The homemade drum orchestra of ‘Newspaper’ carries a tidal wave of female fury unleashed about an abusive partner. Apple runs doubled octaves up and down while stringed instruments strike sharply and drums pop. ‘I Want You To Love Me’ revels in the vulnerability of crazed love. “Kick me under the table all you want / I won’t shut up”, she snarls over shuffling jazz beats and sprightly keys. ‘Under The Table’ spotlights her celebrated defiant attitude (remember when, at the 1997 VMA Awards, she accepted Best New Artist by declaring that “this world is bullshit”?). It’s a ferocious five-minute loop of vocals, claps and double bass string scrapes that drill home Apple’s wisdom on wrongdoing.
“Evil is a relay sport / When the one who’s burned turns to pass the torch”, Apple chants on album centrepiece ‘Relay’. Repeated refrains are central to the album’s power. The warm, bluesy choral harmonies that unfurl belie the horror at the lyric’s core. It lands a devastating blow at the apex: “Well good morning, good morning / You raped me in the same bed / Your daughter was born in”. Apple, a child rape survivor, layers her voice to create a militant army of angry female voices rallying against being disbelieved. ‘For Her’ is an a capella song Apple wrote after the 2018 nomination hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh who’d been accused of sexual assault. Unrefined sounds recorded in, and using, her LA home make for a visceral listening experience. This time there’s a more untamed fierceness in Apple’s voice as she relays tales of feminism, abusive partners, the sacrifices of love and the dinner parties she won’t be quiet at. It feels certain to welcome in a new audience. Those enamoured by the Grammy Award-winning musician’s vivid lyricism and erratic, jazzy piano pop will naturally find much to love about her fifth album, which expands on the percussive thrust Apple experimented with on ‘The Idler Wheel…’ She’s shifted further away from the piano-voice-lyrics triptych of her previous work and towards DIY drums, double bass patters and choral chants. The native New Yorker, who last released a record in 2012 ( ‘The Idler Wheel…’), clearly feels little pressure to churn out music for the sake of it. ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’ has been Fiona Apple’s longest-gestating album yet.
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