Official video: Right now, Britney Spear’s new single is advertised all over the official record company sponsored YouTube page that hosts this song. Oh, irony. “Criminal” is the song that really put Fiona Apple on the cultural map. It was … Continue reading
The actual performance that I have: Fiona Apple covers Elvis Costello’s “I Want You” (with Costello on guitar) at a tribute performance at Costello’s VH1 Decades Live episode. Presumably, she was his choice to sing the song and, wow, she … Continue reading
Fan video: We’ve explored a couple of songs that called themselves Waltzes before, including Eliot Smith’s lovely “Waltz #2,” “Rebel Waltz” by The Clash, “Sad Lover’s Waltz”> by Camper Van Beethoven, and “Velvet Waltz” by Built To Spill. We now … Continue reading
Official video: Man, commercials before YouTube videos are painful. That video for “Not About Love” is really pretty hilarious. It features comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis lip-syncing the song while Apple holds a lyric sheet for him and stares at … Continue reading
Fan video: “Red Red Red” uses an extended metaphor about color to – yes – address the rocky end of a romantic relationship. That’s all I have to say about that. … Continue reading
Fan video: One thing you should know about “Please Please Please’ seems to be about either the music industry or the fans who want their artists to stay exactly the same: Give us something familiar Something similar To what we … Continue reading
Fan video: In his review for Extraordinary Machine at AllMusic.com, reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes, “Like her second record, this album is not immediate; it takes time for the songs to sink in, to let the melodies unfold, and decode … Continue reading
Fan video: Fiona Apple is one of the most quotable lyricists I’ve addressed during these last several years. Let me quote the chorus from “Window” as a “for example:” So I had to break the window It just had to … Continue reading
Official video: “Parting Gift” is a beautiful break up song sung long enough after the break-up that the singer can look at it with a sort of bemused melancholy instead of bitterness (though, according to Wikipedia, MTV’s review of the … Continue reading
Live with Elvis Costello: Without question, “Tymps (The Sick In The Head Song”, is my favorite tune on Extraordinary Machine. I can’t find the album version, but that live version is pretty sweet. Man, she can perform. Apparently, this song … Continue reading