Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel

Only four albums? FOUR!? What on earth...

In a career spanning 18 years Fiona Apple has established herself as one of the most frighteningly honest and experimental female musicians. But I, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to have pigeon-holed Apple in the whole Tori Amos bracket of 'weird feminist' nonsense. Much rather, it would now appear, she's alligned in my pretty little head with the likes of Regina Spektor and PJ Harvey in terms of gutsy, independent but still melodic and listenable art.

The New York singer courted controversy right from the start with a speech at the 1997 MTV Music Video awards (where Apple won 'Best New Artist'), boldly stating that "this world is bullshit - and you shouldn't model your life... about what you think that we think is cool, and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything - go with yourself".

Her fourth album opens, then, with a quirky mixture of bar-room vocal chants and a lullaby melody on 'Every Single Night'. Always threatening, her "breast's gonna bust open" with her plea to "feel everything", and it's a pretty accurate precursor to the rest of the album. On 'Daredevil' she's yet more commanding, "seek me out/ look at, look at, look at, look at me!" With the vocal urgency it's undeniably visceral, and there's little musical distraction; if anything, the percussion only adds to the intensity. The upfront emotional honesty continues on 'Valentine': "I made it to a dinner date/ my teardrops seasoned every plate" and "While you were watching someone else/ I stared at you and cut myself" are two highlights from an otherwise chirpy melody.

Musically there are few moments to enjoy until the slow dragging rhythms and awkward hotel lobby piano chords of 'Jonathan', a reference to ex-boyfriend Jonathan Ames:

I did that because Jonathan likes his name to be spoken. He pisses me off in so many ways, but I’m still very close with him. I felt like he deserves to have a song with his name in it. I was staying in an apartment in New York and he was just starting up his show. I was writing this instrumental thing that I’d started after he had taken me to Coney Island—he takes all of his girlfriends to Coney Island. I was bitchy about it later on, but at the time he gave me this really wonderful day of simple joy and kindness

On 'Left Alone', the album's highlight for me, the rhythms and beats get even more exciting and tense; the piano arpeggios and her chorus' vocal high notes strongly echoing Court and Spark-era Joni Mitchell. "I don't cry when I'm sad any more" is the simplest lyric of the lot, and many of the others slightly whiff of pretentiousness ("My ills are reticulate/ my woes are granular"), but overall it's a captivating and ominous piece. Apple sacrifices a little punch for a pretty melody on 'Werewolf', though, that could feasibly fit into The Sims' soundtrack.

She resurrects some of her early career feist on 'Periphery' with the scathing lyric "Have them forge you a pedigree and then you'll be left to run the races lame", surely a swipe at the powers that be. The track literally has to be dragged away: the ending provides scrapes in gravel for yet more unorthodox and rebellious material. The vocal stylings and awkward rhythm of 'Regret' make it another album highlight that sees Apple ruing a former relationship for making her cynical: "that's how you got me/ taught me to regret". Anger builds in the chorus, though, seething "I ran out of white dove feathers to soak up the hot piss that comes through your mouth". It's incredibly powerful. For every moment of rage there's a vulnerable side to Apple, though: on 'Anything we Want' she reveals "the rivulets had you riveted to the places that/ I wanted you to kiss me when we find some time alone". Closer 'Hot Knife' is a little too overtly sexual and silly for me though, and is a bit of an odd choice to close with.

As an album with 89 on Metacritic I suppose there was a very high expectation of The Idler Wheel that just hasn't quite been met. Although very consistently good, I struggle to see anything 'classic' about this record in the same vein that PJ Harvey's Let England Shake or Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill managed. Nonetheless, The Idler Wheel, if lasting only for its ridiculously long title, does make a strong and demanding emotional impact on the listener. For all of its honesty and ingenuity, it would be nice to see a handful of beautiful moments (see: Perfume Genius), but I'm sure some argument could be made that this was never intended to be pretty.

Rating: 8.5/10
Highlights: Left Alone, Jonathan, Regret, Periphery, Anything We Want
Avoid: n/a

Artwork Watch: I personally gave up with Spirograph after a day. Missed opportunity.
Up next: Maroon 5