In advance of Sunday’s premiere Fiona Apple has shared a 15 second preview of the Every Single Night video. Check it out below.
The Idler Wheel is available now for pre-order. Make sure to check out our 10 Essential Tracks from Fiona!
Fiona Apple delivers two new tastes of upcoming album The Idler Wheel… with ballad Werewolf and the more uplifting and optimistic mid-tempo number Anything We Want.
ANYTHING WE WANT
WEREWOLF
Last month Fiona revealed the first single from the album, make sure to read our review of Every Single Night and our 10 Essential Tracks piece.
The Idler Wheel drops on June 19th via iTunes, Spotify and other retailers. Are you eager to hear the rest of the album?
When Eliza Dushku’s character Faith was introduced to the smash television series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, she started off with a massive bang. She was mysterious and clearly a force to be reckoned with. Her attitude was fearless and her blow was lethal. This was not the girl whose bad side you wanted to get on. Because when Faith was scorned, her driving hunger for revenge came from a place so dark that she would make it her mission to completely desolate those who had wronged her.
The same can be said for Fiona Apple. From the moment she released her 1996 masterpiece debut album, Tidal, Fiona asserted herself as a powerhouse presence in the music industry. Here was a young woman with a shattered heart and an unapologetic appetite for vengeance. And not in an Emily Thorne or Taylor Swift #whitegirlproblems kind of way. Fiona’s lyrics were an outlet of raw self-expression – one in which she could both attack and reflect. They were equal parts vulnerable, hurt and angry. Listening to that album, one can almost see the bloodstained knuckles pounding away at the piano as her songs knocked out the men responsible for her internal bruises (check out my list of top ten essential Fiona Apple classics here).
But like Faith, Fiona’s debut did not launch her into a series regular. Instead, she became a reoccurring character who would pop up less and less frequently. Yet each time she did, her swings were just as brutal and were met with feverish applause from critics as well as a rabid nearly cult-like fan following. And even though she would vanish from the spotlight for what seemed each time like an eternity, Fiona would always come back in the last inning with a stake in her hand and an eagerness to punish evil.
After being in musical hibernation since the release of her controversial 2005 album, Extraordinary Machine, Fiona is officially back with her first new material in seven years. Having premiered last week, Every Single Night is the first track to be released off of Fiona’s upcoming 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. And while the record’s 23-word title might feel overly high-strung and like you need to come up for air, its lead single is quite the opposite: simple, mellow and to the point.
On Every Single Night, Fiona’s claws are as sharp as ever. But instead of using them as weapons against another opponent, she redirects them inwardly – as it’s the 35-year-old chanteuse herself who is the catalyst of pain in this scenario.
“The rib is the shell and the heart is the yolk and I just made a meal for us both to choke on,” Fiona laments on the track. “Every single night’s a fight with my brain. I just want to feel everything.”
It’s not just the lyrics that are exposed to showcase the troubled core of Fiona’s situation. Musically, Every Single Night is framed by a skeleton of acoustic instrumentation that does more to guide the melody rather than to carry the song as a whole.
The spotlight on Fiona’s bare vocals evokes a feeling of struggle, almost as though she’s about to topple over. It’s a feeling that masterfully emphasizes the importance of music as a narrative tool, as this minimalist approach to orchestration perfectly compliments the fragile story woven by the song’s somber lyrics.
Every Single Night is not an evolution in sound for Fiona, but it’s certainly an evolution of her character. A song at this level of self-awareness is clearly an indicator of a far more mature songstress. It’s the same type of lesson in growing up as the one Faith learned when Angel helped her rejoin the good side after falling into a dark spell. It’s a lesson that warns against losing sight of yourself and teaches that honest introspection is the only way to begin to improve your faults. Even if that does mean needing to take yourself down a few notches.
Welcome back, Fiona. We’ve missed you.
Fiona Apple’s The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do hits stores on June 19 via Epic Records.
Fiona Apple just released the first single from forthcoming album The Idler Wheel. Every Single Night is a sparse, twinkling piano effort. It’s got classic Fiona written all over it. Proper review coming shortly.
What are your initial reactions to Every Single Night?
Like her second album When The Pawn… which had an extensive poem as it’s title, Fiona Apple‘s fourth studio album ‘The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do’ follows suit in length, albeit not as long.
We can expect Fiona to preview new material during her short tour stint in March. Most of the dates have already sold out, but you might be lucky to catch her…
TOUR DATES
03-15 Austin, TX – Central Presbyterian Church (Pitchfork SXSW showcase) *
03-19 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
03-21 Washington, DC – 6th & I Historic Synagogue
03-23 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
03-24 Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Spa & Resort – Music Box
03-26 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03-27 Boston, MA – Royale
* with Nicolas Jaar, Grimes, Purity Ring, Charli XCX
Enjoy one of my favorite tracks, Love Ridden…
The Idler Wheel is slated for a June release, just in time for her performance at The Governors Ball. Did you catch our 10 Essential tracks from Fiona Apple feature earlier this week?
