This two-CD affair is part live album, part new material which singer/songwriter Tori Amos' muse delivered to her ahead of schedule. As ever with Amos, she doesn't flinch from harrowing subject matter--"Juarez" depicts a bloodied Mexican desert where a mass rape and murder took place, with the squall of ghostly voices recreated by overdub and Amos bleakly intoning the mantra "And no angels came...". Elsewhere, however, Amos trains her idiosyncratic gaze on the darker areas of human intimacy with a new confidence in the resources of the studio and a mature playfulness. "Riot Poof" trounces homophobia with a bouncy, synth-driven glee, "Lust" has two Amos vocal tracks superimposed to represent both the physical and spiritual dimensions of horniness, while "Bliss" exquisitely explores the strains of a father-daughter relationship. Among her best work. --David Stubbs