Midwinter Graces is the eleventh solo studio album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on November 10, 2009 (November 16, 2009, in the UK), through Universal Republic Records. It is the first seasonal album by Amos and is also notable for marking her return to a more classical, stripped-down, baroque sound with various synths, string instruments, the harpsichord, and Amos's own signature Bösendorfer piano at center stage, once more. The album, like previous releases from Amos, is available in a single-form CD or a deluxe edition, which includes three bonus tracks, a twenty-page photo book, and a DVD containing an interview with Amos. The standard edition was not released in the US or Canada. Midwinter Graces became Amos's lowest-charting album on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 66.
An original song by Amos, "A Silent Night with You", was released as the promotional single from the album.
Development
Midwinter Graces began as a suggestion by Doug Morris, chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Music Group, who, according to Amos, encouraged her to tackle and complete the project at a moment's notice, in March 2009. After a summer of writing original material and rearranging established hymns and carols for the album, Amos, while still on the road for her 2009 world tour, began recording. Portions of the album were recorded in her husband's recording studio, Martian Studios, in Cornwall, England, while other sessions were held in Studio City and Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Toronto. During interviews for the album, Amos spoke at length about making this album for both her father, a Methodist Priest, and for Morris, a liberal man of the Jewish faith.
In early November 2009, Amos gave an interview for Pride Source Magazine, in which she disclosed the primary reasoning behind the album.
"[My father] wanted me to do this," said Amos. "I think the fact that I didn’t write 'She’s a Hussy, Merry Christmas' will make everybody really happy. There’s no mention of Satan or dancing with Satan or anything like that. There’s nothing disrespectful on this record; it’s really beautiful."
"Doug looked at me," continued Amos, "it was March – and he said, 'I'm 70, and I want you to do this. You can do this. You’ve been doing this your whole life.' He inspired me. He’s been able to have these conversations with me since the mid ’80s. He pushed me to start writing Little Earthquakes, so he’s been in my life for so long. (Before July of last year), I hadn’t seen him for 14 years. And even though he’s 70, he’s as sharp as he ever was.
"He challenges me, and he couldn’t accept that I couldn’t achieve it. He said, 'You can do this. If you don’t have something to do, you’ll lose your mind.' So I thought about it, and one thing led to another."
In another interview, Amos explained, "[He] said to me in March when I was visiting him in New York, 'I’ve always wanted to know what you would do with a seasonal album. You’re a minister’s daughter so you grew up with this stuff, but you’re also a feminist.' A lot of this music was written when things were really puritanical and women didn’t have any rights, and so there isn’t a lot of embracing of the feminine except with the Virgin Mary, if that makes any sense. Because he and I were talking about music that goes back, a more pagan style of music where there seems to be a place where goddesses were honoured if you go back into antiquity. And he said, 'I’d really like to see you have a perspective on the carols and write some of your own.'"
"I left him and ended up in Florida and it was 100 degrees and Tash came in running in a bikini saying, 'Are you playing Christmas music, mummy?' And I said, 'Yeah, I think I am.' (Laughs)."
Composition
Following the personal struggles with sin, power, faith and "being a wife, mother and woman" Amos explored on Abnormally Attracted to Sin, she found comfort in immersing herself in the old carols and hymns she sang and played during her youth. When asked how she followed an album "about damnation" with an album embracing spirituality Amos replied, "“You think, let’s go to church.”
"I’ve been writing it since I was a little girl," exclaimed Amos during an interview with The Advocate in promotion for the album. "[A] little girl, in church."