I have a lot of guilty pleasures. My Chemical Romance and Gilmore Girls are two that I've talked about before to a lot of people. One I don't think I've discussed at length to anyone is Fiona Apple. The thing about Fiona Apple that makes her, probably, my most guilty pleasure is her legitimacy. A lot of other guilty pleasures, like campy movies (by far the most acceptable form of "guilty pleasure," to the extent that it shouldn't even really be considered one), ABBA, or Food Network can be justified in various ways. MCR hearkens back to my emo or Smashing Pumpkins days. ABBA is a derivative of my Stephin Merritt fetish and is ridiculous/outlandish enough to be acceptable. Food Network is utilitarian.
I should have no real connection with Fiona Apple's music. It's undeniably effeminate in more profound and robust ways than MCR or ABBA. She has little to no indie cred; her first album was probably her most popular and came out when she was 19 or something. There's really no reason why I should like her. That's why it makes no sense - there is no justification. For all my other guilty pleasures, there's some sort of 'out' - a reason why I like it. That doesn't exist for Fiona Apple.
Yeah, I mean there's the basic truth that the music is incredible. Tidal, beyond its 1996-esque cred, has about eight really, really good songs. The other albums get a bit more experimental, and that's even better. Her lyrics, also, are some of the very few outside of hip-hop that I actually listen to and care about. But beyond that, as far as image is concerned, there's no justification.
Wait a sec, here's a classic fall-back criterion to vindicate me - she's hot. I'd be all circa-1999-P.T. Anderson with her. I just wish she would come out with more than one fucking album a decade.
"Sleep to Dream" is probably the hottest Fiona track ever. You should listen to the drums from the first few seconds on at least mp3; this video fucks them up.
"Fast As You Can" is a latter-day Fiona banger that you might not have checked out.
A Fiona ballad; I wasn't able to get the video for any of the songs I really like from Extraordinary Machine. This song is pretty good too, though.
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