Tidal fiona2/12/2024 The descending woodwinds after “nothing’s gonna change my world” are especially lovely. Still her second-most-streamed track on Spotify behind Criminal, it is far from a deep cut, but her take on such a familiar (and – relatively for Apple – friendly) song foregrounds the molasses quality of her voice and her distinctive approach to instrumentation. The most successful of Apple’s covers, of a stylish repertoire (mostly from live sets) taking in Sinatra and Hendrix, is her take on the Beatles’ Across the Universe, recorded for the Pleasantville soundtrack in 1998. Through defiance (A Mistake, Limp) and desperation (To Your Love), she comes to something approaching acceptance with I Know, her voice bruised and beautiful over brushed drum and double bass. The lurching piano of opener On the Bound sets the tone, Apple breathing nimble smoke rings in the verse (“Hell don’t know my fury”) before erupting into flames with the chorus (“You’re all I need”). , she returned deliberately and defiantly, on her own terms. It came to define her, transforming her, in her words, from a “tragic waif ethereal victim” to a “brat bitch loose cannon”. Two years earlier, she had accepted the prize for best new artist at the MTV Video Music awards with a controversial speech in which she expressed her ambivalence about celebrity and called “bullshit” on the entertainment industry as a whole. Produced by Jon Brion, with artwork and videos by Paul Thomas Anderson (Apple’s partner at the time), it featured Apple as sole songwriter on all 10 tracks, written following her fall from favour with the music industry. The unwieldy, 90-word title of When the Pawn … is infamous, but Apple’s second album is a perfectly-formed whole, running the gamut from rage to regret in just under 45 minutes. “When I have something to say, I’ll say it,” she has said. But she is best-loved for her lyrics (and her voice), betraying a self-knowledge – and sometimes a bitterness – beyond her years, and honesty sometimes to a fault. ![]() Her singular approach to rhythm and instrumentation sometimes verges on vaudeville. As a classically trained pianist, her acerbic, sinewy songwriting nonetheless resists convention, pulling in off-kilter percussion and woodwind to explore the outer reaches of what might otherwise be reduced to “adult contemporary”. After writing her debut album, Tidal, when she was 17, Fiona Apple was painted as an ingenue – but she dispelled any impressions that she was an innocent just as fast as she emerged.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |