Indulgence

a very Extraordinary Machine

Bjork from Headphones (written by Bjork and Tricky)
I like this resonance
It elevates me
I don't recognize myself
This is very interesting



I made a great disservice to Fiona Apple and Mike Elizondo. I said I love all the songs from her 3rd album Extraordinary Machine but that I prefered the original, unofficial bootlegged release of Jon Brion. But after constantly listening to the official release of the album, I must say, I now understand why it was re-recorded and why everything sounds the way it does.

Extraordinary Machine, as produced by Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew, is a fantastic work of art. Fiona Apple, as a songwriter, has really evolved and grown and has become unbelievably superb. My Dad doesn't like her because he finds her too wordy. I don't mind. I find it very intelligent, revealing and deep. The official release, I said, took out the emotional intensity of Fiona's singing from the unofficial release. I said that the music lacked punch and that the quirkiness and eccentricities of Jon Brion's musical production managed to move in accordance to the lyrics.

But now that I'm listening to the Mike Elizondo sessions, I see why Fiona didn't like the unofficial versions -- it was too busy, too frenetic. The music shrouded over her and while the message remains the same, the impact of the song is two-fold, except, rightly so, with the songs Extraordinary Machine and Waltz (Better Than Fine) which should retain that over-production. They are immense songs and require that sort of "big-ness" to it.

On the other hand, Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew downplayed the music to bring out the words, the meaning. The music just became a bed for the words to really play itself out. It doesn't usurp the song, it doesn't take it over. It is merely support. And I like how that works for Fiona Apple's songs. What makes her songs powerful are the words and her voice. And the re-recorded vocals are fabulous. Instead of being overtly emotional as it sounded in the unreleased version, the re-recorded vocals are more tempered, giving it a chilly feel that all of this is being told in the past-tense. There is more control and it restrains itself from being too dramatic, too emotional. It's just right. It's perfect.

And her songwriting is unbelievable. It's quirky and destroys any regular format of songwriting. Like my Dad said, it's wordy and gets to put so much thought in in one verse. Some songs don't follow the verse-chorus-verse-chorus format. She flits and darts from melody to melody. It's just unbelievable that anything can be this good. But it is. I love it.

Oh Well, Red, Red, Red and Better Version of Me are my favourite tracks in the album and of course, Extraordinary Machine, whose chorus is something I like to use on my yahoo status messenger whenever I can. It's a superb album and I'm so happy to have it and I'm sorry if there are people who didn't buy the album because I wrote a few weeks ago that the unreleased bootleg versions were, in my opinion, better. No, I was wrong. This is a more mature, more focused and more intense version.

Now, I hope she doesn't wait for another 6 years to release her next album. Because already, I am excited and giddy with excitement to hear with what she cooks up next.

posted by wanggo @ 11:15 AM