Customer Reviews

Extraordinary Machine

5 star:		(151)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Fiona Apple's first new album in six years, Extraordinary Machine, faced a Wilco Yankee Foxtrot Hotel dilemma when her label, Epic, held off releasing it because they thought it was too uncommercial. Due to an aggressive internet campaign and the leaking of the songs, Epic changed their mind and gave Ms. Apple the green light. The album is a stunning collection of songs, many of which were written in the aftermath of Ms. Apple's break up with director Paul Thomas Anderson. Due to this circumstance and the fact that she is no longer a teenager as she was on her first release, the songs have an air of maturity that her previous efforts lacked. The album features producers Jon Brion (who worked the original sessions, but only ends up as a producer on two tracks, Brian Kehew and Mike Elizondo who work with hip-hop artists shows up on the album. Mr. Kehew & Mr. Elizondo don't turn the album into a hip-hop affair, they beautiful match Ms. Apple's smoky voice and soft piano with simple loops that accentuate not dominate the sound. "Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)" is a perfect example of their work. They also move away from the baroque sounds of the internet album by adding guitars, horns and slamming drums to the mix. Ms. Apple is the real star though and her work on the piano driven "Get Him Back", the wicked "Red Red Red", the intense "Window" and the great "Better Version Of Me" show that she is ready to take the leap into superior singer-songwriter territory.

After two years of waiting, grumbling, downloading, and sighing for lack of, we finally have Fiona Apples amazing third album, Extraordinary Machine.

You can definitely tell that she has matured a great deal since "When the Pawn...". She made a lot of changes from "Tidal" to "When the Pawn..." and made a lot of changes from then until now. She seems to have fused the sounds from both albums together, making a musically biting, yet soft album that incorporates a few new sounds as well. For instance, "Tymps" has a very...hip hop feel to it. It's the danciest track she's EVER done, and I think it's absolutely amazing.

She embraces her soft side from the getgo, letting EVERYONE know that this is still very much her, regardless what "Fast As You Can" and "Limp" had to say about it. Her lyrics are great, and I think the ode to her own amazing abilities is extremely well-done. I find this song very fun to listen to, and relaxing at the same time.

The next track, Get Him Back, is a rompin' tavern song (at least I can imagine it being one, with that piano!). Her voice sounds great on this song, and the lyrics are clever and interesting. One of my favorites!

O'Sailor was one of the songs released on Itunes before the CD was released. It's got a very bluesy, merry-go-round sound to it that compliments her smoky voice perfectly. This is one of those "Tidal" fused with "When the Pawn..." songs I told you about. I really enjoy this.

Better Than Me is another fun, bouncy song. I tell you, I love the piano! I just love it! You'll like this one. The chorus is fantastic. This song also utilizes some interesting synth work we haven't heard from her before.

Tymps (The Sick In The Head Song) is the most fun you can have on this CD while still remembering that it's heartfelt, soulful Fiona that's singing. Add the beat and you've got yourself a DEFINITE radio track. Take THAT stupid record labels!

The album continues in this general trend, vascillating from slow to warm and fast, till it concludes with the truly clever, interesting, and downright wonderful track, "Waltz (Better Than Fine", which utilizes, as the title suggest, a waltz as background music. It's pretty soft, at the beginning, but as it progresses it gains edge and volume. You gotta hear this to understand just why I love it so much.

Oh, and some background on this album incase you aren't aware.... In 2003, this album was up and ready to go, but her label "shelved" it because they didn't feel it had a leading radio single to push sales of it. Then, an internet DJ apparently leaked the tracks all over the internet, and when mad Fiona fans heard it, they only got madder. Why keep this brilliance "shelved"? What the hell? "Free Fiona", a website dedicated to getting this album released was then erected (which she thanks in her liner notes) and I wholly attribute this release to their efforts. Fiona, you ROCK, and your fans ROCK HARDER! I love you all!

Pick this up, if not for Fiona, then for the love of music. Do it. Now. Stop reading this, and press "buy".

