6. Fiona Apple. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
I have a tenuous relationship with Miss Apple. Previous efforts have ground me down to pencil shavings for me to only move on to 'inkier' works. Not to say albums such as Tidal and Extraordinary Machines are wooden or stoic to these perked ears, but it took a while for their relative pleasures to hit home.
We all have those same experiences when we have music in our collection that doesn't click or make sense to us until somewhere down the line, often by chance or by piercing memory shaking us to relate, to soar.
The Idler Wheel worked in the opposite way. It felt like I was listening to a modern Joni Mitchell record, in the vein of a 'Blue' or 'For the Roses' with maybe a hint of Bjork's 'Homogenic' thrown in for good measure.
Whatever my connections to this album, the off kilter melodies, vocal lines like those displayed on Jonathan and Werewolf seemed like they were written to isolate our listening experience, maybe to make it a personal nirvana for those willing to undertake such a meandering journey.
It's not for everyone certainly. As much as any album on this list it's melodies aren't built for lovers of template chord progressions or string-section emoting. But by the same token those who do take a punt on it will find harmonies which will haunt and delight months after that breakthrough listen.
Recycle this: Left Alone, Werewolf, Every Single Night
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