Little Earthquakes is the debut solo album by the American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, featuring the singles "Silent All These Years", "China", "Winter" and "Crucify".
Following the dissolution of her synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, Amos composed 12 songs, recorded them at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with Davitt Sigerson producing, and in June 1990 submitted them for copyright.
A month later, it was released in the United States to breakthrough critical success and also announced itself as a chart mainstay, despite peaking outside the Top 50 on the Billboard 200.
Los Angeles Times critic Jean Rosenbluth praised it as a considerable improvement over Amos's previous work in Y Kant Tori Read, calling the album "a quixotic, compelling record that mixes the smart sensuality of Kate Bush with the provocative impenetrability of Mary Margaret O'Hara.
"[6] Josef Woodward of Rolling Stone wrote that "Amos shares common ground with artfolk songstresses like Kate Bush and Jane Siberry" and described her "quivery vibrato-laden holler – akin to Siouxsie Sioux's".
Jon Wilde of Melody Maker stated that Amos "possesses a rare ability to explore a multiplicity of emotions and a broad range of perspectives within the same song", describing the album's songs as "cerebral soul music for the kind of people who mean to read TE Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom on their holidays but end up spending all their time exchanging bodily fluids with strangers.
"[4] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani deemed it Amos's most focused and accessible recording, which "almost immediately sparked cult interest in the singer, and has, over time, undoubtedly become a soundtrack (at least in part) to the lives of many anguished teens and adults.
"[21] Reviewing the album's 2015 remastered edition for Rolling Stone, Jessica Machado wrote that "the pop charts had never heard a female voice quite like the one on Little Earthquakes, from the sharp mix of desire and frustration in 'Precious Things' ... to the raw pain in ... 'Me and a Gun'",[22] while in Record Collector, Nicola Rayner noted how Amos's piano-based music stood out amid the rise of the guitar-oriented grunge and Britpop scenes in the early 1990s.
[11] Mojo's John Bungey said that the "remarkable, idiosyncratic" album showcased "a singular creative force from the outset";[7] according to Alex Ramon of PopMatters, it established the "cryptic exhortations, poetic imagery, surrealist wit and brutal directness" that would define Amos's subsequent work.
[23] Barry Walters remarked on the lasting influence of Little Earthquakes and its 1994 follow-up Under the Pink in his review for Pitchfork, citing various acts who "all wear their sensitivities as strengths as she did.
"[9] "With its lack of standard rock and pop clichés of the day and reliance on acoustic piano and an excellent (if unconventional) voice," wrote J. C. Maçek III of Spectrum Culture, "Little Earthquakes sounds as unique today as it did in 1992.
"[25] Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes, an official graphic novel celebrating the album's 30th anniversary, was published by Z2 Comics in 2022 – contributors included Amos, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Marc Andreyko, Annie Zaleski, Derek McCulloch, Leah Moore, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Neil Kleid, Lar DeSouza, Colleen Doran, and David W.