Fiona Apple oozes talent. She is an incredibly gifted songwriter and composer, equipped with a smoky and soulful voice that harks back to legendary jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday. She is the embodiment of the tortured soul - the artist with so much baggage that she can continually throw it into the furnace of her fiery creativity and still have plenty at her disposable. She is a performer who breaks out in tears and dashes off stage in mid performance. It's no secret that many minds racked by torment are also the most brilliant; it is a bitter trade-off shared by many gifted individuals.

Apple’s third release Extraordinary Machine is no exception. The subject matter is somber and melancholy, but in true Apple fashion it is an example of defiance. Her lyrics are sharp, like a whip, in their biting delivery. Her smoky voice frames the daggers that shoot from her lips in a beautiful barrage of cutting words. She slices and dices her estranged lovers to bits, leaving nothing left but the reverberating echoes of her piano keys as they are angrily and powerfully pounded.

On “Parting Gift” production is nil, leaving just Apple and her piano, pure and raw she sings spiteful lyrics like “Oh you silly stupid past time of mine / You were always good for rhyme.” Soft keys are intermittently replaced by wrathful hard hitting piano chords. Ominous musical arrangements play on “Oh Well” as the emotions coalesce in a sweet anti-ballad that is bittersweet and introspective with Apple coming to a epiphany of sad acceptance “What wasted unconditional love / On somebody / Who doesn't believe in the stuff”. The true highlight of the album is “Not About Love” which is a stinging rebuke to a scorned lover laced with drum beats like punches to the face as the music starts and stop in fits.

Extraordinary Machine is Apple at her angst-filled best and her articulate and spiteful creation is testament to her continued artistic growth.

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