"I know I'm an acquired taste - I'm anchovies," Tori Amos once mused in an interview. "And not everybody wants those hairy little things. If I was potato chips, I could go a lot more places, but I'm not."

For those who have not experience the strange, beautiful, and sometimes quite crazy anchovy-ness that is Amos, I sincerely and enthusiastically suggest you do. Emerging on the scene in the early nineties with a voice that sounded like it came from another planet and a spirit that Steven Daly of Rolling Stone magazine called an "ethereal survivor," Amos has become an icon and legend among female artists of the past thirty years. Her sound is thrilling, silly, poignant, personal, and always intensely emotional. From her earliest songs like "God" to her most recent endeavors on the "American Doll Posse" album, Amos always picks an emotion - or character - and commits to it wholly for the duration of the undertaking. Her charisma is infectious, her honesty addictive, and below I have listed out the top ten Tori songs that everyone should be exposed to at least once in their life. Consider this your Tori primer, the best of the best, the initiation rites. Remember: there is plenty more where this came from...

10) Tear In Your Hand: One of the more pop-y, mainstream sounding songs in my opinion, but still very an awesome example of the way she constructs many of her melodies and vocal arrangements. One thing that Amos has in abundance is beautiful and true lyrics, and this song (a breakup number) showcases that ability through phrases like "I think there are pieces of me you've never seen, maybe she is just pieces of me you've never seen."

9) Pretty Good Year: This was one the first songs of hers I was exposed too and through it was introduced to her light, fluttering, and incredibly skilled piano maneuvers. Soft, light, and sweet at first, Pretty Good Year morphs into a powerful, loud, and explosive anthem at the bridge before returning to a calm, measured, airy sound for the finish.

8) China: This song uses one of the sweetest metaphors using the space between China and New York to describe the loneliness between two people. "China, all the way to New York, I can feel the distance...getting close, you're right next to me but I need an airplane..." Who hasn't felt that way about someone before? "Sometimes I think you want me to touch you, but how can I when you build the great wall around you?" Poetry against piano: that is what her music is about.

7) Yes, Anastasia: This piece is epic. Off her "Under the Pink" album, this is the last thing you would expect to finish the album off: a ten minute long jaunt through dark melodies, bright, bouncing bridges, and a dense, mysterious thread about the murder of Anastasia running through the entire thing. It is a crazy, musical masterpiece that in many ways helps explain why she sees herself as anchovies in a world of potato chips. I would consider it essential to an Amos introduction, but be prepared...it will blow you away.

6) Baker Baker: So sweet, so soft, and so heart-wrenchingly honest about what it feels like to break up. Amos pulls her voice back from dramatic belting to soft cooing for this lullaby for loneliness. Best to let the song speak for itself: "well I ran from him, in all kinds of ways. Guess it was his turn this time....time, thought I'd made friends with time, thought we'd be flying...maybe not this time." Listen to this song to hear your pain and weakness articulated.

5) Spark: "She's addicted to nicotine patches, she's afraid of a light in the dark..." Eerie, haunting, and lyrically strange, this song is the "Meet Virginia" of Amos's body of work. Describing a woman who is contradictory but interesting, she keeps the sounds steady and almost ironic until the bridge, when all instruments and her piano open up in passionate disarray. Ending on a wild, vivacious, and deliciously discordant flare, "Spark" is the one that started it all for me.

4) God is one of her most recognizable songs: a rebellious, irreverent look at religion and our relationship with the divine. The song starts with the line "God sometimes you don't come through," and from there proceeds to vocalize that feeling everyone has had at least once that the deity has some how slacked off and forgot them and their needs. The tune is bouncy, the lyrics borderline sinful, and the tone annoyed.

3) Little Earthquakes: The title track from one of her most iconic albums, this song has a strong, ethereal quality combined with a steady back beat. Amos's voice really shines here, showcasing everything from the light, wild capabilities to the dark, serious tones. This quality of the song is in some ways reminiscent of a dirge, as it is slower and less frenetic than most of her other music, but the change in pace is refreshing.

2) Crucify: This is another one of Tori's famously honest, insightful, and poetic looks at our cultural relationship with religion and God. Her lyrics speak to a woman who is tired of feeling badly for how her actions contradict what her religion expects of her. One of the great lines from this song is "I've been raising up my hands, drive another nail in, got enough guilt to start my own religion." Her irreverence is smart, questioning, and almost academic. She is able to handle the ironies in cultural policy with grace and humor.

1) Hey Jupiter: Every fan of Ms. Amos will have their own opinion as to what is the most essential piece of her music, but for me it has been, and will always be, "Hey Jupiter." With nothing but her piano, she crafts a universally true story of the introspective and quiet moments experienced after a relationship ends. Sorrowful, regretful, and pining, her voice sores and dips in the most heart breaking way. Everyone will identify with this song in some way, and everyone should have it in their musical arsenal for the moments in life when the only thing you can do is listen to music and think "Thank God someone understands."

If you've ever been just a little curious about Tori Amos, dare to try this music. If you feel like going full throttle and buying full CDs, I would say start with "Boys for Pele," "Under the Pink," or "Little Earthquakes"...with these three you can't go wrong.

Above all: enjoy!

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