The singer is known for her honesty in life and her music. Shes been talking about solitude, sobriety and how Quentin Tarantino convinced her to give up cocaine
Its been eight years since Fiona Apple last graced the world with a studio album, but an illuminating profile in the latest issue of the New Yorker, filled with a fair number of wild anecdotes involving her celebrity cohorts, serves to remind us of her brilliance. Here are six reasons why Apple is just the performer we need in this mixed-up, locked-down world.
She doesnt shy away from the difficult topics Apple has said that her new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, is about women and not being afraid to speak. Throughout her career she has spoken, in her songs and in the press, about her issues with depression, self-harm, OCD, PTSD, and the fact that, when she was 12, she was raped by a stranger.
In so doing, she paved the way for other women to speak about their experiences, from Kesha to Lady Gaga, and on to the #MeToo movement.
She has the best story about giving up cocaine Every addict should just get locked in a private movie theatre with QT [Quentin Tarantino] and PTA [Paul Thomas Anderson] on coke, she jokingly told the New Yorker magazine. And theyll never want to do it again.
She can teach us a thing or two about self-isolation Apple doesnt venture out much these days, save to walk her dog along the beach near her home in Venice Beach, California.
She has learned how to live a little more wisely Once a bottle-of-vodka-a-day level drinker, Apple is now sober and has been vegan for many years.
She knows her political onions Last summer, Apple pledged two years worth of earnings from her song Criminal to the While They Wait fund, which finances legal support and necessities for immigrants seeking asylum. In 2017, she released Tiny Hands for the Womens March on Washington. She has said that one of her latest tracks, For Her, was written in a cloud of rage after the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court Justice.
She has her priorities straight In late 2012, Apple postponed the South American leg of her tour due to the ill-health of her dog, Janet.
Ahead of the presidential inauguration, musicians piled in to set their thoughts to music. Here are five of the most notable
Arcade Fire feat Mavis Staples I Give You Power
All proceeds go to the American Civil Liberties Union, and the message on their website reads: Its never been more important that we stick together and take care of each other. So we can be pretty sure this track released on inauguration day is aimed at Donald Trump. I give you power / Over me / I give you power / But I gotta be free / I give you power / And now I can say / I give you power / I can take it away, is pretty much the entire lyric, until a slight variation at the end I give you power / Where do you think it all comes from, huh? / Who gives you power? Which sounds very much as if its reminding Donald Trump that, even though he won the presidential election, he can lose, too. The anger comes from the brooding electronic arrangement, and from Mavis Staples who sounds for the first time in her career sinister. A protest song that is intended not just to capture a moment, but to be applicable in other circumstances.
Gorillaz feat Benjamin Clementine Hallelujah Money
Released on inauguration eve, Gorillaz response to the rise of Trump is elliptical, dwelling not so much on what might happen but on the way money corrupts (and, yes, Damon Albarn is probably aware of the ironies of a rich rock star who can do whatever he wants putting out a song on this subject). What makes it Trump specific is one particular reference: I thought the best way to perfect our tree / Is by building walls / Walls like unicorns, which suggests that walls are an illusory answer to problems. And then: It is love, that is the root of all evil, which is the opposite of what songs usually suggest, but which seems apposite in the wake of Trump taking to the stage on Thursday night to the strains of the Rolling Stones Heart of Stone. As with Arcade Fire, Gorillaz have reined in the poppiness here, as if they very much do not want anyone to think BANGER! and ignore the message.
Early Turner No Hallelujah (Song of a Blowhard)
Early Turner is Tom Gray, from 1998 Mercury winners Gomez, and this song also released this week is meant to be therapeutic. Unlike the last two, hes happy to pair his despairing lyrics to a lovely folk-pop melody. But despair it does: If you believe him / You watch a monster grow, Gray begins, insisting until the penny drops / No hallelujah will be sung for the blowhard on a wall. But he recognises the key issue here is the enabling of Trump: How did we get so dumb? A question that might be as well aimed at Michael Gove as those who voted for the new president.
Fiona Apple Tiny Hands
Not so much a song as a chant. Which is fine, because thats what its meant to be a rallying call for Saturdays womens march on Washington. The only lyric is We dont want your tiny hands anywhere near our underpants, paired with a sample of Trump intoning Grab em by the pussy. Trump never seems to be perturbed by reasoned criticism, by anger. What he hates is mockery, especially the suggestion that his hands might be small, and that might reflect on another part of his anatomy. In which case, Fiona Apple, job done.
Coco Rosie feat Anohni Smoke Em Out
According to the New York artpop duo, Smoke Em Out welcomes the new character who will be occupying the White House with a mob of women and children armed with forks and knives. In the wake of this unnatural disaster, we feel a call to rise, shout and burn the house down. The future is female. To be honest, its hard to discern that from the lyrics, certainly the opening verse if you can infer the political message from Baloney sandwich lonely clowns / Smoke laugh toke craft / Porn blood piss grass / Piss miss heart hand you are substantially sharper than I am. What might be clarity comes from Anohnis chorus, assuming the house refers to the White House: Burning down the house / Smoke them out / I was on the brink like so many times / Got children and wives waving forks and knives / Burning down the house / The dead girl shouts / Smoke them out! It is not quite Which Side Are You On? in terms of its forthrightness. On the other hand, it is the closest thing to a banger of these five.
