CARLITO’S WAY: GET TO KNOW FIONA APPLE (before her new record drops)
We here at The House of Dandridge would like to introduce to you a very special new column to the roster! Since the quarantine and Covid-19 pandemic has taken over our lives, we reached out to a few of our friends and fellow artists to see if they were interested in becoming a contributor to the blog and help dust off these pages with some fresh content!
Please welcome Carlos Acosta aka Carlø and his new music themed column CARLITO’S WAY! Follow him on Instagram @humanitat
GET TO KNOW FIONA APPLE (before her new record drops)
Fiona Apple’s angst wasn’t a manufactured marketing strategy. She has openly spoken about being raped at the age of 12 outside her mother’s Manhattan apartment. This incident would lead to much of the writing on her debut, Tidal, which featured her hit, Criminal and the trip hop inflections on Sleep To Dream, the sultry slow-burn of Slow Like Honey and the deeply honest Never Is A Promise. Below we’ll take a look at her career with interesting facts through each album leading up to her latest masterpiece.
Criminal’s music video was directed by Mark Romanek and played heavily on the idea of voyeurism, anorexic supermodels and sexualizing adolescence further cementing its controversy.
Winning an MTV Video Music Award for “best new artist” in 1998, Fiona fueled her flame by accepting the award and proclaiming, “This world is bullshit,” asserting the notion that viewers shouldn’t model themselves on what is sold to them in the media in her most famous act.
Tidal would go on to sell upwards of 3 million records and the album’s most popular single, Criminal won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1998.
DID YOU KNOW? In 2017, Tidal got its first vinyl run as a ‘Vinyl Me, Please’ exclusive “Record of the Month.”
Singles: Shadowboxer, Sleep to Dream, Slow Like Honey, Criminal, Never is a Promise, The First Taste
Must Listen: Full Record
Apple’s boyfriend at the time, lauded filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, directed videos for all three singles, after meeting during a Rolling Stone cover shoot. He directed her music video
for Pleasantville’s soundtrack, where she covered The Beatle’s 1969 meditative track, “Across The Universe” in a black and white, slo-mo stylized concept video.
In 1999, Fiona Apple had the longest title (444 characters) for an album in history. Apple’s second album, 1999’s “When the pawn…”(as it was abbreviated in most publications) full title hotly reads,
When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight And he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring There’s no body to batter when your mind is your might So when you go solo, you hold your own hand And remember that depth is the greatest of heights And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land And if you fall it won’t matter, cause you’ll know that you’re right
In 2019, Apple collaborated with King Princess on a cover of “I Know”. The song was released for Spotify’s RISE program on January 25.
DID YOU KNOW? Fiona’s stage anxiety has led to very highly publicized on-stage freak outs and storm offs throughout her career.
Singles : Fast As You Can, Limp, Paper Bag
Must listen: Full Record
With an expected release of 2003, Fiona’s third album, Extraordinary Machine underwent multiple delays several times leading to fan speculation that it was over its commercial appeal (or lack thereof). It was finally released on October 3, 2005.
In January of 2005 a highly publicized week-long fan campaign happened outside of Sony record headquarters. Rumor has it, Sony Records was flooded with packages they received from fans. In those packages…? Apples.
In late June 2004, the full record Extraordinary Machine, in its original Jon Brion produced form(who had collaborated with Apple on her previous record When the Pawn…) leaked. Inevitably, the record would be re-recorded with famed hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo. Two tracks, Extraordinary Machine and Waltz remained unchanged whilst Parting Gift was a new addition to the album.
DID YOU KNOW: The album cover was taken by Fiona herself in her garden. The inlay has that very same flower bloomed. What was the inspiration behind shooting her own cover art? To avoid having a label-run photo-shoot!
Singles: O’ Sailor, Parting Gift, Not About Love, Get Him Back
Must listen: Full Record
The full title of Fiona’s fourth album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do was brilliantly penned by Fiona herself and followed her tradition of long album titles.
The first and only single derived from The Idler Wheel…was Every Single Night. The music video directed by Joseph Cahill in Paris, France featured Fiona sporting an octopus headdress, laying in bed with a Minotaur, laying with snails and feeding an alligator.
In 2012 The Idler Wheel…topped many year-end lists, top 5 lists, and was nominated at the 55th Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Album.
DID YOU KNOW? The bonus track Largo was a love song to the only place in LA that Fiona would frequent. She would often perform covers and her original songs alongside famed musician and friends. The song Jonathan is named after Jonathan Ames, the American author and screenwriter she dated.
Single: Every Single Night
Must Listen: Full Record
Fiona Apple’s lyricisms are unlike any of her contemporaries with a full contralto voice that cultivates her deep melodrama. From the bare-boned candid debut to the whimsical yet angry follow-up…, to the kooky self-realization of Extraordinary Machine, and finally to the darker ambience of The Idler Wheel…Fiona continues to prove that her place in popular culture is not to be rushed. She has released beautiful covers of Sally’s Song (Nightmare Before Christmas), Frosty The Snowman, has covered Bill Withers, Paul Simon, and Cat Stevens among many others. She most recently provided the title track to the Showtime show The Affair and even released a mini-song called, Tiny Hands dedicated to Donald Trump. Her releases are slowly calculated and meticulously unleashed. She has already cemented her position as one of the greatest alternative pop singers in history.
So, open a bottle of wine and listen to each of her records in sequential order and prepare for what is sure to be one of the great records released under quarantine and undoubtedly one of the top records of 2020!
Fiona Apple’s eagerly anticipated forthcoming album, Fetch The Boltcutters is out on April 17th. Below are 11 of the 13 confirmed titles to be on the forthcoming release.
“Fetch the Bolt Cutters”
“The Drumset is Gone”
“For Her”
“Heavy Balloon”
“I Want You to Love Me”
“Kick Me Under the Table”
“Ladies”
“Newspaper”
“On I Go”
“Rack of His”
“Shameka”
In the meantime, check out Fiona Apple and Shirley Manson (of Garbage) performing “You Don’t Own Me” below.
