Covers albums are usually a chance for a singer to let their hair down a little, a creative break while they wait for new ideas to come along. Trust Tori Amos to do it differently. The concept behind Strange Little Girls is that all the songs were written by men about women - and now, reinterpreted by a woman. So we get the Boomtown Rats' 'I Don't Like Mondays', Slayer's 'Raining Blood', Eminem's '97 Bonnie and Clyde' and a host of other well-known songs with murder, obsession and betrayal as their subject matter. Amos succeeds brilliantly in giving this familiar material some interesting new twists and the result is a fascinating album that confirms her as one of the most original thinkers in modern pop.
