Extraordinary Machine

This album is indeed an extraordinary piece of work. Fiona has clearly grown as an artist during the six years between this offering and her last; she is embracing more genres, more instrumentation and occasionally moves away from the typical 4/4 time signature. She is also prone to messing around with tempo of her songs and is not afraid to stray from the standard verse/chorus/verse formula, which helps to keep things interesting. Her already excellent vocals have also been improved upon and her vocal phrasing is at times nothing short of stunning.

As is the case with Apple, most of her songs focus on relationships, but she sings upon an old theme with relative originality and she has some interesting lyrics, 'I think he let me down when he didn't disappoint me.'

Some reviewers have called the album commercial, in part due to a dispute with her record label - I cannot comment on this since I know little about it. However, I can say it is not an album made purely with record sales in mind, but an intelligent, well thought out and concise offering that rewards a listener who is prepared to engage with it.

It is worthy of a place within any collection.

"Be kind to me or treat me mean/I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine..."

It's been six long years since we last heard from pop's queen of melancholy, Fiona Apple, in her sophomore album "When the Pawn..." (add eighty words). And she was definitely missed during that time.

In those six years, Apple actually created another album, "Extraordinary Machine," only to shelve it for awhile. So imagine the joy of her fans when it was announced that at last, this "Machine" was in motion, and would finally be out and about for public consumption.

With expectations so high, one would expect that Apple's "Extraordinary Machine" would disappoint one way or another. But it doesn't. With dramatic strings and explosive piano rock, Apple proves that she's only grown further during her forced hiatus.

She hasn't lost her knack for pain and angst, or the memory of romantic rage. She can be wounded and angry just as well here. If anything, it's sharper this time around: "Wait 'til I get him back/He won't have a back to scratch/Yeah, keep turning that chin/And you will see my face/As I figure how to kill what I cannot catch..."

Not that it's all on one subject, or based on one emotion -- most of them focus on post-love in all its forms. Apple explores being cheated on, being dumped, being alone, and the heartache of a breakup's aftermath. "I'm either so sick in the head/I need to be bled dry to quit/Or I just really used to love him/I sure hope that's it," she muses.

But the title track is perhaps the most memorable one, where Apple reaffirms her own strength. Perhaps she's answering her critics when she says, "I seem to you to seek a new disaster every day/You deem me due to clean my view and be at peace and lay," over a charmingly little singsongy tune.

Apple has apparently matured musically as well. Her trademarked piano is still She plays strong, complex melodies that ripple under her husky voice like water under a bridge. Sometimes she sounds poppy, sometimes bluesy, and sometimes it borders on rock. And there's a stronger string presence in this album, lurking in the shadows of the piano, then swelling up dramatically.

It took a long time for "Extraordinary Machine" to turn up in stores, but Fiona Apple's third album was worth the wait, showing off the ways she has matured as a musician and a songwriter.

Her inimitable and morose style clearly stamps this as an Apple album, and being a long-standing Apple fan there are some songs on here I really like. Ironically perhaps, it is her least produced song, Parting Gift, which she recorded in a single take at the piano, that I find the most moving and most listenable to track. In a way, it reminds me of my favourite song on her 1996 debut album Tidal, which was also an acoustic track laying bare her raw emotions - Never is a Promise.

However, her depressive and brooding manner, which suited the clear-cut idealogy of a moody 19 year-old, no longer suits the maturity she represents on Extraordinary Machine. I always liked her edge, her venom, the feeling that this was a dark, angry girl who - if you treated her right - would occasionally shine like a diamond. It was those moments you waited for, and you felt rewarded by them.

In contrast, this album isn't dark enough, nor angry enough, to take you on the same emotional roller-coaster ride. Granted, you can't hold onto teenage rants forever; but it isn't as expressive, as affecting, or as unpredictable as Apple's previous material. It is perhaps a natural progression for her, she is doubtless feeling more emotional stability being a little older and wiser now, but then why retain the sullen style if you don't actually feel like sulking anymore?

This is perhaps where Extraordinary Machine fails to meet up to my expectations - she's not singing with the same attitude, the same conviction. It doesn't sound like she really means it.

Apple continues to be an intelligent song-writer, there's no doubting her talent, and as before you have to dig a little into her lyrics to appreciate the cleverness and dark humour, but I'll not be playing this disc as often as her earlier albums. If you've not heard her work before, and you're up for something gothic and gloomy with the odd twinkle of optimism amid an otherwise black night sky, I'd strongly recommend you start with Tidal.