Strange Little Girls

Taking its title from the Stranglers' 1982 classic Tori Amos' sixth album and her first since 1999's To Venus And Back, marks a major departure for her in that it consists entirely of cover versions – written exclusively by men! With songs from sources as diverse as Eminem, Depeche Mode, Neil Young, The Velvet Underground and er, Slayer, Amos brings her usual idiosyncratic, uncompromising approach to the material.

Few artists would attempt to reach as wide as she does here and, strange as it might seem on paper, it works most of the time. Amos' reedy vocals and the claustrophobic production lends a menacing air to previously innocuous songs such as 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love' and Lloyd Cole's 'Rattlesnakes'.

Dissonant, white-noise guitars and a speeded-up vocal, renders Neil Young's country ballad, 'Heart of Gold' almost unrecognisable from the original. She successfully adopts her occasional rock chic persona on Lou Reed's 'New Age' (originally on the VU's Loaded album) while the title track 'Strange Little Girl' sounds uncannily like something Madonna might have recorded recently.

The eerie, whispered version of Eminem's '97 Bonnie & Clyde' is less successful and a tad too obvious. Beatles fans might baulk at the inclusion of a sampled news report of John Lennon's shooting at the beginning of 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun', which shock value apart, has little obvious appeal.

The highlight here by a long-shot is her version of Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy The Silence', the stripped-down, keyboards and strings arrangement bringing out hitherto unheard of melodic qualities in the song. Of the other tracks included Amos more or less does a straightforward take on the Boomtown Rats', 'I Don't Like Mondays', Joe Jackson's 'Real Men' and Tom Waits' 'Time'.

One from the soul.