Fetch the Bolt Cutters

I listened to this one when it first released. I didn't quite like it. Five years later, nn a relisten, I respect it a bit more.

Still not a huge fan, however. The idea is there, but in execution, it lacks. Maybe it's the overall raw production that hinders it for me.

Tryhard cringe.

Day 82

I thought I was gonna look weird for liking this but fortunately I've landed on the consensus. Percussion's fucking lit.

Fav track: Shameika

Grows on you as you listen to it despite the excited dolphins screeches, random dog sounds, and Gene Belcher banging on pans and keyboards.

Real musicians playing real music! A NOVEL CONCEPT!
The "field recordings" inside Apple's home that punctuate this album create an intimacy missing from a lot of modern music production, which leans more and more toward recursive electronic content creation.

MANY publications called this the BEST album of 2020. Because 2020 was a pretty bad year for albums, and a "bad" year in general really, historic though it was. The banal artificiality and marketing-first nature of music at this point in history makes this Fiona Apple album a standout with its basis in the real world. The home recording anchors it in the real world. The acoustic instrumentation solidifies that reality.

It's every personal, like Joni Mitchell's work. Also has a "fuck you if you don't like it" attitude that gives a great energy. Sad, funny, brutal. An interesting set of songs with some great musicians (Sebastian Steinberg on bass was a fantastic surprise, as a huge Soul Coughing fan).

I remember checking this out when it came out, and I didn't fully fall into the hype, but I *did* enjoy the album. On a revisit, I do think I have warmed on it. I've always appreciated Fiona Apple's frankness, but I could not quite connect with the music here. There's a junkyard percussion sound here that *is* cool, but back in 2020, I think I wanted this sound pushed a little further. But on a revisit, I can see that it is more ornamenting the art pop songs here than it is the main attraction. I still think Apple's presence is incredibly strong, and there are several really powerful, head-turning lines across this thing, that hasn't changed. But I do also definitely get the atmosphere here a little more now. This was largely recorded in Fiona Apple's home, and it carries a really distinct intimacy for it. Even though I get this quite a bit more now, I do still enjoy other Fiona Apple albums more, and there are a couple of moments where the aesthetic doesn't really pull me in. But this very much works, and I can kind of see how it became an instant classic for a lot of people.

Frisch, wild, kantig – aber noch zu jung, um schon als Klassiker durchzugehen. Fiona Apple haut hier Türen ein, trommelt auf Küchenutensilien, singt wie jemand, der endlich alles sagt, was jahrelang feststeckte. Das ist stark, mutig, manchmal brillant. Aber genau diese rohe Unmittelbarkeit macht das Album eher zu einem Momentaufnahme‑Manifest als zu einem zeitlosen Werk.

4
Enjoyed this one. The homemade production adds to the vibe and complements her songwriting

I feel like I need to give this album more time. The music is great. But it's not anything I fell in love with first listen. I might revisit and alter the rating. Cosmonauts was the standout.

I’m at a 10.

885 days ago, when we got Tidal, released in 1996, I said it felt like a modern day album for 2024. 24 years later, Fiona Apple has somehow created an album that feels like it might still be fresh going into 2044. I don’t know how her brain works, but I feel like I just heard the D.I.Y. of the future. That felt like industrial music made with whatever she had lying around, combined with just a bit of traditional production standards taken from some of her younger pop contemporaries (i.e., Lorde, Billie Eilish, etc) & some of the conscious female hip-hop of the late 2010s (i.e., H.E.R., Rapsody, etc). It’s a fascinating mix of styles that she somehow manages to anchor brilliantly.

There’s a metallic pulse to this album that seems to be in search of a purpose, with Fiona having been locked in her feelings for so long that she needs to finally break free of her self-imposed chains. She is desperate to establish that purpose in all aspects of her life, whether it’s in a need for romance, letting go of petty squabbles, maintaining her voice, rediscovering her potential, fighting off abusers, carrying the weight of the past, or finally moving at her own pace. It’s not always done with the greatest lyrical tact, as she occasionally gets a bit cutesy with her metaphors in ways that get a bit confusing, but the drive in her vocals & the instrumental push to everything keeps the mood of each track anchored & grounded. She inserts a lot of humor & positivity here, which does help to keep the album digestible & light despite the pace of it all. It’s a really tough balancing act, and an album that should be messier given all the ways she tries to paint her pictures. Somehow, it feels clean to the ears. Jarring at first, sure, but once it settled into itself, it just demanded my attention the same way a Kate Bush album does.

