Archive for March 17th, 2012

The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do

Fiona Apple appears to be one of those musicians who’s been locked in a shitty record deal. Her last album, Extraordinary Machine was shelved by Epic for three years because the record executives couldn’t hear a hit single on any of the tracks. Only after a letter-writing campaign orchestrated by fans, did they release the record. Even still she was forced to change producers and re-record all the songs (bootlegs of the original recordings can be found on the Internet). That was in 2005. In my humble opinion, the album is astonishing.

Music is a strange entity. I’m very interested in watching artists evolve, I’m not one of those people who listen to an album to find a catchy line or melodic hook, I’m looking to see how the musician experiments not just with music, but with their talent. I think anyone who creates needs to expand on what they have previously accomplished. Unfortunately the masses only buy music that they hear on the radio or whose music video is on heavy rotation. Musicians who have had a success feel pressure to release music that is similar to their old hits, but the good artists, the ones we’ll be talking about in twenty years, buck that trend because they make music that resonates with themselves first.

Tori Amos — whose latter career has been dominated by concept and heavy thematic albums — was once asked to respond to the critics who hoped that she would concentrate more on releasing music similar to Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink. She said, “It would be tragic, if at 48, I was still writing music about my boyfriend who dumped me. I’ve been married for 16 years!”

As an artist evolves, so does their music. They can’t be 28-year-olds forever.

Like Amos, Fiona Apple’s talent is off the charts. Funnily enough I wasn’t a big fan of her debut album Tidal. It was when she released her second album – 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 Ynow 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 – that I first took notice. That was in 1999.

Music blogs recently announced the release her fourth album (see title of this blog post) in June. Last week she performed at SXSW where she introduced three new songs off the upcoming record.

People always ask me why I’m obsessed with artists like Apple and Amos. It perplexes them that I’m not overly concerned with the Toronto music scene. It’s a very hard thing to explain to people. First of all, I don’t listen to music to belong to a group, or to appear cool. It’s not about my image. Unfortunately in Toronto, music fans can be unfairly vicious and snobby. Having a plethora of musical knowledge is part of their identity, but I can separate what I like with who I am.

I like all types of music, but it’s true that I’m drawn to new work by trusted favourites.

Tori Amos represents pure artistic freedom to me. She doesn’t care what people think and every album (there are 12 in total now) are pieces of art. Her music, especially her lyrics, aren’t very accessible, but the music industry is blanketed with talentless, overly-marketed, and not very bright individuals who put fame and fortune before their music. In fact, they’re not terribly interested in music at all. Amos and Apple are consistent, can write music, produce music and perform music live. Forgive me, but that’s an important ingredient for me.

Fiona Apple has been caged in a really bad record deal for a long time. If music labels, who owe their livelihood to people like Apple, can’t find a way to market talent, they’ll shelve them; they have no moral qualms about doing so. Apple was 19, too young to know any better, when she signed with Epic, so hopefully when the contract is up she’ll be in a better position to explore her artistic merits.

Amos and Apple are the kind of musicians who need creativity to breathe. They push themselves over and over again to release music that is both profound and meaningful to the world around us. No they’re not going to sell millions of records, but they’re imprint on music history is undeniable.