fiona apple - fetch the bolt cutters (2020)

From one listen -- almost a totally new sound. Beat music.

"relay" is so wild i love it

it's like this fully percussive thing and then bam, upright bass and guitar scratching, then voices hanging in silence

about to download

Need to wait for a headphone listen to fully judge. It'll hit streaming at midnight of course.

maura's review of this is great and very otm https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/16/arts/fiona-apple-makes-defiance-sound-exhilarating-fetch-bolt-cutters/

Any word of a physical release?

imago, it’s probably because i had them on yesterday but cardiacs did come to mind a couple times while i was listening

Dare I ask where y'all are hearing this

it leaked, it'll be streaming in a few hours, ymmv

damn this is really something

exhausting, in a good way

i'm in love with everything her voice does in "ladies"

Shameika said I had potential!

amazing that she’s still finding miraculous new textures with her voice

Really excited for this!!!! Based on the reviews I have read so far it seems to be her less accessible out of all of her albums, which makes me even more amped up for it, since some of my favorite songs from her are the ones that hit you out of left field!

the only field is left

holy fuck @ her vocal in "Holy Balloon."

oh my god "newspaper"

Wow this is fantastic. On first listen I reckon this could end up my favourite Fiona alongside When The Pawn.

The sound/approach reminds me a lot of early Veda Hille.

It's my favorite Apple already

finally, Fiona Apple songs I can put on a workout playlist

this album is fucking great and i got to review it

and it's a damn fine review

damn this is good. thanks y'all for putting me on to this.

thanks alfred :)

Feels like 2011 wasn't that long ago! So she has a rate of a new album every 6/8 years.

holy shit this record

10.

The overall sound is interesting, sounds like the 21st century version of the lo-fi, diy album that doesn’t suck.

As usual the best part is how percussive Fiona Apple loves her arrangements.

haven't heard it but Pitchfork giving a Fiona Apple album a 10 in 2020 is something I can get behind

This also has her most manic sounding moments of all time, this is a good sign btw.

10 on p4k

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fiona-apple-fetch-the-bolt-cutters/

Maura read your review earlier, great stuff

it's very good but i wouldn't give it a perfect score yet. p4k has given far worse albums a 10 in the past though so if something's going to get put on a weird pedestal i'd much rather have it be this

thank you ums <3

I like both maura’s and p4k reviews, they pick on different aspects on why this album has the potential of being an early contender for AOTY, great release date too imho. Right place, right moment sort of album.

in one of the videos where she answer fans questions, one of them asks her who some of her favorite musicians are, and the 3 she names are Miriam Makeba, Kate Bush, and Joan Armatrading. I feel like this provides all the context you'd need for the world this music exists in.

anyway, Fiona is my actual hero and she has never sounded more like herself. so grateful for her.

Great review Maura!

And yes I agree that both reviews (i.e. Maura's and Pitchfork's) are good. This is one of those rich, dense but inviting albums that I expect will inspire a lot of good writing.

The Pitchfork review references the Slits which makes sense to me but the other act I hear a simpatico with (perhaps because I have been listening to them a lot recently) is The Raincoats (as well as early Veda Hille as mentioned upthread).

Makes sense -- Pelly wrote a 33 1/3 book on The Raincoats.

I'm adoring this already. So glad it has taken the drums-and-piano-in-conversation style of Idler Wheel and used Hot Knife as the jumping off point.

i don't know if i'm comin across but i'm really trying

The Slits reference would work if they had made more songs like "Newtown" (their most Raincoats-y, so Tim otm). Is late Tom Waits too obvious to mention? I found Pelly's "no music has ever sounded like this" line a little silly (Is This Desire? and Medulla also come to mind; I listened to Horse Rotorvator for the first time the other day, etc.).

Anyway, "Criminal" is the only Apple song I've previously consciously heard, so this is pretty wild! I'm not sure it will quite turn out to be My Thing, but I can see why everyone is flipping over it. Even not paying full attention to the lyrics, some knife-like lines pop out.

