There are so many albums and artists that I fully and hopelessly adore. Music that can well up inside of me and make me feel intensely in a way that I really am quite incapable of feeling on my own. Or, at least, incapable of feeling as strongly. I’m willing to admit it’s mostly lady stuff: your Regina Spektors and Neko Cases and what have you.
I’ve tried to write reviews before, or pieces defending a song or an album but ultimately, I just don’t know how to use the word “ethereal” correctly. Ah well.
Fiona Apple has always been one of those for me. Capable of expressing visceral emotions in a way that is damn-near tangible. Like, I could put her her music on as a coat and wear it outdoors.
I’ve gotten to grow with her, which I feel privileged by. Like, how our parents got to see The Beatles evolve. I’m not saying she’s The Beatles, calm down. But to watch a contemporary artist age and mature is a real gift. And she has changed, to be sure. She’s not angry like she used to be. Not that there is anything wrong with being angry. But there is much more pain now, guttural vocals and deep swelling music. And also, understanding of the place she is in. Listening to her new, pretentiously titled fourth album, “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do,” (I won’t apologize or defend the title, it’s a bit much), I’m damn-near proud of her.
“Werewolf” stood out to me immediately. And made me cry. Which she is, even after the years of her holding my hand through puberty and heartache and happiness, quite good at doing. The woman can write a breakup song like no one else. And I love me some breakup songs, I love sad and hurt. This song has both.
But she follows that up with “Periphery” which is such a whimsical take on the same subject. The chorus:
Cause I don’t appreciate
People who
Don’t appreciate
All that loving must’ve been lackin’ something
If I got bored tryin’ to figure you out
You let me down
I don’t even like you anymore at all
It’s so simple and childish but “fuck you,” at the same time. They pair up with each other so perfectly.
I feel like she gets critiqued for focusing on romantic relationships and I could sit here and list all of her songs that don’t, but why? Just like any other work of art, there are always violent oppositions. And I get it. She’s a beautiful, waif, white girl with a lot of photos of herself in harsh light. I get it, I get it, I get it. Why does this tiny little thing need to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders and who is she to think we asked her to?
Just shut up. She’s amazing.
And YOU (that guy who hates Fiona Apple) would lose your fucking mind if I made fun of Tom Waits.