I've been a fan of Fiona Apple ever since picking up a copy of Tidal back in college. Since that time, I've pretty much always had a tape, CD, or .mp3 player with at least one of Fiona Apple's songs on it. Her voice and talents on the piano can't be matched by any other artist I've ever heard. So, it should be easy to see that I'm very happy the drought of new Fiona material has ended with the release of Extraordinary Machine.

I should also add that I have heard the "leaked" version of this album, which was done with producer Jon Brion. The music they created together in that version is amazing and I was eagerly awaiting something just like that when I picked up the official release. This is not the case though.

If you have heard the leaked version of this album and feel that anything less than owning an actual copy of that is a waste of money, then it might be better to not buy this album. I'm not saying this version is bad...it's still amazing when looked at on its own. I'm only trying to convey that some of the tracks have been changed drastically in terms of backup instruments and vocal effects, to the point where they have taken a slightly new direction. Most notable in those changes are revamped versions of Window, Tymps (the sick in the head song), O'Sailor, and Not About Love. All of those tracks are still wonderful works of art, but they feel a little different on this album. There were changes in just about every track, but those are the ones that stand out most to me.

Two of the Brion tracks did survive the change to producer Mike Elizondo. Extraordinary Machine and Waltz remain the same as what many Fiona fans have heard over the past several months. Brion's influence is still present in many of the other songs as well, although most of the tracks do have a slightly more hip-hop sound to them. That is largely the result of using a producer who has worked with many of the greats of that genre. They still sound great and should be enjoyed by any music fan.

This album does include the addition of the song Parting Gift, which is a melancholy tune with just Fiona and her piano. Her voice really shines through the entire song and it is quickly becoming on my favorites of the new album. This song alone almost makes it worth owning the record for me.

I purchased the DualDisc version of the CD, which has many great little extras added in. The camera work on the live performances is a little shaky and out of focus at times, but it does provide a look at Fiona and Jon in a very intimate club setting. Fiona plays no piano in most of the videos. It's mainly Jon playing acoustic guitar while Fiona sings. Most of the features were actually already available on the official Fiona website, so you may not get much new material if you've viewed the media there. The video for Not About Love is pretty humorous, and is another added bonus of the DualDisc release.

Overall, this is a great album and I would say just about any fan of Fiona should pick it up. I'll be proud to have it sit in my collection, ready to pull out when I'm one of those moods where only Fiona will do.

