Under The Table

I know, I am a couple of days off with this song, but I had other things I wanted to get off my chest, so I put it off. But I have a feeling that Fiona Apple crushed the competition for best album of the year as early as April 17... Fetch The Bolt Cutters is a spectacular record, and every time I listen to it, I discover something new. I love the production - it is a very percussive album - and I really think she is the link between Tori Amos and Tom Waits that I didn't know that I needed, but now don't quite know what I would do without. 

Fiona Apple has been nothing but consistent in the quality of music that she has released. Starting with Tidal, which was nothing short of a spectacular debut album - one of the best debut albums I have ever heard. She takes her time between albums to make this happen, and this time it had been 8 years since The Idler Wheel... But Fetch The Bolt Cutters was well worth the wait. It sounds like she is in your living room performing - and that is probably because she did record it at home. That is one of the awesome consequences of the technological advances of the last few years - high quality equipment is both affordable and portable enough that just about anybody wanting to record decent quality music can do so. And for someone as reclusive as Fiona Apple, that does mean that she can record where she is comfortable - which shows in the music as well. 

In short, I love this album. The title track stood out right away, as well as the song Shameika, where the chorus, "Shameika told me I had potential" sounds haunting to me. There is something about that line that really touched me. However, the song I am playing is Under The Table, which I take the liberty of dedicating to all the women who didn't shut up, who didn't conform. It's been 100 years of women's suffrage in the US (I know, I am off by a couple of days), and that is something I think Fiona Apple can help us celebrate.