Fiona Apple has stitched together a brooding and poetic soundtrack to love and heartache over the course of her career, which began with her stunning 1996 debut “Tidal.”
In celebration of the singer’s long-awaited new album “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” (released Friday to enthusiastic reviews), we put together a list of some of our favorite songs — including some lesser-known tracks — from her catalogue.
“Carrion”
The singer bids a haunting adieu to a relationship she’s over in this “Tidal” track, which culminates with an almost psychedelic end.
“Shadowboxer”
“Tidal’s” jazz-tinged debut single sets Apple’s cautious approach to friendship with a former lover to a lush piano-centered arrangement. (This one is sort of a bonus, as it’s admittedly not a deep cut.)
“Love Ridden”
Apple grieves a relationship’s inevitable end with the most romantic of metaphors “Love ridden, I’ve looked at you / with the focus I gave to my birthday candles / I’ve wished on the lidded blue frames under your brow / and baby I wished for you.”
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“Get Gone”
Here’s an impossible challenge: Find a better breakup song than this searing missive from “When the Pawn …” Apple channels a quiet rage while resolutely rebuking a lover who has overstayed his welcome.
“Limp”
Apple infuses her singularly evocative lyrics into this feminist anthem about a toxic lover. “It won’t be long till you’ll be lying limp in your own hands,” she promises.
“To Your Love”
This “When the Pawn …” standout evokes a recurring theme in Apple’s work as she explains her distant nature to a new love interest: “Don’t be down, my demeanor tends to disappoint,” she warbles. “It’s hard enough even trying to be civil to myself.”
“Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)”
The singer leans into the absurdity of not being able to get over a flawed lover in this playful, xylophone-punctuated romp from her 2005 album “Extraordinary Machine.” “I’m either so sick in the head I’d need to be bled dry to quit,” the singer declares. “Or I just really used to love him / I sure hope that’s it.”
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“Not About Love”
Apple surveys the wreckage of a brutal argument in “Not About Love,” which highlights her penchant for rich metaphor: “It doesn’t seem right / to take information / given at close range / for the gag / and the bind / and the ammunition round."
Share this articleShareThe singer keeps the album’s sense of humor intact with a delightfully weird music video starring Zach Galifianakis.
“Largo”
This treasure — a bonus track on “The Idler Wheel” — is a love letter to one of Apple’s favorite Los Angeles haunts, a performance venue known for hosting lively musical and comedy performances. “I was recently rid of a man again, so I caught me a cab to see Flanagan,” the famously reclusive singer begins with a reference to the club’s owner.
The singer shouts out a few of her favorite musicians (longtime collaborator Jon Brion and Benmont Tench of “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers” fame, among them) and sings of nursing her heartbreak in the company of friends who feel like family: “And how could I listen without wanting to be with them? And how could I have thought that I was ever alone?”
“Sally’s Song” (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”)
In honor of the 2006 rerelease of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Apple infused her trademark melancholy into this ominous love song from the 1993 film.
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