"O' [Elizondo], why'd you do it? What'd you do that for?"
I was very excited when I found out Fiona Apple's masterpiece was finally going to see the light of day. I was even further psyched when I heard song samples on numerous websites prior to it`s release. The very broad strokes of difference from it's original I heard in little teasers was quite intriguing. I was very eager to hear the "newly reworked" songs in their entirety. I really wanted to like this album more than the previously leaked and somewhat unfinished version. However, now that I have my hands on it, I am less than thrilled. With the "revised" edition, I am left with a sense of emptiness. Don't get me wrong, I love the album. I mean, I would love anything spouted forth from Fiona's perfectly pout mouth. However, the question I have to ask myself is whether or not this version is better than the original. As of right now, after only one listen, I'd have to say no. My biggest complaint is that Fiona's vocals just sound constrained. She sounds as if she's lost her spark. That burning red spark that was always smoldering from within her tiny and neurotic frame. With that gone, she just sounds incredibly bored. And if I were her, I would probably be bored to nausea at this point as well. After the long and strenuous journey to this point of Extraordinary Machine's release, it seems almost anti-climactic. And you can certainly hear that within her voice. I don't really have a huge problem with the remake as far as the instrumentation goes. Almost everything is perfectly pleasing to the ear. Mike Elizondo created some really interesting music here. However, he probably should have kept his talents within the "rap world". In my opinion, Jon Brion, the albums original producer, is much better suited for this genre of music. Some people have said that Brion's version didn't give Fiona's songs a chance to breathe and that Elizondo`s did. But personally, I'd rather be short on breath than pass out from exhaustion. Elizondo's songs just sound tired and uninspired. In fact, a lot of the albums sting has been extracted. For example, on the original "Better Version of Me", just before "Can't take a good day without a bad one", there is a step up that packs a major punch. On this new version, it just coasts on by without making any waves. Elizondo took away it's kick. He also botched "O' Sailor", which was once sultry and remorseful. Now, along with it's insipid chorus-like backing vocals, it just doesn't impress. Most of these songs have been reworked so much that the edge has finally wore off. Another complaint I have is for the once perfect song "Please Please Please". Brion's version is amazingly catchy. The new version is amazingly stoic. Elizondo has completely raped this song of all it's glory. Once staccato paced and delightfully deviant, is now just plain, stripped and bare. "Red Red Red" was also regretfully touched in the same way. That seems the case for most of Elizondo's cuts, in fact. He tries oh-so-very hard to bring new life into Brion's songs. But the results only backfire in his face. Sometimes bigger, louder, and more commercial isn't always better. Brion's version may have not been perfect, but it was certainly better than this. He had the right idea. He just needed a little help executing it. I'm sure Mike Elizondo had good intentions, and for the most part didn't create a bad album. But some things are better left untouched. To me, it sounds as if Jon Brion's Extraordinary Machine has been taken by Elizondo and dunked into a glass of stale water. Now that the album has reached the surface, it just comes off cold and wet in comparison to that of the original. Now with that said, I would like to say I am giving this album 5 stars. You may be wondering why I would give it such high marks after everything I`ve just said. The reason for that is, it's only insignificant when put next to the original and unreleased Jon Brion version. If this album were to stand on it's own, it certainly wouldn`t need supports. Fiona Apple is without a doubt one of the most talented and ingenious artists out there today. Her writing and musical sensibilities while odd at times, are visionary and completely unparalleled nonetheless. The "Extraordinary Machine Saga" is an unfortunate event that hopefully will not sway her from continuing on as a musician. Because frankly, the world needs more albums like this, original and/or new.

When asked about so-called "alternative" music, Elvis Costello once joked, "Alternative to what? Good?" The criminal behavior of Sony Executives who refused release Miss Apple's best work in an earlier incarnation produced by Jon Brion says a lot about the music industry's dependence upon phony constructions of new genres and its destructive dependence upon genre-based critical theory (an enemy to quality film production also, to which Fiona's former lover, P.T Anderson could readily attest). In the era of postmodernism and post-structuralist theory, the artist suddenly came to be viewed by popular culture as a spoiled brat - a greedy, selfish creature - despite the universal history of human culture in which artists were always holy and generous. Sure, most academics who've fallen for the whole "popular genres" approach to reading art can barely spell but there are many intelligent people who've been fooled too and, ultimately, betrayed by their own shallowness (they're the ones who sneer at everything because they're always disappointed). The founding principle of great art was love and fidelity. Record companies used to believe wholeheartedly in artist development because they understood the value of audiences making life-long connections with their favorite artists. To this end, Bob Dylan has remained Sony (formerly Columbia) Records' longest serving and most esteemed artist. In 2003, Fiona Apple delivered an album that gave her rightful claim to a place in the pantheon where Dylan resides. After hearing that original version of the album and now hearing the album that has finally made it to retail outlets, it is clear Sony had Fiona Apple pegged as an "alternative artist" and were nervous about her out-growing the likes of P.J Harvey as a literate, mature songwriter offering a great deal more than comfortable empathy when you're having a bad period.

In the tradition of the masters, Miss Apple offers her whole heart and soul on this album. The lawyers and accountants, like so many pig-ignorant university grads in the last ten years, would surely have exclaimed: "Indulgent!" This is sad for everyone, including them, because there is nothing more generous and exquisite than a heart as big as it is appears here operating as an "Extraordinary Machine".

