It’s been seven years since we last heard new music from the elusive and enigmatic Fiona Apple. Now with her latest, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw, And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, that wait is over. And I’m glad to say that Apple continues to surprise with a record full of excellent songwriting and excellent percussion sounds from drummer and co-producer Charley Drayton.
So much has been overstated about Apple and the emotional baggage of her early years that it’s become a little to easy to focus on trying to understand and diagnose her angst. Because of the huge gaps between records (remember, it had been five years between When the Pawn… and Extraordinary Machine, as well), it’s probably inevitable, if not expected to want to delve into that, and over-analyze her infamously peculiar mental state. Apple has been out of the spotlight more than she’s been in it, so there hasn’t been much for fans to do but pore over her lyrics and perhaps project what we think we know about her.
That picture of Apple in our mind has been preserved in amber right around that 1996 to 2000 era, when Apple was 19 years old — remember disillusioned and brutally honest MTV Video Music Awards speech, or the freaking out on stage era? It’s sort of easy to forget that at that time in the mid to late 90s, women in pop music were more locked into a few categories: In pop music you were either a Britney or a Christina, or somewhat “punkier” like an Avril. Or you were branded as being part of the Riott Girl or Lilith Fair scene. All were an awkward fit for Apple, who shied from the spotlight, and her damaged persona — as perceived in that Criminal video, writhing on the shag carpet like an American Apparel ad, or in that infamous Spin magazine profile — made her come off as something she was completely unprepared and uncomfortable with. Now, there are so many amazing women filling every conceivable role in music that those old categories seem quite antiquated and black and white.
Apple is now 34 years old, no longer quite that angry persona of her youth, yet still coming off as a fragile and peculiar artist full of mystery and pain and issues to work through. Recent interviews have highlighted the fact that she tends toward reclusiveness, that she still has an obsessive, unrelenting mind that projects doubt and insecurities. But you can tell from her recent shows at South By Southwest and her short tour that she’s more in control and comfortable in her skin, and that has carried over into her music. The silences and the awkward banter between songs in concert hint at some of her past turmoil, but when singing on stage, surrounded by her band, Apple sounds as good as ever, if not better; her voice is more mature, full of nuance and in full command of the words that are able to enrapture an entire audience into utter silence.
What tends to get lost is Fiona Apple’s stunning musicianship and its devotion to restraint. With a pared down arrangements, these songs are essentially built around four or five components: piano, bass, drums, Fiona’s dynamic voice and found sound recordings. The result really puts the focus on her always amazing voice and idiosyncratic wordplay and emotional lyrics.
Apple has always been known for her playful turning of a phrase, remarkable extended metaphors and the way she deconstructs the classic songbook structures with a passioned fire and anger. On The Idler Wheel… that aspect is front and center. Take the opening lines in “Werewolf,” that perfectly encapsulate the feelings of a relationship gone south, and seeing the evenhanded blame of both parties: “I could liken you to a werewolf the way you left me for dead, but I admit that I provided a full moon.”
Later in the same song, she delivers a line that delightfully bounces on the tongue over the music that ultimately captures how her relationship was destined to fall apart: “And I could liken you to a chemical, the way you made me compound a compound / But I’m a chemical, too, inevitable you and me wouldn’t mix.”
Even with an album that doesn’t feel remotely fussed over, drowned in overdubs and epic sounds, it’s truly stunning to dig deep into Apple’s new record and find something new each time. I guess this is all a way of saying I’m just glad to hear new music from Fiona Apple and so pleased The Idler Wheel… completely lived up to the wait.