A long car ride and a national disaster can do wonders for a songwriter. At least that’s the case for Tori Amos, who has parted ways with her former Atlantic label and plopped her best album to date into the laps of Epic Records.

“Scarlet’s Walk,” which was recorded during a cross country road trip shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, marks a significant switch back to the piano-pounding Amos that was feared lost for good after the release of her previous stinky covers album “Strange Little Girls.”

-Echoing the choruses of recovering Christians and growled melodies from her previous works, “Scarlet” is a treasure for those Tori fans who have been clutching worn out copies of “Little Earthquakes” hoping the singer would return to her roots.

Lamenting dusty Indian trails and giving rides to reformed porn stars, Amos opens the album with “Amber Waves,” a song about a ballerina turned lap dancer.

Exercising her divine right to make any and every subject sound beautiful, the singer breathes poetry into every verse when she sings the lines: “There’s not a lot of me left anymore/ just leave it alone/ But if you’re by/ and you have the time/ tell the Northern Lights to keep shining/ Lately it seems like they’re drowning.”

Punching out one amazing track after another, “Scarlet” is the type of album that should be listened to in its entirety to achieve its full effect. If a single song had to be chosen and played on repeat over and over, it would be track number 12, “I Can’t See New York.”

Sung from the view of a woman in a plane that is crashing over the New York City skyline, the song builds to a crescendo of emotion that doesn’t let go until the last note dies down. Amos sings, “13,000 and holding/ swallowed in the purring of her engines/ tracking the beacon here/ is there a signal there/ on the other side?”

“Scarlet’s Walk” is a must have for any music fan, and for you Amos fanatics, make sure to buy the limited edition version … it’s got cool goodies inside.