In Tori Amos’ song “Winter,” just thinking about how she keeps hammering that E♭ one octave above the tonic. That shouldn’t work but it does. It would never occur to me to do something like that. That’s why she’s a great songwriter and I’m not.

It’s like an alarm, a distress signal, a warning. It’s another perfect moment in a perfect song.

Speaking of perfect, I have no idea how this exists as it was recorded in 1991, but I found a 1080p version of “Winter,” a performance that I’d already found, though only the lower-resolution version. It’s possible it was upscaled but it doesn’t appear that way to me. This means that it was shot on film, which doesn’t seem likely as it doesn’t look like film, though. I can’t explain it but here it is:

The reason I doubt it was upscaled is that if it were you would not for instance be able to see details like how her lipstick gets on her mic and then that transfers to her nose and chin (very cute, by the way).

Just what a fucking brilliant performance and song. I am in awe once again.