Fiona Apple albums don’t come around very often. Her newest album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, is only her third album in the last twenty years. Her albums are always works that need to be analyzed and lived with before making a final judgement. They’re not made for the streaming age, where everything is put on a playlist and hundreds of albums come out every week. They’re made for when you would play an album over and over and over again because you spent $15 on it, so you gotta get your money’s worth. This album is no different.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters is Fiona’s fifth studio album, and her first album since 2012. She started recording the album in late 2015 with no more updates on her progress. Rumours started swirling in late 2019 that her album would be releasing sometime early the very next year. Finally, in March of this year, she had said she was done with the project. While the label was pushing her to release it in October because of the lack of promotion coronavirus would cause, she advocated and pushed for the album to come out now, citing the benefit it could give the listeners during this self-isolation.
When the album was released, it was clear something unique was happening. Pitchfork gave the album a perfect 10, their first perfect 10 to a newly released album since Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, released a decade ago. Metacritic, a website that aggregates other websites' scores of projects, currently has the album at 100/100, which is also the highest aggregate album score ever on the website. So even after it being her first album in 8 years, it is the highest rated and critically loved album in recent memory. Now, let's get to the music
The first thing about this project that immediately stands out is the percussion. Instead of traditional drums, a lot of the percussion is just whatever around her house could be banged or banged on. One clear example of this is on the title track, where the credits have no mention of drums, but say Fiona played percussion and a metal butterfly. Yes, a metal butterfly has credits on a Fiona Apple album. So does a water tower, as credited on the final track, On I Go.
While we’re talking about the title track, this song also shows the organic feel that this album has, by having dogs barking for the last 30-40 seconds of the song. There are plenty of moments like these on the project. Her dogs come back again, with one having their chains be on the fifth track, Relay. The opening track, I Want You to Love Me, ends with Fiona sounding like she’s making dolphin noises. For what reason, who knows, but it adds to the authentic feel of the album. The at home percussion also helps the project have the organic feel.
As for standout songs, Shameika is a phenomenal song about her childhood bully getting through to her in a different way than expected. She said Fiona had potential, and that stuck with her throughout the next couple decades. Outside of the relatable and personal lyrical content, the production is some of the best of the project. The piano especially is insane, with its fast paced and repetitive melody that drives the entire song. It’s easily the best piano playing on the album, with the percussion mentioned above being the main backing on a lot of the songs.
She covers quite a few personal topics on this project. She talks about being empathizing with someone else she seems going through the same pain she had on Newspaper. On I Go consists mainly of a chant Fiona sang in jail to help keep her calm. Relay is about how the cycle of abuse is passed on from generation to generation. The chorus of the song, which she wrote when she was only 15 years old, being, “Evil is a relay sport when the one who’s burned turns to pass the torch.” Heavy Balloon paints a vivid portrait of depression with some descriptive verses.
These personal and powerful stories evoke some very passionate vocal performances. The build during the bridge on the song Cosmonauts includes her singing with her full passion behind it. The chorus of Rack of His includes the same passionate performance. There are also moments where she has some acapella moments containing loads of vocal layers. The ending of the song Relay is a great example of this, as well as the end of the song, For Her.
That leads to the negatives of this project, specifically the song For Her. While the personal content is admirable and can be powerful, the song feels like a bunch of random ideas thrown together. She starts off almost rapping and is acapella for way too long. The song then transitions seemingly randomly into a bridge that could’ve had a lot more power if it was connected to a better song.
While nothing else on here was bad, there were some songs that felt unnecessary to the overall album. The final three songs all feel that way, with none of them really adding anything unique or different to the album. It felt like these could’ve been bonus tracks, and everyone would’ve enjoyed this album the same.
But a lot of the other problems people are going to have this project is just personal preference. This album definitely isn’t going to be for everyone. Fiona isn’t a traditionally great singer. As mentioned before, the percussion and production on a lot of these songs are all over the place. The song structures are random a lot of the time, as well as the heavy sonic changes in the same song.
This album is going to be one of the most unique and controversial albums of this year. There are going to be many people that love it, and many people that think it’s overrated. One thing is for sure though, this album is worth quality and repeated listens.
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