I discovered Fiona Apple and specifically this album when I was about twenty years old. A friend's girlfriend suggested I have a listen and leant me a copy of the CD. I was immediately hooked. She is undoubtedly a beautiful woman, she reminded me of a girl I had been hopelessly in love with when I was at school. But what I really connected with was her music. Her piano playing shows great musical ability, her fingers almost bounce off the keys as she forcefully projects her emotions and frustrations out through the instrument. Her voice can be soft and brooding, but sometimes it is as if she is spitting the words at you.
The lyrics are not typical of her fellow contemporary singer songwriters. She packs a lot into her verses, and they are at times introspective and at times an analysis of her surroundings. Often about relationships. I connected with her. The words ‘He said it’s all in your head and I said so is everything, but he didn’t get it, I thought he was a man but he was just a little boy’ struck me as very profound. I think I know what she meant, as if this realisation was a rite of passage, a discovery that led to adulthood. Similar to what I think Jimi Hendrix was trying to say in his song ‘Room full of Mirrors’. Maybe this was just teenage philosophising, I don’t know. These days I try to think more practically about the world. Whatever she meant I think she’s great. She is still putting out music more than twenty years after she began releasing her songs. Her most recent album Fetch the Bolt Cutters is getting great critical reviews.
I highly recommend listening to this album, there isn’t a bad song on it. I hope you enjoy.