I have to admit... I think being crazier than a shithouse rat has finally started to have a positive effect on Fiona Apple, or at least in my perception of her as an artist. The more mature she has gotten (and I literally mean "mature," as in she has meltdowns in public on a much more sporadic basis now), the better her music has become.
I haven't been a huge fan of hers, but over the past couple of years I've started to cut her some slack. Anyone who made it through a multi-year relationship with an insane coke fiend like Paul Thomas Anderson is bound to act out. But the nuttier she gets, the better her music is for it.
Of course, the exact moment I find her artistically appealing is on the exact album (the Jon Brion-produced EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE) that her record label refuses to release. It seems Ms. Apple has her own Wilco/YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT debacle going on, with a frightened record label unwilling to take a risk on an artist who has sold hundreds of thousands of records for them. Even in this day of downloadable media, Napster and iTunes, they won't take the risk. Why not at least make it available to fans at an online store? Test the waters and see if her fan base can handle it. You wouldn't even have to print up CD art or discs... just make the files available and the fans would have given you their dollar vote.
But come on... we know you can't let a record label make a smart decision. So fuck 'em. Here's Fiona Apple's new record. Get it while you can, because it probably won't be up for long:
1. "Not About Love" (You can almost see the faces of the label geeks as they go pale at this opening track.)
2. "Red, Red, Red" (Jon Brion is a great, great, great producer. Yeah, you heard wolf howls in there.)
3. "Get Him Back" (Sublime moment at 2:26.)
4. "Better Version of Me" (Coolest song on the record. Even if you don't like the girl, cheggit.)
5. "Oh Well"
6. "Oh, Sailor"
7. "Used to Love Him" (So... man troubles?)
8. "Window" (Nice drums and a cool vocal.)
9. "Waltz"
10. "Extraordinary Machine" (Second coolest song on this album.)
11. "Please Please Please"
For more on Apple:
Free Fiona
FionaApple.org
One of them "I'm your fan, and I'm more crazy than you" sites
2 comments:
I agree with you about Fiona Apple never being my favourite artist and then this amazing pile of addictive greatness shows up. I'm replaying "Not about Love" too much.
I've been doing the same with "Red, Red, Red."
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