Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters | Album Review 💿

Despite waiting an agonizing eight years, Fiona Apple delivers an instant classic with her fifth studio album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters.

🎙Fiona Apple only releases an album “once in a blue moon.” It’s true; there is a gap of at least three years between every album in her discography.  💿 Tidal arrived in 1996, while When the Pawn… arrived three years later, in 1999.  That’s the shortest gap… 💿 Extraordinary Machine marked her first and only album of the aughts, gracing our presence in 2005.  The follow-up, 💿 The Idler Wheel…, would end up being the sole album of the 2010s.  And now, just shy of eight years later, we have the Grammy winner’s fifth studio album, 💿 Fetch the Bolt Cutters.  Who knows when we’ll get another new studio album from Apple at this rate, sigh.  The good news? Fiona Apple never releases a bad album and Fetch the Bolt Cutters ranks among the best albums I’ve heard in years by any musician.

“I Want You to Love Me”

From the start, Fetch the Bolt Cutters is an experience.  According to Apple (Vulture), ✅ 🎵 “I Want You to Love Me” is something of a ‘nonspecific love song’ – “The songs change who they’re about.” As the title suggests, Fiona wants him to love her, something she poetically expresses throughout, and quite aggressively on the bridge:

“And I know that you know that you got
The potential to pick me up
And I want you to use it, blast the music
Bang it, bite it, bruise it
Whenever you want to begin, begin
We don’t have to go back to where we’ve been.”

Besides love, Apple makes references to a life changing meditative experience, which she also opens up about to Vulture.  Musically, the instrumentation is minimal – piano/keyboard, bass, and drums.  This is very much art pop, exemplified especially by the distinct, playful ending.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters continues in excellence in ✅ 🎵 “Shameika,” a memorable record that graces 🎧  13 More Songs That Feature Names in Their Titles.  “But Shameika said I had potential / But Shameika said I had potential,” she sings on the infectious chorus. While Fiona doesn’t describe this Shameika as a friend, she certainly had an influence on her – another ‘story’ that adds to the sheer excellence of the record.  Throughout, she recounts her experiences as a child, not to mention throwing in a colorful lyric inspired by bassist, Sebastian.  Musically, the listener is blessed with acrobatic piano lines, and quick, rhythmic, and playful melodic lines. Sometimes, they’re not even melodic – chanted, spoken word.  Again, art pop, with a lot of approaches idiomatic of jazz.

“Fetch the Bolt Cutters” 

Jazz plays a sizable role on the brilliant title track, ✅ 🎵 “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.” Instrumentally, it’s perfect, with the percussive sounds, the timbre added with string bass, and the elegance of vibraphone.  Fiona Apple serves up another playful performance, sometimes speaking and other times singing in traditional melodic fashion.  She enlists 🎙 Cara Delevingne on background vocals, as well as dogs apparently (at the end).  There’s a rawness about Fetch the Bolt Cutters as a whole and the title track exemplifies it perfectly.  Per Vulture, Apple describes this song as a late addition to the project, with the following takeaway: “Fetch the fucking bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation that you’re in — whatever it is that you don’t like.”

“Kick me under the table all you want / I won’t shut up; I won’t shut up.” “Shameika” has a case for the best chorus of Fetch the Bolt Cutters but ✅ “Under the Table” gives it a run for its money.  Fiona Apple makes it clear she won’t be muzzled – she’ll always speak her mind, no matter the occasion.  The song was inspired by a dinner where, wouldn’t you know, Fiona was true to self.  Another winner, of course.

Some of the biggest selling points of ✅ 🎵 “Relay” are the groove, rhythmic identity, and liberal use of percussion, which features Apple, Amy Aileen Wood, Sebastian Steinberg, and David Garza contributing.  Besides the superb music touches, Apple speaks on a state of evil and expressing resentment towards a number of people and things, including Brett Kavanaugh and influencers. Five songs in, Fetch the Bolt Cutters is nothing short of epic.

“Rack of His”

The epic nature of Fetch the Bolt Cutters doesn’t cease after the opening quintet. If nothing else happened to stand out about ✅ 🎵“Rack of His,” the way Fiona Apple compares the lack of affection she’s received to a guitarist and his many guitars is reason enough to listen.