We’d like to welcome Alex Nagorski to the Hard Candy family!
In January, Epic Records chairman and CEO L.A. Reid confirmed via Twitter that a new album from prolific singer/songwriter Fiona Apple would be released in 2012. In the following weeks, Apple released dates for a mini-spring tour that sold out nearly immediately.
While official details about Apple’s upcoming fourth album have yet to be released, the confirmation of the record’s pending release and the jumpstart of what’s sure to be a larger touring year for the singer seem to promise a comeback of epic proportions.
In anticipation of this, I looked back on the moody piano rocker’s previous releases and created a list of what I believe to be her ten best songs. So whether you’re a fan looking to revisit her older material before the new record/tour or you’ve never heard a song of Apple’s and are looking for a place to start, check out the list below.
from 2005′s Extraordinary Machine
“Apple may be pop’s leading drama queen (hell, empress),” wrote Entertainment Weekly in their review of Apple’s 2005 release, Extraordinary Machine. To understand this accusation, look no further than Better Version of Me. Lyrics like “I’m a frightened, fickle person. Fightin’, cryin’, kickin’, cursin’, what should I do?” or “can’t take a good day without a bad one, don’t feel just to smile until I had one” serve as indisputable evidence of this claim. Alas, part of what makes Fiona’s music so brilliant is that nothing remains hidden in her songwriting. Better Version of Me is a cuttingly truthful aural diary. It’s equal parts vulnerable, sad, determined and musically bouncy. And therefore a perfect entry point into Apple’s work.
from 1999′s When The Pawn …
It’s interesting that this song chooses to have the word “You” instead of “I” in the title, when in reality it’s all about an internal conflict that Apple has. On Fast As You Can, she sings energetically about the beginning of a new relationship. But as quickly as goes the song’s driving upbeat, Apple becomes victim to her own skepticism about love and tries to push her new lover away to protect herself. She realizes that she’s the only one who can shield herself from heartache. Fast As You Can is a rare type of pop song: self-aware, honest, neurotic and infectiously catchy.
from 2006′s The Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a movie musical with a cult following so large that every 8 seconds, a Hot Topic employee somewhere gets a bonus commission check. Apple’s rendition of the film’s missewn ingénue’s big ballad takes the already spooky song and with it casts a new spell of longing. Her cover not only breathes new life into a classic song, but delivers a take so gorgeously haunting, I’m sure it could make even the hairs on Tim Burton’s neck stick up.
from 2005′s Extraordinary Machine
Apple is never one to shy away from pushing the boundaries of her signature dark and gloomy piano/rock sound. O’Sailor is injected with a layer of irrevocable theatricality and thereby shines a spotlight on her versatility as an artist. The desperation and disappointment in her voice is unmistakable, making for one of the most defeatist tracks in Apple’s songbook.
from 1999′s When The Pawn …
There’s a scene in last year’s Blockbuster smash, Bridesmaids, in which Kristen Wiig’s character bakes a masterfully decorated cupcake for herself. It’s a turning point in the film – one in which the protagonist decides to regain control of her passions and become the person she’s always wanted to be.
It’s fitting, then, that this sequence is accompanied by the midtempo rhythm of Apple’s introspective Paper Bag. “Cause I know I’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up,” Apple sings. “I got to fold ’cause these hands are too shaky to hold.”
Like the scene from Bridesmaids, Paper Bag is about that crossroads we can all relate to. That crossroads where it becomes clear that risks and change need to happen if we want to be the best possible versions of ourselves. Paper Bag constitutes Apple’s acknowledgement of this crossroads and signals her first conscious effort to step in the right personal direction.
from 1996′s Tidal
On Shadowboxer, Apple channels her inner predator. Wronged by a lover who now only calls her a friend, Apple’s eyes are opened to the reality that the person she loves may be in fact toxic for her. Yet characteristically, she refuses to go down without a fight. As a “shadowboxer,” she trains to defend herself against the attacks on her heart.
“While her naughty, defiant edge will inspire comparisons to Alanis Morissette, Apple’s relatively literate lyrics and spare, brooding arrangements evoke more sophisticated influences,” wrote The Los Angeles Times when describing Apple’s debut album, Tidal. The biting lyrics and palatial ornamentation of its score make “Shadowboxer” a refreshingly unique track and a must for the iPod of any Apple fan.
from 2003′s Extraordinary Machine (original Jon Brion-produced version)
A couple of years before Fiona Apple released Extraordinary Machine in 2005, she recorded the album’s content with renowned producer Jon Brion (Kanye West; the soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). But when the album’s release kept getting pushed back, fans began to burn with questions. In the fall of 2004, Brion confirmed that Epic Records hadn’t released the album because they felt it wasn’t commercially viable enough. As a result, Brion’s efforts were scrapped and Apple re-entered the recording studios to re-record the album with hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre; Eminem).
