When we interviewed Tori, back in 2009, she was trying to find out how to put the magic back into albums; how to make them something to treasure again. The answer she seems to have come to, with Night of Hunters (her 12^th studio album) is to forget any idea of commerciality and accessibility and produce a “21^st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years”, in duet with her daughter and niece, and which takes up 73 of the 74 available minutes on the CD. And this is in no way a bad thing.

To say that Night of Hunters isn’t for the casual listener shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning this is a difficult album. It’s a sumptuous sounding work, with the piano to the fore and John Philip Shenale’s orchestral arrangements in sympathy with the lyrical narrative and the characters in the songs.

While this is a new approach for Tori (abandoning her usual musicians in favour of clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer and string quartet Apollon Musagète), vocally she sounds completely at home with what is essentially an intellectual take on the Broadway musical. The guest voices, particularly her daughter’s - whilst sounding relatively untutored next to Ms Amos’s beguiling, bewitching tones - are charming and, in addition to helping define the individual protagonists in these songs, keep the record sonically interesting throughout its near-hour and a quarter duration.

We’re not going to even pretend we understand the story yet. Set in County Cork, there’s a shapeshifter, some time travelling, a war, peyote-induced hallucinations, a goddess… you wouldn’t expect any less now would you?

Night of Hunter is an album that requires repeated playings and total concentration. Which, we imagine, was the point. But only time will tell if it’s a record we come to treasure.