Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Billboard | (positive) |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Entertainment Weekly | C |
| Q | |
| Sputnikmusic | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Salon | (mixed) |
| Spin | (9/10) |
| Village Voice | (positive) |
| Adrian Denning | |
Aside from the overall praise of the album's expanded instrumentation, and warm reception to the acoustics that recording the album in a church afforded, reaction to the album was polarized particularly with regard to the lyrics. Boys for Pele is more lyrically dense than Amos' two previous albums, taking poetic obscurity to new heights. Some critics praised its ultra-personal lyrics while others panned its overt and excessive self-indulgence and "ozone-layer lyrics" described as unfathomable, impenetrable, and personally opaque. One scathing review suggested skipping the album, instead reading something "a little bit more intelligible--like maybe Gravity's Rainbow written in Greek", while Rolling Stone went as far to bluntly say that most of the album's lyrics are "ultimately mystifying and, well, bad".
One reviewer observed that Amos' unfettered creativity from serving as her own producer cost the album its accessibility. For Amos, it's not about making radio-friendly music with universal lyrics, she explained, "a song is only part lyrics and, for me anyway, more than 50% music, easy. There's so much subtext in the music that's part of the story."
Read more about this topic: Boys For Pele
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