Fiona Apple
While Ashlee Simpson stalks the stages of the world with her hoedown dancing and her woefully out of tune singing, Fiona Apple, one of the most talented female musicians of the last decade and a half, is collecting dust.
Though Apple was uniformly praised by critics and fans alike at the time of her 1997 debut Tidal, she would soon make headlines more for her rumored eating disorders and outrageous public behavior than for her music. Just 19 at the advent of her career, Apple was nevertheless cut little slack for her admirable yet unfocused outspokenness (see: her “This world is bullshit!” speech from the 1997 MTV awards). Primed for a nervous breakdown, Apple instead hooked up with producer Jon Brion and cut 1999’s When the Pawn…, a gorgeously assured collection of songs that marked Apple’s considerable growth as a songwriter. Although rightly praised by critics, the album was considered a commercial failure. Aside from an onstage meltdown in New York City, Apple remained relatively controversy-free in the months following When the Pawn’s… release and she would be made to pay for it. Showing little interest in a mature Fiona Apple, MTV gave the album little support and radio would soon follow suit.
Unexpectedly, it would be several years before Apple was heard from again. An announcement was made in 2003 that she would soon reunite with Brion to begin work on her 3rd full-length album. Having long since moved on to the likes of (S)Norah Jones, the mainstream listening audience would barely take notice of this announcement. Soon, however, the plot would thicken. The album was completed and slated for release, only to be pushed back several times before disappearing from Sony’s release schedule altogether. By the fall of 2004, the cat was out of the bag: Sony had deemed the results of the Apple/Brion sessions to be “unreleasable.” Convinced the album lacked any commercial potential, the label shelved it indefinitely. Apple quickly found herself in the company of Aimee Mann, Juliana Hatfield, and Wilco—artists with completed albums held captive by their labels. Unlike the aforementioned artists, however, both of Apple’s previous albums had gone platinum.
This being the age of file sharing, where a good majority of major albums are leaked to the internet well before their scheduled release dates, it seemed highly unlikely that Apple’s album would languish on the shelf for long. Two tracks from the album, titled Extraordinary Machine, began to circulate on the internet. A website, freefiona.com, was established by fans to petition Sony to release the album. In March of 2005, a DJ at 107.7 in Seattle obtained a copy of Machine and began playing the album in its entirety on his show. Within days the completed album was showing up on Soulseek, Limewire, and other file sharing services. Fans and foes of Ms. Apple would finally have a chance to see what was so “unreleasable” about this much maligned album.
Given the current state of the music industry, it isn’t exactly shocking to learn that Extraordinary Machine is a good album. The only thing shocking about the album is how good it actually is. Not only is Machine Ms. Apple’s finest hour thus far, it’s also likely to go down as THE album of this year or whichever year its tin-eared captors decide to give it a proper release.
The opening track “Not in Love” sounds like good old sullen Fiona Apple…for about ten seconds. That’s when those Bernard Hermann-esque strings come in, setting the stage for this brilliantly off-kilter album. Apple pounds the ivories and spews invective at a former lover. While the subject matter remains the same, Apple’s growth as a lyricist is evident from the get-go. ‘What is this posture I’m forced to observe/That’s what he said while I’m sitting up straight,’ she demands as cascading violins heighten the tension. “Red Red Red” rides a jerky, start/stop beat as Apple sings of her increasingly pessimistic worldview. The rollicking “Better Version of Me” is nicely punctuated by blasts of flute, while the laid back groove of “Get Him Back” benefits from some appropriately out of place percussion. Once teeming with misplaced anger, Apple now seems to have a handle on her emotions, as evidenced by back-to-back torch songs “Oh Well,” and “Oh, Sailor.” She assures us that she ‘has too been playing with fifty-two cards,’ on the latter as the venom dries up and gives way to sorrowful yearning and regret.
It’s a pair of songs that arise late in the album that elevate Machine to “exceptional album” status. The wickedly clever title track finds Apple stepping out from behind the piano into the world of cabaret. Over delicately plucked strings, Apple giddily vamps it up, contorting her voice while singing the album’s signature lyric, ‘Be kind to me or treat me mean/I’ll make the most it I’m an extraordinary machine.’ While the title track is the most adventurous composition of Apple’s career, the uncharacteristically ebullient “Waltz” may very well be her finest moment to date. Apple sings ‘If you don’t have a date/Celebrate/Go out and sit on the lawn and do nothing,’ and manages not to sound the least bit clichéd. It’s a stunningly beautiful song that gives the listener an idea of what Sgt. Pepper might have sounded like had Edith Piaf lived to sing on it.
Sonically, the album is strikingly similar to When the Pawn... Even the most untrained ear could likely spot John Brion’s handiwork. Known primarily for his score composition for director Paul Thomas Anderson, Brion’s final product is almost always populated by carnival-esque atmospherics—cymbals that sizzle, bells that ring out of nowhere, flutes, strings, etc. While his production might overwhelm another artist’s music (his attempt to produce Elliott Smith’s final album was reportedly disastrous), it is absolutely essential to Apple’s album. Brion is George Martin to her Beatles: a producer, partner, and co-conspirator.
As of this writing, Extraordinary Machine has been illegally downloadable for several months. Many assumed that Sony would scurry to put the album out in light of the recent leakage; however, nothing has been announced to date. The label’s president was quoted in the April issue of Spin magazine as saying that the album was still a work in progress. Rumor has it the label is waiting for Apple to come up with something “single-worthy” for the album. Whether or not Machine contains anything radio-friendly (I would argue that it does) is almost beside the point. The discerning music listener knows that there are thousands of would-be “hit singles” out there that never had a chance, due to the label’s failure to promote the song and the indifference of radio station programmers. Hit singles are more often carefully chosen by corporations than by fans. While Sony Music is home to hit-shitting artists like John Mayer and Jessica Simpson, its roster also features Tori Amos. Amos is a veteran performer with a well established fan base; however, she hasn’t been on the radio in over a decade, making the label’s failure to release Apple’s album all the more puzzling.
While I don’t completely advocate illegal downloading, I will encourage any serious fan of music to go out and burn themselves a copy of Extraordinary Machine, and then burn copies for all of their friends. In its current form, this album is an unqualified masterpiece that demands to be heard.
- Dan Tebo 05/01/05
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