Even Billboard is wondering what Fiona's up to... Fiona Apple Has Released Everything But an Album Over the Past Year: What's Next for Her?
This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, but any fan of Fiona should be required to view this at least 50x:
I've just watched the first two seasons of "The Affair" and the title song made me curious. So I bought all 4 of her albums and listened to them today. I really like what I heard. I was occasionally reminded of Tori Amos and Regina Spektor, but that's a good thing in my book. Glad I found Fiona Apple. I expect I will be listening to her albums quite a bit in the future. Very interesting artist and some of the arrangements are awesome. The bonus DVD for "The Idler Wheel..." was great to watch too.
It's not so easy to get a real feel for the separate albums when you listen to a row of unfamiliar albums in one go, but I might tend to agree with you. There seemed to be notable step up from the first to the second album. But I will need some time to form a proper opinion.
The 2nd is my favorite to date, but she's a VERY interesting artist and there's always some interesting stuff going on with any of her releases. Since you're new to Fiona, one thing you'll definitely need to do, once you become familiar with the 3rd album (Extraordinary Machine), is backtrack to the earlier version of that album which was never officially released, but was (and is) widely available. The story at the time was that her label wasn't keen on the 3rd album - didn't hear a single - and was reluctant to release it. But then a few tracks leaked and then the whole album did, in excellent sound quality. Fans begged her label to put it out and then ... Fiona rerecorded almost all of it and the label put THAT out instead. I think two of the original recordings made the released album, but that's it. Anyway, I would speculate that more of her fans prefer that version than what was released (this old poll sort of supports that) - it's got a more "baroque" sense of production, and I'm sure it's still easy to find on the interwebs... She's also got some nice one-off tracks here and there, like a couple tunes on the Pleasantville soundtrack (Across the Universe, notably) and others scattered here and there. I really would love to hear album #5, but not much news on that front, sad to say!
It's typical for Fiona to disappear for a few years. At the rate she records, we could be looking at another 2-3 years for new music as it's only been 5 years since her last release. Her previous album arrived after a 7 year wait; the one before that took 6 years. My favourite work of hers will always be the original version of "Extraordinary Machine"... If she ever does another reissue (NOT on Plain Recordings, hopefully), I hope both versions are included.
It's usually referred to as "Extraordinary Machine (Jon Brion Version)" as he produced the original recordings.
In all seriousness, she is playing the local Applebee's. Fiona Apple B-Side Acoustic Set LIVE at Applebees Center City Philly sponsored by UPS
Fiona explains here about the delay for the third album, recording it, her writing process, her opinion on the first version of the third album, etc, here. It appears that the released album is the one that she wanted released and that she feels the first version wasn't finished. Still, it would be great for the original version to get released, in good sound.
And a heads-up to collectors that Fiona is an artist who includes exclusive-to-Japan bonus tracks on her CDs (albums 2, 3, 4)... Also: ITunes will give you a number of stray tracks: Frosty the Snowman, some others, and this fabulous minor-key cover of the "Pure Imagination" from the original Willy Wonka film: Finally: if you get a chance to see her live, she's amazing. One of my most memorable concert experiences (in the best sense).
When the Pawn Hits ... in my all time top 20 I would wager. For some reason the other ones didn't stick even though they are obviously brilliant.
