Moroni's Review of Fiona Apple's "The Idler Wheel ..."

The name of this album is "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do."

Whew!!  What a title!  I am not sure Twitter would let me post the link with all of those characters!  Still, it is not as long as the title of Fiona Apple's other album, "When the Pawn..." - and that is abbreviated!

That said, I am not that familiar with Fiona Apple's music.  When she broke onto the scene in 1996, I had just moved out to my ranch, living off grid.  I wasn't exposed to music much during the time period.  I did hear about her, liked her name, and even saw a video for her song, "Criminal".  I really wasn't that into it.  It was too jazzy.  But that's really about it.  I have a close friend who is a huge fan and has been bugging me since June to do a review of this album.  So here it is, Nikki!

This month, I downloaded Fiona Apple's fourth album, which I will not type again, but henceforth call "The Idler Wheel.."  What is it like to listen to an entire album of an artist who already has an established career, and you have not listened to a single album?  Do you really have to listen to the whole catalog in order to get a good sense of who the artist is?  I think not.  I am able to get a refreshing look without being hampered by hype and previously preconceived notions about the artist.

My first impression of Fiona Apple...  Like her album title, she is wordy!  Whereas I am sure that this is one of the reasons her fans love her, it doesn't do much for me.  In music, I like lyrics that convey an image rather than a message.  (However, I noticed that her song "Hot Knife" has some nice imagery to it.)  If I listen to lyrics, I listen to them in context of the music rather than trying to decipher a meaning.  I sing along with songs all the time without even being aware of what they are trying to convey.  My favorite band is Cocteau Twins, for heaven's sake.  They never use real words, and, if they do, they don't mean anything.  I know people that are driven nuts by this.  They have to know what is being said in order to appreciate the music.  Such people usually don't like music in other languages, either.

That said, I am feeling like the genius of Fiona's music is passing over my head like a Boeing 787, because the music in many places is minimalist and loaded with words from start to finish.

This album is like a fine wine.  At first, it tastes as bitter and overwhelms your olfactory senses, but the more you sip on it, the better it tastes.  At first listen, it annoyed me.  Ask my wife Martha, I kept saying it over and over.  But the more I listened, the more I started to like it.  Now, I think the album is genius.  I think that Fiona Apple is the female equivalent of Tom Waits.  And that is the best possible review I can give this album.  She is a female Tom Waits.  That's a pretty, damn glowing review, Nikki.  LOL

I think that the reason it takes so long to get adjusted to this album is because - undoubtedly - it is so eccentric.  She is so eccentric.  In a crazy cat lady kind of way.  Like Tori Amos.  Like Regina Spektor.  From afar you recognize the genius of the artist.  If you engaged them in conversation at a cocktail party, you approach them, because they are easy on the eyes.  But soon you would be itching to escape.  Because the conversation would be so random, so nonlinear, so incoherent that you could not make the proverbial heads or tails of it.  I mean, this is a woman who just cancelled her world tour to spend time with her dog.  (Go on tour, buy twenty dogs when you get home.)

The first song off of "The Idler Wheel" is "Every Single Night" which starts out like a music box, and then soon is dominated with Fiona's definitive contralto voice.  The next rest of the album is fairly minimalist.  What I mean by this - the music is mainly percussion and piano with very little interposition of many other instruments.  What becomes obvious is that Fiona's secret weapon is her voice.  She is very dramatic with it.  She expresses great emotion with it.  Sometimes her voice seems a hoarse whisper, and the next she is raging about something.  My personal favorite songs are "Valentine", "Left Alone" (love her voice is this one), and "Periphery".  The album ends up nicely with many voices layered on "Hot Knife".

This album is very jazzy, kind of cabaret,  As a whole, it kind of has a feverish feel to it, like a fitful dream that one can't wake up from.  I can't compare it to any other artist, because, really, there is no other female artist around like her.  It does make me think of one song - "This Devil's Workday" by Modest Mouse.  This album evokes a similar feel to me.

This is a very excellent album.  But it is an acquired taste.  Like smoked salmon.  Or sea cucumber.  Both of which I love.  But you might not.