Fiona Apple

Extraordinary Machine (Epic)

By Amber Drea
Published: October 10th, 2005 | 1:26pm

Fiona Apple's third full-length album, Extraordinary Machine, could have also been titled How To Sell a Shit Load Of Records. First, disappear off the face of the Earth for five years. Second, allow the emergence of a ginormous controversy that paints a major record label as the big, bad meanies when in fact it's your own artistic self-doubt holding back the release. Third, and finally, spill all to magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone, make in-store appearances like they're going out of business sales, and play small, exclusive club dates and Hurricane Katrina fundraisers.

Not that I'm complaining: Fiona Apple is the new Tori Amos. Besides the obvious comparisons -— rape, piano, confessional songwriting, instances of insanity, rabid fans — Apple replaces the void that Amos left behind when she converted to full-fledged adult contemporary with the releases Scarlet's Walk and The Beekeeper. Apple isn't anywhere near as experimental as Boys For Pele-era Amos, but at least she continues to incorporate unique chord progressions, complex melodies, off-kilter rhythms, and metaphorical lyrics free of cliché.

Despite the extensive break and change in producers — from long-time friend and collaborator Jon Brion to hip-hop head Mike Elizondo — Extraordinary Machine is nothing we haven't heard from Apple before. It's actually a combination of 1996’s Tidal and 1999’s When the Pawn … with a 1920s ragtime twist. Apple’s composition and subject matter (men, familial relations, men, her image, men) hasn't evolved much, but her voice certainly has. Half-Billie Holiday, half-Ella Fitzgerald, Apple sings with more soulful, bluesy playfulness than ever before. She still uses seldom heard words like "rubicon," "folderol," and "belied" and unusual pronunciations ("harrowing" comes across as "heroin"), delivering them with a rhythmic dexterity akin to rappers like Gift of Gab or Mr. Lif.

The similarities between Apple's music and hip-hop don't end there. Elizondo, who's produced Dr. Dre and Eminem, has a little something to do with it. While Brion's work on Tidal and When the Pawn … defined Apple's sound, Elizondo has taken her signature style to the next level by adding drum programming, textured keyboards and effects, and breakdowns that borrow from Queen and Steely Dan. Drum overdubs from Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson from the Roots on "Get Him Back" and "Not About Love" add further to the hip-hop element.

The only songs not produced by Elizondo are the album's bookends, "Extraordinary Machine" and "Waltz (Better Than Fine)," most likely because Brion used orchestral arrangements that are tough to improve upon, or even duplicate. To dispel any rumors, Brion happily hooked Apple up with Elizondo when she wanted to rerecord the songs with someone new — it was more important that Apple make more music than for him to gain another album credit. The two producers are even performing together as Apple's backing band for select shows.

More than anything, Brion is the person responsible for encouraging Apple to start writing again and stop her from retiring, which is hard to believe given the amount of people begging for her music. Perhaps that's yet another difference between Apple and Amos — the latter churns out piano-driven drivel long after she's run out of things to say while the former will wait half-a-decade before saying anything.

Apple's label seems to be overcompensating for the lack of product by releasing Extraordinary Machine as a DualDisc, with the album on one side and a DVD of videos on the other. In the live performances at Club Largo in LA, it's apparent that Apple still finds her inspiration in anger. On the title track, a campy little ditty, she snarls and scowls like she wants to hurt somebody. But she shows her sense of humor with the hilarious video for "Not About Love," which features a chubby guy with a scruffy beard lip-syncing the entire song in between spasms of choreographed modern dance while Apple implores him to look at or listen to her. Let's hope she also develops a broader range of things to sing about for the next record.