Presumably it was the editor's call but referring to it as "Fetch" I found very jarring. Couldn't get Mean Girls out of my head, so in essence, your editor should stop trying to make "Fetch" happen.

"No music has ever sounded like this" is not a good line to write in a review of anything I'll be honest.

Vinyl is available for preorder from her website. Includes immediate download. Looking forward to this.

Presumably it was the editor's call but referring to it as "Fetch" I found very jarring. Couldn't get Mean Girls out of my head, so in essence, your editor should stop trying to make "Fetch" happen.

― in twelve parts (lamonti), Friday, April 17, 2020 6:25 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao

Maybe my googling skills are rusty, but I'm having a hard time finding her website...

The person who posts as mostly dylan on Twitter has this list of personnel on new Dylan album, which supposedly will incl. FA (and Blake Mills) as additional musicians, if it doesn't show up below:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EatdRdOWAAERL5L?format=jpg&name=medium

How is this holding up for everyone?

splendidly. just waiting for my vinyl.

It's still good, but I burned out quickly

Still great but that Pitchfork review has aged extremely poorly, as was always likely.

I love Tidal which I suspect is her only good album

I was never a fan previously, but I think this is strong and fresh and I love how confident she is with her powers. It’s also gone over very well with my 18yo daughter and consequently I like how few fucks Apple gives about image and knowing her place.

It’s still great

got the vinyl! hooray! good thing my stereo's in storage!

d`oh

Tidal which I suspect is her only good album

― this has been the best year fuiud (rip van wanko), Sunday, July 19, 2020 4:47 AM

also ya, no

I hadn't listened to this before today not because I didn't think it would be any good but *because* I knew it would good and was just waiting for the right day. And hey, it's really good!

after the dust has settled, "heavy balloon" is *easily* my favorite track on this.

mine too

It's difficult listening to this album; it reminds me of the first stage of quarantine, i.e. April.

I think it's better for that; a reminder that awesomeness can still exist.

Yep, same as you, Al

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT4SZiEgJ_g

live versions!

Thanks. She’s an incredible live performer.

An amazing interview/story with the real Shameika and her reunion with Fiona: https://pitchfork.com/features/article/fiona-apple-shameika-fetch-the-bolt-cutters-interview/

She turned out to be a rapper so of course they collab'd: https://open.spotify.com/track/5IelFDwkj5eJEnTSfwroxa?si=mlk-AyQHQuKY3R14anvdCg

And there's also a video now for "Shameika":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM63Tzv-uZg

Love that they were reunited by their New Yorker-reading 3rd-grade teacher.

really glad this worked out in the best way possible

(although a bit surprising that she was a public figure but nobody put the pieces together before now?)

beautiful story, glad they were able to reconnect.

This fixes all the issues I had with "Shameika"

ayo real talk: if you don't like this album, how does it feel to be objectively wrong?

this album is metal as fuck, in that it sounds like it was screwed together at a workbench

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson)

There’s also a seething rage through the whole thing - even in the “sweet” ballads such as cosmonauts - that makes it sound heavier than most metal albums I’ve heard. I haven’t heard this album a lot because it feels like a bad influence to me. Whenever I truly connect with it, it makes me want to burn the world to the ground.

It reminds me of Rain Dogs in that sense but this one feels more wore down and old and angrier.

Such a landmark album. I can’t listen very often because it’s too real and can’t be backgrounded.
I don’t even know how to say this and I feel sure it will sound weird or patronising or just off somehow, but - I gave this album to my ex wife as a gift, because I knew she had a lot of unexpressed anger about me leaving, and I wanted her to know that I understood that and respected it. She loves the record fwiw.

Did she not do any live performances at all? This album sounds like it could be pretty good live but I don’t see evidence of her doing any live performance after 2017.

All I could find is her performing three songs for the New Yorker festival.

it released during covid and she hasn't toured since, though she said in an interview at the time that she wanted to tour once things opened up again. last year she said she still really wants to tour again but her mental health really isn't up to it right now.

she played "ladies" and "i want you to love me" on her 2013 tour with blake mills though