Fetch The Bolt Cutters (album) by Fiona Apple

From Timestarter 4 days ago

Fav. Tracks: Shameika, FTBC, Cosmonauts.

It is rough, bulky and sparingly arranged. But it is so incredibly interesting, lyrical and concise. It is a listening pleasure and almost brilliant.

I think is a good chance that this album will remain the top album of the year. Very solid tracks, sounds like Bjork in the good days.

From Cargusbralem 05/01/2020 17:19

Turns out Shameika was absolutely right. Great album (8/10).

All in all a good album. But it didn't catch my heart. There is no specific highlight for me. It's a cool experience to hear the whole album, and of course it is an interesting album.

From poppmusic 04/27/2020 19:46

Took me a few listens to know what was going on here. Overall it's a very admirable effort. The use of percussive elements is quite freeing and a breath of fresh air from increasingly synthetic production efforts that we typically hear. Love the jazzier side of the first three tracks, though this seems to get lost later in the record, regrettably. I enjoy the primal side of "Relay" and the cutely creepy "Rack of His". And "Ladies" has a nice anthemic tone to it. That said, I think the album leans a little "pop" for my tastes- all the stranger considering all the unusual instrumentation and song progressions here, but there are still comparisons to Adele or even Lady Gaga that could be made. The vocal delivery is still quite normal (when sung) on the whole, even if intense at times. Also it is somewhat taxing to work one's way through this work due to a certain lack of melody, especially on "Newspaper" (easily my least favorite here) but on the whole too, the melodies are subtle and obscured by the "sing-speech" on top of them. And then there are songs like "Under the Table", both a blessing and a curse in that, yes, the song is very well-constructed and fairly genius, but still, wow it is annoying to have the chorus of this one stuck in your head. So, to conclude, this is a very worthy effort and I am happy it is getting a lot of love; that said, I find myself preferring to listen to other things most of the time.

AOTY at this time. I understand Pitchfork giving it a perfect 10, the lyrics are incredibles.

Best tracks: Shameika, Fetch the bolt cutters, under the table, heavy ballon, cosmonaut (incredible), for her, drumset.

From rogue 04/24/2020 19:42

If you've seen Fiona live in the past few years you've probably had a preview into the sounds she has started dabbling with. Raw percussion coupled with a voice that feels like 12 different intruments. I saw her two years ago and this feels a lot like what I experienced, which is this brilliance, except now it's kind of perfected and turned the hell UP.

The textures here are rich and thumpy and thick and truly give the impression that it's not complex. I love when intricate things give the illusion of being simple when they're anything but that. The layers on top of layers on top of layers here span a vast spectrum of beat sickening bangers to vocals that make you feel like you're experiencing some sort of modern Gregorian chant. And somehow, it all works together seamlessly here sounding uniquely Fiona. This Gen-Xer can't ask for much more than that right now in these strange times. I expect this record will continue to work me over as I keep discovering rad new things with every single listen. And who doesn't love that - being challenged by music? It's not always common, but forever appreciated.

From pearljammer13 04/22/2020 23:03

An album that can't properly be described in words. You just need to hear it. You might not know just how much you really need to hear it. Lyrically she's as clever and biting as ever, while also remaining extremely relatable. She pulls at emotions you may not have even thought you could still feel. Musically it needs few listens for many of these outrageously and uniquely percussive songs to fully make sense, but once they sink their teeth in they don't let go. Fiona puts it best: "Kick me under the table all you want, I won't shut up."

From corenfro 04/22/2020 02:21

Percussively, I listen and just think: "why aren't more people doing this?" and "why hasn't anyone done something like this in this way before?"

Yes, it's good. It's inventive, creative and just... very very percussive. There is a feel of all the sounds being created w/ kitchenware utensils and pots and pans. This is proof that there's more innovation possible when creating great percussion than just adjusting how you EQ the kick and snare.

To my ears it's not so jarring and esoteric as everyone is making it out to be. In fact I find it more accessible than her other albums. I've been unable to get into her too much because of her voice doing the half talking half rapping thing, but here it's so tightly coupled w/ the percussion and the rest of the song that it fits much better whether she is singing or talking. In fact she'll get done w/ a melody before I realize "oh hey she went from talking to singing and I didn't notice"

I can tell it's a very personal album for her and a pent up anger over some political and socioeconomic issues she's very opinionated about. I hear some Beyonce and Solange in the vocals and most prominently the lyrics w.r.t. the identity politics of it all. I'm not necessarily entirely ideologically aligned but I can appreciate she executed on her goals as an artistic statement.

Probably could have been 10 songs as the triplet triplet boom boom gets a little exhausting by the end but overall yeah pretty great record.