![]() And then there are almost ghost or ghoul-like shimmering sound effects going on that give it a slightly creepy or haunting quality. The minimal piano and simple drum set-up is perfectly deployed to back her up. ![]() I love how spare the production is on “Sleep to Dream,” giving Apple the space to push her range of emotions and expressiveness through her lyrics. * For more recent examples, check out Smell the Magic by L7 (#337 of best 1,000 albums ever), Garbage’s self-titled debut (#373), and Veruca Salt’s Eight Arms to Hold You (#444). I realized too that the era when Tidal was released (roughly mid-‘90s) was one when I started discovering female artists and female-fronted bands with strong voices and the personalities to match, and it helped to open up my interest in different kinds of music. Musically, “Criminal” is a great combination of singer songwriter and rock song. The video is naughty, it’s sexy without being overly explicit, and it maps against the strong and sultry performance from Apple and the lush, striking production. It’s one of those very rare cases for me where the imagery of the music video had an impact on my feelings about the artist. I recall seeing the “Criminal” music video on MTV, and I’m pretty sure that it was my first exposure to Fiona Apple’s music. She’s never sounded as powerful or compelling as she does on tracks like “Criminal” and “Sleep to Dream.” ![]() * While right here at the best 1,000 albums ever project we have When the Pawn… at #409 and Extraordinary Machine at #755.įor me, Tidal is the best Fiona Apple album released to date. Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums list puts Fiona Apple’s When the Pawn… at #108 and Extraordinary Machine at #444*, but neglects to include Tidal. ∙ Boogie Nights and Magnolia director Paul Thomas Anderson, Apple’s former romantic partner, shot five of her music videos.So why is Fiona Apple’s Tidal on this best 1,000 albums ever thing? ∙ Director Judd Apatow has used her music in his films, and Apple wrote the theme song for the TV series The Affair. ∙ Johnny Cash duetted with her on two of his albums, covering Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son.” ∙ Her 2020 album, Fetch The Bolt Cutters, was the first one in a decade to earn Pitchfork’s highly coveted perfect score, and it also nabbed three Grammy nominations. ∙ The 90-word poem composing the full title of When the Pawn…-which landed in Guinness World Records due to its length-was written in response to what she perceived as hurtful press coverage. ∙ Thanks to the breakout single, “Criminal,” Apple’s 1996 debut album, Tidal, went triple-Platinum, earning her a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. So how was she any different from him?Ī classically trained pianist as well as a singer-songwriter and poet, Fiona Apple composed her first songs at age eight as a way to express her feelings about childhood traumas. As to her speech at the MTV awards, she says she got into this line of work to say whatever it is she wanted to say, and that’s what she’s gonna do. Listening to her spar with Howard Stern in 1997, you want to root for her not just because she’s getting bullied by a guy more than twice her age, but because she’s brave enough to fight back. But for all its finesse, the lingering mood of Tidal is bitter and resolute: She’s going to bare her heart no matter how much it hurts. She’d grown up with classical piano and jazz standards-worlds where technical proficiency can often outweigh raw feeling. While Billie Holiday-a childhood influence-transformed her pain with laughter, Apple wields hers like a blade: Discreet, but it’ll cut you. 'Ive been a bad, bad girl,' sings Fiona Apple at the beginning of 'Criminal,' the best-known song from her debut album Tidal, which turned 20 years old. If she takes pride in her powers of seduction, it’s only because it’s one of the few she’s allowed to exercise (“Criminal”). She sounds older than she is (“Shadowboxer”), but points out that sexual abuse has a way of making you grow up fast (“The Child Is Gone”). A rap fan who’s said the only album she bought in 1997 was Wu-Tang Forever, Apple knows how to make herself ten feet tall (“Sleep to Dream”) while also expressing how small society has made her feel (“Sullen Girl”). And for them, it is serious.Īt the time, albums like Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom (and events like the all-female Lilith Fair tour) had brought a feminist edge to the mainstream. Everyone knows entertainment is bullshit-why take it so seriously? Apple holds her ground: Maybe middle-aged guys like you know that, she says, but middle-aged guys aren’t taking cues from MTV on how to look and act-teenage girls are. What’s the problem, Stern asks her: You’re young, you’re pretty, your first album-1996’s Tidal-is selling like crazy, and yet, you’re still angry. A few days after accepting her Best New Artist award at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards by calling the entertainment industry “bullshit,” a then 19-year-old Fiona Apple sat for an interview with the shock-radio personality Howard Stern.
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