Fetch The Sledgehammer: Fiona Apple calls out the Grammys for nominating Dr. Puke

[pervertedlikeme]

Fiona Apple on the album of the year, Grammys hypocrisy and how #MeToo helped her get sober https://t.co/JmRN8WOPIG
- The Guardian (@guardian) December 18, 2020

In a new interview, Fiona Apple says she was excited [for a moment] to be included with the all-women Best Rock Performance nominees. Her excitement fizzled when she remembered the academy's

Comments

[xellabelle]

This is the most unpopular opinion ever but I can’t get into Fiona Apple. Like her music legit gives me anxiety when I listen to it at night.

I think I don’t like music that feels disjointed and unpredictable with sudden changes without clear beats or structure that move from verse to chorus to verse. So her new album and stuff like Joanna Newsom’s music and The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky lmao feel like unsettling alien music to me, sorry!

[genbu_no_miko24]

I've never really been able to get into her outside of Criminal, Fast As You Can, and her cover of The Beatles's Across the Universe.

I can be very picky with piano-driven music but she does seem nice. Her "This world is bullshit" comment is still iconic lol.

[dior_chic]

I acknowledge how interesting and creative her work is for sure, but yea I agree. But it has nothing do with the quality of her work, it’s just not my thing. I’m willing to dive more into her discography one day but the few songs I listened to wasn’t for me.

[irajaxon]

i feel that way about jazz*. i generally dislike complex time signatures and chord progressions. in that sense, i'm a total simpleton.

"fetch the bolt cutters" has some unusual instrumentation and somewhat more experimental structures, but most of the tracks follow pretty standard song progressions. i can see how it follows from "idler wheel", but it's not a good entry point for music, i don't think. there is a nervous energy that permeates her music and i think "fetch the bolt cutters" is what the inside of her sounds like (which she kinda describes in the song "every single night" from "idler wheel"). if you want to give her music another shot, stick with the first 3 albums. if you're comfortable with those, try "idler wheel" (it's got some great songs).

*with the exception of new orleans jazz. i've liked just about everything i've heard from the preservation hall jazz band and i love the second line brass bands/jazz funeral tradition.

[nerwende]

Ooh I’m so relieved to hear someone else say that about jazz! So much of it just makes me want to crawl out of my skin! And that in turn makes me feel stupid because I recognise the immense talent and creativity in it but on a physical level it just. makes me so uncomfortable??

[sillycucumber2]

I love all of Fionas music but I did learn to love the poppier stuff first, like Oh Sailor and Paper Bag and Limp. Now it's all magic to me, tho I feel her first album is weak. Try Werewolf and Shameika too. Extraordinary Machine is her most straightforward album on first listen imo.

It's cliche but true I kind of consider her a poet who just uses music as her outlet.

[seashell_bikini]

I have never liked her after she called my favorite musician "a poster child for rape."

I've heard Criminal and I refuse to listen to another song ever.

[peddlestools]

Wow who did she call that???

[allstar12]

I just hit up Google to find out who the other singer was and now finding out that FA is a survivor of r*pe, I really hope she didn't actually say that about another person.

Edit: she allegedly said it about Tori Amos, which if true is gross since Tori Amos founded the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN).

[sixdemonhag]

Tori Amos

[jemgirl90]

http://thedent.com/artnov97.html#spin

Spin magazine constantly pitted woman against each other and put things out of context. I remember that Fiona being assaulted was the first thing in every article about her when she came out and as for a time with Tori.

[fyuf]

Yeah, I remember Fiona being really frustrated with (male) music journalists lazily lumping her and Tori together as similar artists. She said they reduced both of them to two words: piano/rape.

[wickedground]

I couldn't get into her new music because it sounded so disjointed and not what I was expecting (and as the previous commenter, I can't get into Jazz either for similar reasons), but I did like her first two albums.

[peddlestools]

Jazz is bad tho

[craww]

I feel the same way. I would say listen to Fiona's first three albums because they're more traditionally melodic. There are of course some songs on The Idler Wheel and Fetch The Bolt Cutters that aren't as disjointed, so rather than listen to the whole albums (and feel that anxiety) I just throw the non-anxiety inducing songs on playlists. Fiona's one of the artists I listen to despite that feeling. Same with Perfume Genius. I probably grew conditional tolerance for it by listening to a lot of Shudder to Think in my youth.

Joanna Newsom is anxiety inducing non-stop. There is no isolating a few breakaway pop hits for your playlists. That one is in for a penny in for a pound.

[crimps4]

I think this last album is def like that. Her first few albums are more linear, but still gorgeous.