11. Fiona AppleWhen The Pawn
I find it really hard to choose between these albums. When I discovered Fiona Apple I was on tour in America with the girls, and I saw the video for ‘Fast As You Can’. It was just one of those moments where you’re like ‘oh, what’s that? That’s really unusual’, and I ended up going down this Fiona Apple-shaped rabbit hole of everything she’d done previously. So even though that was the song that alerted me to her, when I went back and found Tidal I was like ‘ugh my god’ and it’s been the same with everything she’s ever done.
Thinking about her makes me feel quite emotional, actually. I was listening to a lot of Fiona Apple when I was having quite a difficult time and she just bears her soul to the point where you don’t even want to look. The vocals alone are so raw and animalistic at times. Her voice comes from so deep within, like she’s vomiting it out. It’s so powerful. And she’s so petite! But the power that comes out of her… and her lyrics. She’s probably my favourite lyricist of all time. She’s so poetic but at the same time just says it, expressing so many of those feelings you can’t put into words. Then there’s that beautiful use of nature in expressing these emotions and feelings, which is something I love and sometimes I’ve had the inspiration to do little bits of it myself. She’s a bit of a go-to, for me. Like, ‘it’s time for Fiona Apple’.
I’ve always been so excited for her releases – and she fucking leaves gaps, man, she keeps you waiting! – so when one comes I rinse it. I haven’t got into her new album though! I’ve only listened to it once and I’ll definitely come back to it when I find the right headspace to fully appreciate it, but it was lockdown and… it’s quite brutal, isn’t it? I felt a bit traumatised after listening to it. That plus Covid wasn’t sitting well with me!
