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)

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?