I think going track by track would be futile, since Fiona’s delivery & the instrumentals make the album *feel* far more potent than any words I could type about it. The emphasis is on feel; this album somehow carries the same flow state as a heavy metal album, and if you can find that sync with her rhythm, it will continue to roll into an avalanche that the brain is willing to accept. I think the only loose missteps here are in the last two tracks, but it’s from me being a little picky; I selfishly wanted the end of “Drumset” to keep going another few minutes, and I think “On I Go” could’ve been just a little cleaner in execution. They’re both good tracks though, and my own desires shouldn’t override Fiona’s search to establish hers.

I think it’s a 10. I understand all the acclaim it got on a first pass, and yet I still feel like I need more time with it to truly digest all of it. It does things I don’t think I’ve heard before, or at least refreshes them in ways that should help to drive creativity in the genre further. I think it already is an album one should listen to before they die, if only because a lot of what’s being talked about here still meets the desires of the moment 6 years later, especially as more & more attacks on women, their dignity & their right to personhood come into being. They cannot afford to let other people define their purpose, and an album like this that makes that search feel so vulnerable, so communal & so naturally found feels like one that’s needed right now. It is a 10.

I enjoy her music, but don't really follow her. I enjoyed this album and went through it twice. It's very theatrical - at times poppy - at times rocking - at times even orchestral in its musicality. Left me interested in more, for sure. 3+

something between weird and ok

So, Tidal was surprisingly excellent and I gave it 4 stars. But this... this is not Tidal.

Is it OK? Sure. Like, I don't hate it, but it's just kind of messy. Apple Music says it was recorded in her home, and they framed it like it's some kind of notable feat. To me it just sounds amateurish, like she's mailing it in. I feel like Fiona Apple is always talking directly to a group that I'm not in and, furthermore, there's very little overlap between our respective Venn Diagram circles.

experimental de uma maneira bem singela e simpática. ele sair na pandemia explica mta coisa, tem algo de ficar trancado 24/7 em casa nele. a percussão tbm belíssima. a produção tbm tem algo de caseiro bão demais
gostei demais. talvez precise escutar de novo, mas eh pedrada MASTER. vou dar 5 e foda-se, depois mudo qualquer coisa. achei bão pra carai.

Not for me

I can't stand this way of singing that just sounds like constant rambling, and every song managed to find another way to annoy me on top of that. Like the other album I got from Fiona Apple, it would be ok if it was more instrumental, but there's no way I can just ignore the vocals on this.

Tidal je od mene isto dobio dvicu ali sad mi se u odnosu na ovo čini kao genijalan album, ovo je jednostavno loše a ono je bilo "samo" monotono.

Props for trying to be a bit more interesting than just ye olde pop album, but nothing stood out to me.

I've been on a shit run of albums lately, but have finally landed on another one which I feel passionately enough about to chat about in detail. This is absolutely one of my favourite albums of the decade so far, and it would be in my retroactive Top 10 of 2020.

I absolutely love how fiercely and unapologetically off-centre Fiona Apple veered towards here, both in terms of the album's songwriting complexity and through the tactile DIY energy which is harnessed through its production. Coming just as the first COVID lockdown hit, that Fetch the Bolt Cutters was composed largely using homemade percussion, and that it documents life within her four walls through the incorporation of everyday background noise very much lends it a pre-emptive feeling of events that would soon follow. It sounds raw, unfiltered, unpolished and authentic, with a truly primal energy to many of the songs.

Lyrically, the album is a defiant statement with Apple exploring themes of achieving self-acceptance and liberation amidst the challenges she faced within society and the music industry. It absolutely refuses to be suppressed, whilst Apple's vocal performance is wholly untethered, genuinely sounding the most unhinged and versatile she has in her career.

Easy five stars from me.

PLACEHOLDER