As a result, the Jon Brion-produced version of Extraordinary Machine became one of the internet’s most sought-after bootlegs. The leaked Brion-produced original versions of the album’s tracks indeed sound like a completely different record than the polished version that was ultimately released. While fans remain divided over which version they prefer, there’s no denying that these songs, no matter in what form, make for an exquisite body of work.
And while I personally find the officially released version of Extraordinary Machine to make for a more cohesive and overall more interesting listening experience, Jon Brion’s original take on Not About Love remains as one of my all-time favorite cuts from Apple.
“On ‘Not About Love’ … Brion scored Apple’s compositions no less extravagantly than his soundtracking work for the indie-film elite, applying dollops of lush orchestration to place her piano and throwback vocals in an epic frame,” wrote Pitchfork in their review of the leaked Extraordinary Machine bootleg. I couldn’t agree more.
The Brion-produced “Not About Love” is a lush track pronounced by the masterful staccato of majestic string orchestration absent from the final version. Two tracks (“Extraordinary Machine,” “Waltz (Better Than Fine)”) from the Brion sessions of Extraordinary Machine remained untouched. Had Epic chosen to release this version of “Not About Love,” they would have struck gold with a lucky third charm.
from 1999′s When The Pawn …
Many people I’ve met who are familiar with the name Fiona Apple but are unfamiliar with her music tend to write her off as just another Lilith Fair singer/songwriter with a bruised heart and keyboard to take it out on. Yet that opinion has never remained intact after I’ve played Limp for them.
Arguably one of the grungiest songs Apple has ever recorded, Limp serves as a threatening warning to the man abusing her. “You fondle my trigger, then you blame my gun. And when I think of it, my fingers turn to fists,” Apple sings as she channels her inner Emily Thorne for what’s surely a harrowing revenge plot.
Put Taylor Swift in a gun range after a night of heavy drinking with Miley Cyrus. Now watch her point the weapon at her targets: Joe Jonas, John Mayer and Taylor Lautner. And there you have a scenario almost as cutthroat Limp.
from 1996′s Tidal
It’s no surprise that Criminal is still Apple’s biggest hit to date. Winning the Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, the song went on to be included in countless “best of” countdowns, including VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the ‘90s and Blender Magazine’s The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.
In a very Madonna-esque controversy, the music video for Criminal sparked an outcry from conservative critics. Many felt the clip glorified unhealthy expectations of how women should look by showcasing Apple looking like an “underfed Calvin Klein model.” In her acceptance speech for Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards later that year, Apple proclaimed “Everybody out there that’s watching, everybody that’s watching this world, this world is bullshit and you shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool.”
It’s this unfiltered attitude of self-assurance that makes Criminal both such a fantastic track and the defining one in Apple’s career retrospective (thus far).
In Criminal, Apple calls out her own weakness to hold onto the man she loves. She begs for redemption and a chance to start over, realizing that the error of her ways are threatening her chance at happiness. It’s a dish of despair served over a bed of steaming hot jazz-infused piano rock. And the end result is nothing short of delicious.
from 1996′s Tidal
When she was only eighteen-years-old, Apple made an explosive entrance onto the music scene with her debut album, Tidal. Still her most acclaimed release to date, Tidal opened with Sleep To Dream, a song that clearly represented the record’s tones and themes. And perfectly exemplified all the reasons so many millions of people call themselves Fiona Apple fans.
Lyrically, the song is daring, poetic and uninhibited. Musically, it’s accompanied by soaring piano hooks, a pulsing percussion beat and swoops of eerie orchestration. And as moody and dark as the song is, it manages to be simultaneously inconspicuous and provocative.
“I got my feet on the ground and I don’t go to sleep to dream,” Apple triumphantly sings in this anthematic tale of self-empowerment. “You got your head in the clouds and you’re not at all what you seem. This mind, this body and this voice cannot be stifled by your deviant ways. So don’t forget what I told you, don’t come back. I got my own hell to raise.” Hell yeah, tell him, girl!
Not only did Sleep To Dream serve as the introductory track to Tidal, but it also introduced the world to a teenager whose deep understanding of human emotion made Apple’s music far more mature than the majority of her mainstream counterparts. After hitting play on Tidal and hearing it kick off with Sleep To Dream, critics and fans everywhere were proclaiming that Apple was a force to be reckoned with. And this year, she’ll be ready to prove that all over again.
Fiona Apple’s spring tour kicks off in Chicago on March 19th. Check here for the dates.
Oh Florence, how we have missed you! I’m dying over this new Florence & the Machine video for Not Fade Away the first single taken from the new Buddy Holly tribute album Rave On Buddy Holly, which also features tracks by Patti Smith, Fiona Apple, Paul McCartney and many more.
Florence and her pals get all creepy on us in the stunning video, which was shot in New Orleans, wandering through a cemetery, then living it up in skeleton outfits!
I think that they did a brilliant job reworking the song (check out the Buddy Holly version), I just love that dirty southern feel! Don’t you just adore this?
You should also check out Florence in the Nylon Music Issue, where she hints at the sound of her new music! you can read some excerpts here.
