new music :: fiona apple

This week Fiona Apple released The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do seven years after Extraordinary Machine. In it she goes back to the more acoustic sound of her first release, but with less of its jazz influence.

Alarm Magazine sums it up perfectly:

On initial listens, it’s easy to get the impression that Apple has made a skeletal, bare-bones album when in fact the music actually teems with sound. A dizzying array of percussion, for example, conjures everything from knee slapping to a clanging boiler room to the tympanic rush of a WWII big band. Standup bass (courtesy of former Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg), spectral guitar lines, music box, banjo, bouzouki, scratchy violin/cello bowing, and even screaming children all play small, discreet roles within a creaking, groaning world of sounds. At times, some of the instruments are barely touched, which gives ample reason to come back and feast on the details over repeated listens.

You can check it out on Spotify: