Thanks to our endless fixation with celebrity failings, is known today as much for incidents on the stage as anything else. But let’s not forget the reason we know her name in the first place. As she’s proven time and again, few can cut an emotion in a song as lean as Apple. Her newest album, the raw “The Idler Wheel…” puts a finer point on it—hearing it is as thrilling as it was to hear her debut for the first time.
Before she plays Denver’s , let’s throw a dart at a picture of an ex-flame and countdown the 10 best Fiona Apple songs so far.
10) Extraordinary Machine
By its lead-off title track, you’d be forgiven for thinking “Extraordinary Machine” is the soundtrack to a Fiona Apple musical. The whimsical track is sprinkled with pizzicato cello notes, marimbas and chimes. “I’ve been getting along long before you came into the play,” Apple sings, confirming suspicions. Like a playwright, she’ll turn you into a plot piece if you do her wrong: “Be kind to me or treat me mean / I’ll make the most of it / I’m an extraordinary machine.”
9) I Know
The gorgeous final track from Apple’s sophomore album, “When the Pawn…” is a fan favorite for good reason. The brushed cymbals and soulful piano are enough make your eyes pucker, but the subject matter, love’s silent sufferer, is no less cutting: “And when the crowd becomes your burden /and you’ve early closed your curtains / I’ll wait by the backstage door.”
8) Valentine
There’s a few great musical moments in “Valentine”: the lub-dub of the coronary bass drum; the faint background static that accompanies Apple’s piano and the resplendent salsa rhythm it clicks into. The song is indicative of the album as a whole: gnarled and beholden to no structure or genre ideas. If the bass wanders off for a few bars, so be it. One thing that is predictable? Apple’s knack for evocative imagery: “I’m a tulip in a cup / I stand no chance of growing up.”
7) Limp
Before Taylor Swift was anything but a bad superhero name, Fiona Apple was the singer you didn’t want writing a song about you. She turns heartbreak and anger into music with the skill of an entomologist’s son teasing off a fly’s wings. Don’t know who “Limp” is about, but you sure wouldn’t want to be him: “It won’t be long until you’ll be lying limp in your own hands.”
6) Hot Knife
Raw and animalistic, “” has a life and energy that few songs can claim. It’s unlike anything else Apple has done, driven by tribal drums and some brain-wrinkling schizo choruses provided by her and her sister, Maude Maggart. The sentiment is straightforward (“If I’m butter then he’s a hot knife”), but run through Apple’s smithery: “He excites me / must be like the genesis rhythm”
5) Sullen Girl
“They don’t know I used to sail the deep and tranquil sea.”
Gutting in its confidence, “Sullen Girl” has Apple plumbing the depths of her psyche in the aftermath of a sexual assault. A harrowing and haunting listen.
4) Sleep To Dream
Fiona’s career lead-off is one of the catchiest in her whole discography. The groovy pop-jazz rhythm is instantly likable. If you squint, it could all pass for a peeved Nora Jones. Like a tidal wave, Apple’s voice rolls to powerful crescendos and beats back throughout the song, especially in the chorus: “I got my feet on the ground and I don’t go to sleep to dream.”
3) Paper Bag
There’s a big, honking tome of metaphor narrating the heavy low-end of “Paper Bag” (she’s better at it obviously). Hope as a falling paper bag (or is it a bird?), the jaded lover as a literal mess in need of straightening and love as food. There’s a lot of graceful turns of phrase but the deceptively simple statements are the ones to watch for: “Hunger hurts.”
2) Werewolf
“I could liken you to a werewolf the way you left me for dead / but I admit that I provided a full moon.”
“Werewolf” explores an interesting relationship dynamic: a “super guy” of a love interest who sours when he gets involved with the narrator. The song is a level-headed appraisal of this twisted relationship dynamic, suggesting the best way for each to support each other is to leave each other alone. After all: “Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key.” But a volley of children screaming in ambiguous joy or terror muddles the storybook ending, suggesting it can’t all be so simple.
1) Shadowboxer
“Shadowboxer” has Apple channeling Diana Krall, belting out smooth, sultry verses over a snapping jazz beat. The second pre-chorus flares up like a tinderbox to provide some sure-fire frisson: “I’ll be sure to stay wary of you love / to save the pain of once my flame and twice my burn.” Hell hath no fury like the pissed off torch singer.
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Dylan Owens is Reverb’s indie and bluegrass blogger. You can read more from him in Relix magazine and the comment sections of WORLDSTARHIPHOP.