“Check out that rack of his, look at that row of guitar necks
… They don’t know what they are in for and they don’t care, but I do
I thought you would wail on me like you wail on them, but it was just a coochie-coo-coups.”

Apple is hella in love, but she just doesn’t receive the attention and love that she longs for from him. She continues to sing incredibly expressively, backed by few instruments used quite effectively.  I love the tone of the drums, as well as the use of mellotron. 🎵 “Newspaper” is named the percussion orchestra file created by Apple, according to Vulture.  She also states this rhythmic joint is “about two specific people,” who she doesn’t “think … will even be aware of it.” On the longest song on Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona lacks finesse vocally, which is part of the charm.  She’s aggressive, assertive, and raw.  The key lyric: “I wonder what lies he’s telling you about me / To make sure that we’ll never be friends.”

“Ladies” 

Apple slackens the pace on the ballad, ✅ 🎵 “Ladies.” This is one of the most gorgeous numbers of the album, featuring an assortment of keyboards (piano, Wurlitzer, and mellotron), in addition to string bass and drums.  While Apple’s vocals continue to cut right through, she’s more refined here, particularly compared to “Newspaper.” What is similar to “Newspaper” is the length – the second song that exceeds five minutes.  Regardless, it’s a glorious five minutes.

If you wondered if Fetch the Bolt Cutters could get any groovier, here comes ✅ 🎵 “Heavy Balloon” with its masterful drumming, additional percussive reinforcements (including bells), and one of Sebastian’s best bass lines yet.   Fiona Apple doesn’t hold back on this one, which features one of the best lyrics of the album: “I spread like strawberries / I climb like peas and beans.” She tells Vulture, referencing the lyric, “I got that out of a children’s gardening book… That was just a little fact I thought was very, very cute.”

On “Cosmonauts,” she’s totally irked by him, evidenced by her poetic, angry lines of the first verse: “Your face ignites a fuse to my patience / Whatever you do, it’s gonna be wrong.” Well, damn… She goes on to say of her ‘together forever’ song, “You and I will be like a couple of cosmonauts / Except with way more gravity than when we started off.” Clever, clever, clever.

“For Her” 

Interestingly, the three shortest songs of Fetch the Bolt Cutters appear at the end of the album.  🎵 “For Her” is the second shortest, but man, oh man, is it impactful.  Here, the emphasis is placed on vocals, with multiple layers, harmonies, and incredibly intriguing music. Minimal to the nth degree, the only instrument accompanying Apple are drums.  That’s all she needs.  Also, pretty cool is how she interpolates 🎵 “Good Morning”, as performed by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.  Of course, she does so vocally.

🎵 “Drumset,” the shortest song, adds additional instruments, like the majority of Fetch the Bolt Cutters. These include harp, percussion, organ, and most surprisingly, a chair!  Where Fiona Apple carried all of the vocal duties on “For Her,” she enlists backing vocals from her band (Davíd Garza and Sebastian Steinberg).  In addition to the music, the songwriting is pretty sweet. I mean, “The drumset is gone / And the rug it was on / Is still here screaming at me / Why did you take it all away?” Like every other song, there’s a unique story and inspiration. 

Of the closer 🎵 “On I Go,” Apple tells Vulture, “This was my version of the Vipassana chant that I sang in jail.”  It’s definitely a spirited, unique coda to Fetch the Bolt Cutters.  Defining features: repetitive lyrics, percussion, rhythm, and unique sounds and sound effects.  Yep, the song is quite a trip.

Final Thoughts

2020 has delivered some truly accomplished albums – 🎙 Childish Gambino (💿 3.15.20), 🎙 Dua Lipa (💿 Future Nostalgia), and 🎙 The Weeknd (💿 After Hours) among them.  You can make the argument that Fiona Apple tops them all. Fetch the Bolt Cutters is an artsy, personal, and raw effort that captivates from start to finish. She’s made some incredible albums, but this right here – an instant classic.  Don’t be surprised if there’s at least one Grammy with her name on it come 2021.

✅ Gems 💎: “I Want You to Love Me,” “Shameika,” “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” “Under the Table,” “Relay,” “Rack of His,” “Ladies” & “Heavy Balloon”

🎙 Fiona Apple •  💿 Fetch the Bolt Cutters •  🏷 Epic • 🗓: 4.17.20

[📷 :  Epic]