Tori Amos

While Tori Amos made her name constructing hauntingly beautiful piano melodies accompanied by her angelic voice, and though she’s an accomplished songwriter with a knack for almost violently emotional material, arguably some of her best work has been performing songs written by others. From covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” to The Cure’s “Love Song,” Amos seems to find a way to take songs already loaded with passion and reinterpret them to suit her own distressed soul. Though the songs on her latest album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, carry a lighter tone than usual, Amos still manages to live vicariously through others’ struggles with songs like “Maybe California,” about a mother contemplating suicide and what it would mean for her family.