Even more ironic is that Sony may save face somewhat because the ring-in Producer Mike Elizondo has done an amazing job of not destroying these brilliant songs. Jon Brion's version of the album was very jazzy and relied heavily on orchestration, echoing another under-appreciated masterpiece: Cindy Lee Berryhill's "Garage Orchestra". Fiona sang her hardest on the 2003 version and sounded much angrier. You could hear the fresh wounds from her heartbreak with P.T Anderson and her acrimony towards her label was also more transparent. But it definitely wasn't an Alanis Morisette revenge record; rather, it was more of a brutal, defiant, generational equivalent to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl". Sony will claim Mike Elizondo's production is more "dynamic". There are certainly more tempo changes, reverb and signifiers of technology. Happily, although some of the anger is diffused, Elizondo's production marries well with Fiona's predominant themes. Some tracks do sound improved, particularly "o' sailor", which no longer sounds like it belonged more on "Tidal". One feels this is, however, credit, most of all, to Miss Apple, herself, who obviously took every unjust setback on the chin and chose to embrace it as another opportunity to throw more love at these songs and more love our way, too.

The album opens with the title track in all its unaltered glory. Lyrically, it serves as proof of why Alanis and PJ are infants compared to Fiona; her balance between confessional introspection ("I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes"), perceptive social observation ("...he's no good at being uncomfortable, so/He can't stop staying exactly the same") and wit, the most crucial ingredient, gives her a far greater grasp of insight into the human condition. One of only two tracks Produced by Jon Brion, "extraordinary machine" is a punchy, progressive jazz delight with an extremely deliberate vocal enunciation of the lyric.

"Get Him Back" was always one of the best songs on the album. If anything, it is more subtle than it was, yet somehow it seems to have transformed into an anthem of the highest order for the jilted everywhere. Again, the lyric is one of the best ever written by an internally focused writer, with sharp lines such as "I think he let me down when he didn't disappoint me". Musically, it compares well with "Fast As You Can" from "When the pawn" and retains some of that sound.

"o sailor" is an obvious choice for the first single: a universal ballad about not trusting love ("Everything good, I deem too good to be true"). Although Elizondo's production is, if anything, more studied than Brion's, what could have been a straightforward torch song seems to be driven by something more delicate and exquisite: the song sounds so intimate and immediate it could just be a naked heartbeat.

Typically, there were many fine versions of "Better Version Of Me" recorded. The one that made the final cut is the most expansive and apt self-portrait. The song has a distinct Beatles (circa "Abbey Road") quality.

"Tymps (The Sick In The Head Song)" is another standout. Elizondo's embellishments were obviously intended to make the song sound more strange and evocative of mental illness but serendipitously Fiona Apple has seized upon the opportunity to sing with richer passion to the marimba and wurlitzer. Comparisons may be drawn with Tom Waits or the earliest work of The Eels. The result is sheer poetry: "My feet of clay, they dried to dust/ The red isn't the red we painted/It's just rust".

The new track, "Parting Gift" is a virtuoso solo piano performance ranging from the tenderest caress to physical violence and self flagellation on the keys, not to mention the listener's heart-strings. It is difficult to convey the potency of lines like "You looked as sincere as a dog".

"Window" is a breathtaking "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" number. Yes, it will appeal to anyone having a bad day: sing along with the words "Better that I break the window/Than him, or her, or me" and you are guaranteed to feel better. That said, there are depths to the song that reveal themselves only after repeated listenings. In spite of its rousing chorus, "Window" is really about the human right to an independent world view.

"Oh Well" is, simply, one of the most beautiful songs ever written: another fragile, intricate tune with moments of uncensored passion as operatic as any of Prince's best compositions. Fiona blames herself for love gone wrong as much as she blames anybody else and it is inspiring that the only crime she cannot forgive is not believing in "unconditional love".

"Please Please Please" is the much anticipated onslaught on the record company and its values: "And you can hear our sad brains screaming:/'Give us something familiar". It must hurt them more that it's such a fantastic song and one of the most accessible pop efforts of Miss Apple's career.

"Red Red Red" is another example of a track improved by time. In its early incarnation, the song was absolutely harrowing without relief, especially when Fiona cried out "kill, kill, kill". The venom in those words is still there but the song is now a dreamy, melancholia that everyone can relate to: "And I don't understand; I'll never understand/-But I'll try to understand".

