fiona apple - the idler wheel is wiser than the driver of the screw and whipping cords will serve you more than ropes will ever do (2012)

FIONA APPLE

ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ON JUNE 18TH

‘THE IDLER WHEEL IS WISER

THAN THE DRIVER OF THE SCREW

AND WHIPPING CORDS WILL SERVE YOU MORE

THAN ROPES WILL EVER DO’

GRAMMY® winning artist Fiona Apple is set to release her first album in seven years on June 18th. Like Apple’s 1999 record, When the Pawn…, the title of the new record is a poem:

‘THE IDLER WHEEL IS WISER

THAN THE DRIVER OF THE SCREW

AND WHIPPING CORDS WILL SERVE YOU MORE

THAN ROPES WILL EVER DO’

“Every Single Night,” the collection’s first single, will be released on June 10th. The cover for THE IDLER WHEEL… features an illustration by Apple.

Tracklisting

1. Every Single Night
2. Daredevil
3. Valentine
4. Jonathan
5. Left Alone
6. Werewolf
7. Periphery
8. Regret
9. Anything We Want
10. Hot Knife

thought this deserved a new thread. i haven't heard any of the new stuff that she's presumably played live yet, but i'm still excited.

re: the title: lol never change fiona

Re track #4-- is she still dating Jonathan Ames?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgaCacrg0ZA

her time is now...

this is actually great!

i'm heartily amused by the critical attention (rightly) being lavished on her atm! this was not the case in the 90s, iirc everyone just called her an alanis morissette clone o_0

though it doesn't exactly seem like ilm is falling over itself to get excited about her smh

Well, like I just said on Twitter, this is because at least a few of us were never excited about her to start with.

ehhhh ilm has never been into young female singer-songwriters though, has it

That last Taylor Swift album thread was huge!

Is ilm into ANYTHING as a whole? Nah. Plenty of people like female singer-songwriters though.

I take Fiona Apple on a case by case basis, and this song doesn't do anything for me. Still, I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.

no, i mean the tori/fiona/suzanne vega type of singer-songwriter

xp

accusing people of not liking musicians because of their age/gender out of nowhere just raises the question of whether you like them because of their age/gender

When I like her songs, I tend to like them a lot, otherwise I think she can be too technical a singer w/o enough emotion to back it up or conversely too overwrought. This doesn't do much for me but it does remind me that I miss her voice.

^ this

i like the hits a lot. you know, the famous fiona songs. they played the criminal song on the radio this morning when i was taking the kids to school and i always like hearing it. some of the non-hits bog down for me with that samey piano formula and can be a bit of a drag. i like this song a lot because its so sparse. i like her voice.

What Scott said.

(to some extent. I DID love all of Extraordinary Machine.)

Dig this new song. The minimal instrumentation works really well.

"I just made a meal for us both choke on" is just classic Fiona delivery of lyrics that somehow reaches into some deep crevice inside you and then you unravel (sorry)

I just wish that in between her crazy indolent periods she'd just release cover albums because since 1996 I haven't found a voice I love this much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zPYHTEiPs

With this and her "Walkin' After Midnight" cover I wish she was my classic country jukebox

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/arts/music/fiona-apples-new-album-the-idler-wheel.html

man the photo with that article

"anything we want"

http://pigperson.tumblr.com/post/24231972248/fiona-apple-anything-we-want

Like the song, voice sounds weirdly raspy.

I think I need to get used to whatever it is she's doing with her voice in this song.

Im indifferent to most of her songs but First Taste is one of the sexiest songs of the 90s.

I don't see any relation between her and Alanis Morissette? Humourless female singer songwriters both of them but their voices and their music don't sound alike at all.

Fiona Apple is humorless?

There's a lot of dark humor in When The Pawn and Extraordinary Machine.

