fiona apple - fetch the bolt cutters (2020)

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