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)

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

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