In other news, I'm pretty sure this album is going to kill me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fby632bPn0E&feature=youtu.be

eh whatever http://youtu.be/Fby632bPn0E

i'm heartily amused by the critical attention (rightly) being lavished on her atm! this was not the case in the 90s, iirc everyone just called her an alanis morissette clone o_0

Tidal finished 35th on Pazz & Jop, and "Criminal" was the #11 single, so it's not like critics were universally dismissing her.

Oh, and When the Pawn finished 7th!

yeah, the whole "finally, my peers are getting into fiona apple / i was always into fiona apple" thing that perpetua/lex have been throwing around rings false b/c i was a total unnuanced indie fuck when i bought when the pawn and i bought it based on the critical attention

but i was also like 14 so i dunno

yeah i remember tons of people being excited about when the pawn hits when it came out (i think i was a freshman in college?). seems like she's always been a step cooler than morrissette and her ilk.

full album stream yay!

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=154422085&m=154351745

:D

Yeah, this is marvelous.

who is drumming on this record

i would like to give it up for that drummer

in the past few years I've seen her live a bunch of times and she's just so fuckin talented, I'm not even a fan of her recorded material or anything it's just like her shit's so undeniable when you see her idk

BradNelson, it's Charley Drayton, who co-produced the album with her.

yesyesyesyesyes this album

the rounds on "hot knife" i just sat there looking at my speakers going OMGOMG silently to myself

the LYRICS

the ARRANGEMENTS

This is great. "Hot Knife" is crazy good, though hard to pick a favorite so far.

remember when we argued on the concept of regret?
you were an expert even then but not me, not yet
now all you gotta do's remind me that we met

Yeah I don't think anyone was expecting Hot Knife at all.

Judging by "Hot Knife" and this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvO31CyFlTI

Fiona and her sister should together more often.

This album is tremendous.

LOL

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/270904_10151792056115018_604816896_n.jpg

That's ...ironic?

haha

i think characterising apple's lyrics as "bottomless pit of despair" might be even worse though. do they not hear her humour?

oh look we're back to using adverbs like "bewitchingly" to describe woman piano music

this album isn't very bewitching, it's odd and sparse and more unvarnished than anything she's done before

I think I like it less now. But Hot Knife is still amazing and my favorite thing she's done in years.

I never expected those bouncy 1920s jazz vocal harmonies after some of the hyper-dissonant stuff that came earlier in the record. Also, with different production, it could be a Destiny's Child song.

huh

maybe I should have paid more attention to the rest of Fiona Apple's career

ok wow "hot knife"

"he makes my heart a cinemascope"!!

That's a great line!

He makes my heart a cinemascope screen showing a dancing bird of paradise

...or something.

ehhhh ilm has never been into young female singer-songwriters though, has it

― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Monday, April 23, 2012 10:22 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

where would women in music be without their sister lex taking care of them?

xp "he excites me! must be like the genesis of rhythm" is an amazing line as well

<3

the arrangements on this are kind of like if she took her ornate rococo brion-era arrangements and took 3/4 of the stuff out but left the essential heartbeat in

also how ridiculous that an album with "hot knife" as its most immediately talked-about song is getting these "OH SHE'S SO MISERABLE" reviews

I think for 'Bottomless pit of despair' read 'The most self obsessed person ever to make music...I mean nobody's wretched love life is that interesting....

musician formerly in bad relationship uses experience as creative fodder, film at 11

oh go90s flashbacks! the "all these wretched female singer-songwriters are so self-absorbed and they remind me of that crazy girl i dated once" line is pretty much the reason i rejected the music press from an early age

Anybody...

no. you're alone, all alone, sonnyboy.

great album. kind of aggressively weird, I haven't heard this many jazz piano chords on a pop album ever.

Really? I find her melodies dull and undistinguished for the first time. She's singing well though (e.g. the last two tracks). I've played it pretty much non-stop since last Thursday.

i've listened to this twice. not sure what to make of it yet

right now, i'm thinking it emphasizes rhythm too much, sometimes at the expense of melody.

really digging the warmth/brightness of anything we want, though

so far "Anything We Want," "Werewolf," and "Periphery" are the standouts

yeah, i'd agree with those three, and add every single night

i want to like hot knife, but those layered vocals kind of annoy me

Those layered vocals are my favorite thing about that song.

