She made a mockery of grace while accepting an award at one of
\nthose MTV award shows that gets replayed every couple hours. Don’t
\nbe like us, she said, because this is all bullshit. My first
\nthought was, “Now here is one dumb bastard. People all over dream
\n(but don’t sleep to, of course) about making it in the biz…and
\nthis freak, a certified Sony corporate product created in a
\nboardroom, is telling the masses not to dress like her.” Of course
\nI was watching the award show in the first place, so who the hell
\nam I to judge, right? I do, however, give people a lot more credit
\nthan Fiona Apple apparently does.<\/p>\n
She presents a serious problem (which I find to be interesting,
\nwhich is probably why I’m doing this review). Hopefully my thoughts
\naren’t too ambiguous as a result. Despite her obvious premeditated
\nstardom, and rambling on the lunatic fringe, she has a fine, fine
\nvoice. A voice I would marry. Her pipes sound wizened and anything
\nbut post-adolescent. She has a supple and schooled delivery that
\ncan change colors when necessary.
\nTidal<\/i>‘s conception may have been based on displaying Apple’s
\nvoice in many different settings. Despite this thought, it’s
\nsurprisingly focused on her music (she wrote all the songs).<\/p>\n
I first saw her on a young artist show a couple years ago, and
\nshe was performing one of her soon to be singles, “Shadowboxer”.
\nHonestly? I thought it was a great song. Here’s this cute, slightly
\npudgy girl with the ability to do torch songs, and she’s really
\nrocking. But after the song ended, she slinked up to the mic and
\nproceeded to whine and moan about various issues she felt were
\nimportant enough to ruin the whole set. This went on for a good 10
\nminutes! Thus the conflict: The Voice, and The Idiocy. Of course,
\nher handlers have now molded her into a vixen with the requisite
\nheroin chic look of skinniness and sunken eyes. I hate MTV.<\/p>\n
\nTidal<\/i> opens with a musky bass drum dirge, on what is the
\nalbum’s best song, “Sleep To Dream”. The subtle problem with “Sleep
\nTo Dream” reflects an issue I have with the whole image building
\nprocess in music. This doesn’t sound altogether like a Fiona Apple
\nsong to me – it sounds like the Producer’s song. Not that it’s a
\nbad thing; the production has a lot of endearing elements. However,
\nI hate the feeling that I’m not listening to the artist’s complete
\nvision – it bothers me and takes away from the overall experience.
\nRegardless, “Sleep To Dream” is strong enough to set a standard for
\nthe rest of the album (as all good opening tracks should).<\/p>\n
It’s worth mentioning that Apple has the necessary pedigree to
\nsucceed as an overly emotional singer songwriter: showbiz parents,
\nher much talked about rape, and a bevy of apparently worthless
\nex-boyfriends. I’ll admit I resisted the strong urge to fast
\nforward through a lot of the slower, piano and voice oriented
\ntracks, as I usually find these types of songs dreadfully boring.
\nThere is a caveat, and this will probably define Apple in the next
\nfew years – her voice really carries the slower numbers.<\/p>\n
The players on
\nTidal<\/i> are excellent. The backdrop to Apple’s voice is
\nimpeccable and surprisingly intricate for the type of music. They
\nsay Apple played piano on the album. If this is true she’s a damned
\ngood player – I’ll leave it at that. Van Dyke Parks, who did the
\ninstrumental arrangements, deserves special attention. His
\narrangement gives
\nTidal<\/i>‘s backing tracks a unique flavor among the recent rash
\nof female oriented confessional albums. Interesting groups of
\nwoodwinds and strings appear and vanish; this establishes a
\ndream-like quality that maintains the atmosphere throughout. And
\nthis is where
\nTidal<\/i> completely succeeds: it takes a listener to another
\nplace and keeps them there with its wonderful consistency in
\nproduction.<\/p>\n
Another strong track (and single), “Criminal” is a favorite.
\nSince this song displays all the elements of a classic (excellent
\nmusic, catchy melody, and characteristic vocals) I can listen
\nmultiple times in one sitting. A thought occurred that more songs
\nin this vein, where Apple plays the part of a heartbreaker rather
\nthan a victim, would make for a more interesting sequence.<\/p>\n
An interesting tune worth noting is “First Taste”. Despite the
\nobvious Sade’ influence, the song takes off into Apple’s vision of
\na romance (I think…the lyrics are less than illuminated). Her
\nvoice is gorgeous here, and mixes well with the samba beat behind
\nher. “Carrion” is another tune with a strong melody. Unfortunately
\nthe chorus is extremely forced, to the point of being overly
\ncontrived.<\/p>\n
Although I now fast-forward often while listening to
\nTidal<\/i>, I think it’s a worthwhile investment if only to hear
\nApple sing. And the fact is, as much as I want to maintain my
\nrocker fa\u00e7ade, I do listen to it often. It bothers me (but
\nit doesn’t keep me up at night) that an artist feels she has to
\ndictate rebellion to her fans (which is utterly ridiculous – that’s
\nassuming people still think on their own). Maybe Apple knows
\nsomething I don’t. She does have a lot of fans to deal with. And
\nthat, I think, says it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":24875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6026],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36080","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fiona-apple","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36080"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}