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Tori Amos’ sixth and final album for longtime label Atlantic was one of her most conceptually striking – and a new expanded edition will offer some additional rare and unreleased material to go with it.
2001’s Strange Little Girls will be expanded by Rhino on February 20, featuring the album’s original 12 tracks – all covers of songs by men – plus an additional four (on the 2LP set’s final side or a bonus CD with the album), two of which are previously unreleased. As a unique treat, the vinyl packaging will feature one of 12 covers, each offering a portrait of Amos in one of the “personas” she created for each song and included in the original packaging.
Coming off the birth of her daughter, Amos – always one to probe the highs and lows of the feminine experience in song – hit on a novel idea: to take songs written and sung by men and mostly addressed to women and flip them on their axis through her voice and arrangements. The songs spanned from familiar affairs of the heart (10cc’s “I’m Not in Love,” Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”) to expressions of violent rage (the Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays,” Eminem’s “’97 Bonnie & Clyde”) and even meditations on gun violence (The Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” incorporating soundbites of speeches by then-President George W. Bush and his father, the former president George H.W. Bush. (The album reached the Top 10 despite its awkward release one week after the September 11 attacks.) Amos later admitted there was as much canniness as concept to Strange Little Girls: frustrated with Atlantic, she chose to give them no original material on the way out of her contract.
Following Rhino’s expansions of Amos’ first three solo albums (and even a surprise CD release of her first work under the name Y Kant Tori Read), the Strange Little Girls reissue comes with a further four tracks: covers of David Bowie (“After All”) and Alice Cooper (“Only Women Bleed”) that appeared on a quickly deleted U.K. CD single devoted to the album’s title track, and previously unheard takes on Elvis Costello’s “Hoover Factory” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up.” The original album (and the new vinyl covers) offer 12 “characters” of sorts created to sing each song, with celebrated makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin helping design her appearances. (Aucoin, who helped mainstream facial contouring in the makeup world, died the following spring after complications from painkillers following a surgery to remove a tumor.) The original albums also contained portions of short stories for each character penned by British author Neil Gaiman, though it’s been reported that this text will likely be omitted following a wave of sexual assault accusations reported against him in 2024. (Amos, a national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) since its inception, were longtime admirers and collaborators, with Gaiman picked as godfather to Amos’ daughter. She discussed the allegations that year with The Guardian, calling herself “shocked…it’s a heartbreaking grief.”
The 2CD and 2LP editions of Strange Little Girls will be available February 27, with selectable covers (and even a bundle with an exclusive poster) available on her official store as well as Rhino’s. (The “Rattlesnakes” cover will be standard for the CD.)
Strange Little Girls (Expanded Edition) (Atlantic/Rhino, 2026)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD 1/LP 1 + LP 2, Side C: Original album (released as Atlantic 7567-83486-2, 2001)
New Age
’97 Bonnie & Clyde
Strange Little Girl
Enjoy the Silence
I’m Not in Love
Rattlesnakes
Time
Heart of Gold
I Don’t Like Mondays
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Raining Blood
Real Men
CD 2/LP 2, Side D: Bonus material (* previously unreleased)
Growin’ Up *
Hoover Factory *
After All (released on “Strange Little Girl” U.K. CD single – Atlantic AT0111CD, 2001)
Only Women Bleed (released on “Strange Little Girl” U.K. CD single – Atlantic AT0111CD, 2001)
Disc 1, Track 1 recorded by The Velvet Underground on Loaded – Cotillion SD 3094, 1970
Disc 1, Track 2 recorded by Eminem on The Slim Shady LP – Aftermath/Interscope/Web Entertainment INTD-90287, 1999
Disc 1, Track 3 recorded by The Stranglers on The Collection 1977-1982 – Liberty LBG 30353 (U.K.), 1982
Disc 1, Track 4 recorded by Depeche Mode on Violator – Mute STUMM 64 (U.K.), 1990
Disc 1, Track 5 recorded by 10cc on The Original Soundtrack – Mercury 9102 500 (U.K.), 1975
Disc 1, Track 6 recorded by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions for Rattlesnakes – Polydor LCLP 1 (U.K.), 1984
Disc 1, Track 7 recorded by Tom Waits for Rain Dogs – Island 90299, 1985
Disc 1, Track 8 recorded by Neil Young for Harvest – Reprise MS 2032, 1972
Disc 1, Track 9 recorded by The Boomtown Rats for The Fine Art of Surfacing – Ensign ENROX 11 (U.K.), 1979
Disc 1, Track 10 recorded by The Beatles for The Beatles – Apple PMC/PCS 7067/8 (U.K.), 1968
Disc 1, Track 11 recorded by Slayer for Reign in Blood – Def Jam GHS 24131, 1986
Disc 1, Track 12 recorded by Joe Jackson for Night and Day – A&M Records AMLH 64906 (U.K.), 1982
Disc 2, Track 1 recorded by Bruce Springsteen for Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. – Columbia KC 31903, 1973
Disc 2, Track 2 recorded by Elvis Costello & The Attractions for “Clubland” single – F-Beat XX12 (U.K.), 1981
Disc 2, Track 3 recorded by David Bowie for The Man Who Sold the World – Mercury 6338 041 (U.K.), 1971
Disc 2, Track 4 recorded by Alice Cooper for Welcome to My Nightmare – Atlantic SD 18130, 1975