"Not About Love" again displays a Beatles influence. The classical structure of the song deftly articulates how love turns to "a play for blood" but Fiona refuses to stoop to the same level as lesser artists and resolves the song with an effort to "Try to live in a lovelier light".

"Waltz", a sweeping ballad, imbued with innocent wonder, embodies this very light: "If you don't have a point to make/Don't sweat it/ You'll make a sharp one being so kind". In fact, the entire album is the thematic embodiment of this light and wisdom.

It may have taken 6 years to produce and release but "Extraordinary Machine" is the magnum opus every artist searches for: it is Fiona's "Sgt. Peppers", "Blonde On Blonde" and "Parade" rolled into one. What Sony failed to understand until now is that "Extraordinary Machine" is an album transcendent of genre: its songs are for everyone, by one of the great artists of our time.

Fiona Apple's newest album Extraordinary Machine seamlessly combines different music styles, and artfully presents them in her own unique creation. This album should be appreciated for several reasons: Technique, Artistry & Vision. Technically Fiona is obviously a well trained and fluent musician. Artistically her use of multi-instrumental accompaniments and tempos, as well as complex lyrics and a showcase of vocal individuality has set her apart. As a visionary, Fiona's music has proven to be the expression of her mind's eye. Keep an open mind and you will find the technical, artistic and visionary expertise of this artist. This album shows an artist whose work should be taken at face value, which in this case, is worth a lot more than it's retail value. Buy this album.

To write something new about "Extraordinary machine" is complicated. I just can say is one of the best records in 2006 and maybe ever.
I'm a Fiona Apple fan since "tidal". I'm not in the opinion is better the internet version, you know about it I guess. In the internet copy music covers fiona's voice in a way destroy her best, her voice and her piano playing.
Now you can listening to her in a very clear way, and there are treasures as Parting Gift, so simply and stunning.
My favorite songs, whatever, are "Window" with best lyric on Fiona career and Oh Well, so beatiful...
So, forget about al the noise about internet album and Sony conspirations and all these stuff and enjoy this extraordinary record.

Though the overextended wait for Fiona's third release might have left you to expect a disappointment, this is anything but. Fiona's work as a individual - both in and outside of music - continues in full force with "Extraordinary Machine." While I personally enjoy the title track by far, you cannot deny the compelling sounds of "O'Sailor" and "Get him Back." I had the fortune of seeing her perform selections from this new album live, and she was fabulous. Though Fiona can be labeled, at times, melodramatic and slightly over zealous, I have to say, it's refreshing to find that someone who has fallen in and out of the Hollywood hype can still channel that energy into something excitingly creative. If you strive to find others like her that still manage to write compelling songs with lyrics to match, check out Gretchen Lieberum - you can totally sink into her album like you can fiona's, and she just came out with "Siren Songs".

And if you don't have any of Fiona's earlier works - for shame! No, seriously, go buy them.

After a troublesome 6 year hiatus, Fiona returns more potent than ever on the fierce "Extraordinary Machine"
On "Not About Love" she brilliantly says..."Took a vacation/ My palett got clean/ Now I can taste your agenda/ While your spitting your cud."
& she certainly backs that statement up with more experimentation than ever. She rips & shimmers with ease, style, & class through these 12 amazing songs. Each song, even the ballads, packs a refreshing & ambitious punch. The instrumentation, eclectic & innovative, blends with each whisper & roar that changes with each song & melody.
The thing that this album has that most albums out today don't have, is creativity & muse. Fiona is a genuine artist who never ceases to fulfull her potential. "Extraordinary Machine" is a wonderful & intricate journey worth taking.

It is hands down the most amazing album I have bought in years. I never thought I could get personal, emotional affect from music. Now I know I just hadn't found it yet. Favorites -Tymps, Parting Gift, Extraordinary Machine, Better version of me, Window, well you get the point the whole disc is wonderful. Fiona, if you ever read these, thank you.