They aren't actually layered, though. Harmonies were recorded live with her sister.

just now listening to the NPR stream, this is gorgeous -- i liked When the Pawn just fine, didn't care for Machine, but my favorite's always been the debut and Idler Wheel steps back to the less cluttered sound of that album -- but with 1,000% the songwriting chops

yeah i've decided this is great. i really love the rawness of her voice in certain parts of daredevil and regret. the little chant at the end of periphery makes me happy

this "interview" is pretty out there

http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/hiding-out-with-fiona-apple-musical-hermit.html

We got very stoned. We talked about a man who wore upside-down glasses and whose brain, within a few days, adjusted to perceive them as right-side up. She showed me a sample of the secret language she’s been speaking — and sometimes singing — since she was a child, a cross between scatting and talking in tongues.

...

We drank and smoked more. Coming back from the bathroom, she had turned off the lights and turned on a little machine that projected a million green stars orbiting across the whole space of the ceiling. I lay on the floor, spinning, watching them spin. She sat at her desk, not moving much, mostly staring into the screen that bounced a pale glow across her face.

...

It was late. The music had stopped. I asked her, I don’t entirely know why, to ask me something. She asked me about one of the most intimate experiences of my life. I told her the truth.

I was now standing in the middle of the room; I felt very stupid. Despite my protests, she came over and put her arms around me. We stood there for a while, hugging. She said, and I could hear her tongue clicking in her mouth:

Dan. I’m so sorry.

love this album, love the production, love the sequencing -- the sad songs leading up to the burst of joy at the end. i like a lot of songs off her other albums, but i tend to pick and choose which ones to listen to in isolation. this feels like a full and complete package to me.

yes I do too. This weekend it snuck its claws into me.

Seconded re: the article mentioned above. Read it today. She's apparently fond of the weed and the whole article had a surreal feel to it, almost as if she and the writer were doing a performance art piece. It really made me want to hear this record thoug, so there's that.

Didn't like it for the first few listens, but now I can't stop playing it, especially "Hot Knife" (best on the album), "Werewolf," "Anything We Want," and "Valentine." Too much shrieking and hollering on "Regret," though.

it's quite a brave album how she just puts her vocals and poetry out there to be scrutinised -- not concealed behind many embellishments. a lot of her observations misfire, but some strike like a dagger. and both these elements are propped by really jagged piano chords that make everything she sings sound vulnerable and on edge. my favourite so far is "left alone" i think, which gives itself up 100% to the dark side and is suspended in one big, long swell of riled emotion. i'm sure she's alienated a lot of people with this album, but those people are probably not really willing to buy into what she's trying to put out there, so...

God, 'Anything We Want' is just magical, isn't it?

Never been a big fan of hers, but damn, what an album. Really loving the vocals on "Regret" and of course "Hot Knife," but it seems like there's something unique about all the songs that make this so solid. Not sure why it struck such a chord, but it did.

you made your major overtures when you were a sure and orotund mutt
and i was still a dewy petal rather than a moribund slut

^^all-time great opening couplet

this album is so so good. i find it oddly life-affirming

i wrote about this: http://www.factmag.com/2012/07/13/fiona-apple-the-idler-wheel/

Every Single Night is an earworm, heard it tonight and it clicked. For a minute I thought I was listening to an obscure Nancy Sinatra or Dusty Springfield joint.

Hot Knife is good too. This might be better than I originally thought.

The feet shuffling on "Periphery" have really grown on me.

well i heard "every single night" the other day and it is wonderful, def gonna listen to this EVENTUALLY even tho i am really bad about "getting to" albums i want to listen to

Worth a read.

'sultry analysand'

!

I adore the minimalism of the instrumentation and imo it suits her vocals better than anything I've heard before. As much as I love Jon Brion I just did not like Extraordinary Machine for this reason. The drums in some of the songs on Idler Wheel remind me quite a bit of Wildbirds and Peacedrums.

