my favorites from the album. I loved Kelsey on MWG, but here her voice just goes through me like nails on a chalkboard.

[tpJKhY8Z]

I liked reading your perspective, yoshi. I have a hard time with this song.

To me, the song starts out okay. Someone here a while back suggested that the "rose so red" is the form she finally, successfully takes after the end of The Chase. It calls up her other songs like "Blood Roses" (where she's being ruthless & vicious) with the lyric "find love instead of their blood by my thorn." Tori loves the rose metaphor. It's all over her catalog. (OMG red & black madonnas/Marys!) She does a nice turn with it here.

Within the context of the album, the rest of the lyrics really come out of left field though. "children's dreams" "holy father you must ask forgiveness from the earth" It's just too much cheese in what should have been the barn-storming center of the album.