Werewolf is wonderful

For true

Revisiting this for the first time in a couple monthS, still hits hard

I can totally see why someone wouldn't like this, just like I could Tuneyards say, but I reckon they would be listening with prejudice. It's great.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/fiona-apple-the-idler-wheel-etc-round-42-toms-selection/

"Every single night" is such a smoking opener. I am awed that this woman begins her album with such an explicit "hey guys, I'm craaazeee" lyric, feels empowering to listen to

Ha ha braaaaiiaiaiain! brain! braaaiaiaiaiaiain! brain! Remember 1999 when a girl would sing about something not-cute and people would call her crazy? They were RIGHT suck on IT

"Werewolf" still capable of fucking me up everytime

That track floored me driving this morning.

respect this album more than I like listening to it. but I should revisit it again.

Just got it this week and am loving it.

Jesus christ, this fucking album. Speaking as an unabashed Fiona fan, I have no idea why I put off listening to it for so long. The sparse, minimalist rawness suits her so well that I kinda retroactively wish she'd never gotten mixed up with Jon Brion (even though those albums sound great). So many wonderful untethered moments here. Upon first listen, it sounded like a musical version of Isabelle Adjani's performance in Possession, which is about as high a compliment as I could pay an artist.

I'm so in love with this album

'Anything We Want' killllls me

Thanks for the "It's Only Make Believe" cover upthread. Whazzabout this cover of Macca's "Let Me Roll It"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM11NrlF8Dc

what a still

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG1VVFfOnYQ

I need more albums like this. Any recommendations?

Lisa Germano's Geek the Girl feels tonally (if not necessarily sonically) similar to me.

This album is pretty sui generis, no?

Wildbirds and Peacedrums

Cousins: Mary Margaret O'Hara's Miss America and Jesca Hoop's Silverscreen Demos.

listening to this album a lot recently, and it is still so singular and great.

every record fiona makes is the perfect record for that time in my life.

otm

Do love this record so very much.

fiona really elevates this andrew bird song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwtWExDmoI

On my shortlist for favorites of the year.

forgot how fucking good this album is.

one of the best wordsmiths to ever grace music

I can only take the deep dive back into this album after I've had some time away from it, but boy oh boy when I do...

'Left Alone' hitting like a hammer atm. Feeling you, Fee-Fee.

same here old lunch - last time i put this on was dec. in the xposts there, but i had not heard it since the tour and shit i forgot how good it is - the biggest shame is how fiona seems to have no intention of releasing a new record, but only stray singles like left hand kisses - based on articles it seems she is content to live in her trailer property and smoke hash all day ymmv

i'm sure she'll drop a new record, but the gaps are getting wider between each one. considering how much of her soul she puts into each one, i can't really blame her for not wanting to go through that experience more than once or twice a decade.

otm

seeing her live twice was amazing, she is such a great performer and the audience loves her infinitely.

I was actually just talking about how good this album is the other day

her poetry is super on point on this one (is on all of them obviously) and i admire how the record uses field recordings and avant-garde methods to create such raw, powerful songs

'Regret' is a raging blast furnace that reduces me to ash, every time.

otm

"based on articles it seems she is content to live in her trailer property and smoke hash all day ymmv"

who can blame her

not me

sounds ideal

i had a very bad week/month which had a lot to do with trying to reconnect with an ex and i think i should've been listening to this album the whole time

Good idea

even the "fuck you you complete asshole" songs on this one are so nuanced

Much of the album seems to be Fiona waving the listener away from the false door labelled "closure" and toward the real door labelled "get the fuck out"

otm

I spent August 2012 listening to this album in a loop

Much of the album seems to be Fiona waving the listener away from the false door labelled "closure" and toward the real door labelled "get the fuck out"

― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, November 30, 2018 4:16 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nothin wrong when a song ends in a minor key

my ills are reticulate
my woes are granular
the ants weigh more than the elephants