Tag Archives: Fiona Apple

by

Higher Plain Music’s Top 10 Artist Albums of 2012

In 2012 I felt that actually some of my usual favourite artists played it very safe and therefore when I came to look at whose made the top 10 albums of the year, there are four completely new artists to me and two that I’ve only known since last year. That’s exciting for my ears for the years to come.

A few self-imposed rules are in this time round. Tori Amos’ Gold Dust (not that it’d have made it) and Patrick Wolf’s “Sundark & Riverlight” (could have done) are reworks of older music that I’ve chosen to ignore them. Also Atticus Finch & Imogen Heap, despite making some of my favourite music, have done only singles in 2012 and therefore isn’t included as there’s no album yet. A separate top 10 for game soundtracks will feature later.

 

Honourable Mentions: Jesca Hoop, A City on A Lake, Module, Garbage & Sunday Lane.

arcana

10) Arcana – As Bright As A Thousand Suns

Arcana have been around for years and I preferred the more melodic and percussive band effort compared to the melancholic Peter Bjargo solo album. It’s one of those albums you feel like you’ve already known for ages with the beautiful mesh of different instruments from aeons passed.

Try Out: As Bright As A Thousand Suns

Anathema09) Anathema – Weather Systems

I had never heard of the band before a “You may like” on Amazon presented their album to me. From just the samples I felt like I’d been on a journey. The guitar work, the way the tracks just build and build into life defining climaxes and the vocal and string arrangements are simply amazing.

Try Out: Lightning Song

soap&skin08) Soap&Skin – Narrow

The wonderfully detuned and mumble happy Soap&Skin returned with a short but beautifully formed second album fusing her piano and industrial bleep roots together. What was made see’s her ripping her heart out and smearing it over your speakers. Her screams are like yelps and the quiet moments are like lullaby’s for the lost.

Try Out: Boat Turns Toward the Port

clatter07) Clatter – Garden of Whatever

Rifftastic bass/drum duo Clatter blasted back onto my speakers in 2012 with their best album to date mixing nutty percussive chops, strong vocals and euphoric choruses to mosh to. I still feel like I have to tell everyone there’s only two in the duo as there’s so much sound coming from them – it’s my favourite rock album of 2012.

Try Out: Strawberry Park

Alt-J06) Alt-J – An Awesome Wave

Yes, they are an indie rock group but I don’t think of them as a rock group – they’re like a spacious story group. Alt-J go out of their way to make sure no song follows a well trodden path and their lyrics are cryptically awesome. I’m so glad they got the Mercury Prize this year although I hope that doesn’t mean doom like so many others before them.

Try Out: Breezeblocks

iamamiwhoami05) Iamamiwhoami – Kin

Internet sensation for her music video strangeness, Kin marked her first full album release. It’s dirty, filthy, emotive and like you’re freaking out in slow motion. I personally love the way it all feels together as one seamless piece in a way and when played with the barmy DVD of continuous music videos telling a story of sorts, it only draws you further into the world of Kin.

Try Out: Drops

W13904) Lila Rose – Heart Machine

Such an early release in 2012, Lila Rose became my favourite album in 2012 for a lot of it until some later releases pushed it down. The mix of pop beats along with mature alternative slants, minor keys and Lila’s very downbeat vocal delivery that suggests knowledge beyond her years all merge perfectly to make easily the best radio playable album of 2012. It’s like she’s found her own mini percussive piano pop genre for herself.

Try Out: Casting Shadows

carinaround03) Carina Round – Tigermending

Recently reviewed a few weeks ago, Carina Round’s latest album is such a repost to clean-cut music. Messy, harrowing, haunting, unleashed and furious in places, Tigermending’s synth alt-rock mash-up goes out its way to tell you stories from the bottle of every bottle and alleyway. Carina has never sounded so good and she can still push out anthemic ballads too.

Try Out: Weird Dream

fionaapple02) Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

Fiona’s output is slow at best but it is always worth the wait. In many ways The Idler Wheel is her most direct and simple to date but with the purity comes the undistilled emotional impact of each song. Her vocals rasp and growl, her melodies stay stuck in your head for days and way the album comes together as a whole is phenomenal.

Try Out: Anything We Want

deadcandance01) Dead Can Dance  - Anastasis

After thinking for many year it would never happen I was delighted to have Dead Can Dance back together and their album proved that sometimes when two people work together magic happens regardless. An exercise in music of period and territories, each track pushes off into different versions of the Middle East. The instrumentation is rich, the melodies are sumptuous, the vocals of Brendan and Lisa are as strong as ever and although the album feels like they are separate in many ways, you can feel looking deeper how each has effected the other. Mesmerising.

Try Out: Kiko

And there we have it. My favourite albums of 2012.

Don’t forget you can also listen or even buy my latest studio album here too which I would be blessed to be considered in anyone elses top 10 of anything :-)

The top 10 game soundtracks of 2012 will feature soon.

by

Fiona Apple – “The Idler Wheel…” Review

Ah Fiona Apple and your album titles. Not quite out doing When the Pawn…, this time we’re going just for (deep breath) “The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do”. Exhale.

This time Fiona is very stripped back. Opener single “Every Single Night” showcases the fact that just simple instruments like a Celeste can utterly fill a speaker system with Fiona’s distinctive vocal delivery, packed with a lot of words and flex in between. The chorus line “I just wanna feel everything” is so sparsely given that when everything else still has that guttural angst, it’s simply disarming. “Daredevil” has a honky-tonk feel to it as the percussive playing and various drum loops take over for a stodgy march. Again its an exercise in only playing what’s needed and everything has much more impact for it. “Valentine” returns to the saucy minx turns that Apple can do, as well as her penchant for throwing in a random chord change in a fun place. It’s fresh, welcome and full of passion.

“Jonathan” reminds me a lot of her previous album. It’s all very glitzy and cabaret yet broken down at the same time. Fiona’s vocal’s are particularly venomous here before it leads you to the awesome “Left Alone”. The track starts off with a fun drum solo before letting loose with a fun but insanely catchy piano riff. Fiona waxes lyrical almost at hyperspeed before reaching for the higher register for the swing out chorus. It’s a perfect example of why we happily wait years between album for this amount of energy.

“Werewolf” proclaims “nothing wrong with a song that ends in a minor key” and we quite frankly agree with that wholeheartedly. “Periphery” has some inventive percussive loops over its purposely clumsy piano production. It’s the Apple equivalent of the comedy in a drama. Of course the whole the track is drama but you can’t help but smile with the simple fun of the riff. “Regret” continues the interesting play on looping percussion over a more downcast track. It slowly broods and sparks until Fiona literally explodes into an angry spewing mass across the speakers in the chorus.

The final two tracks are wonderous. “Anything We Want” is such a warm reprise. It’s full of plunks and clomps and the kitchen sink as Fiona manages to bend her voice to whatever slightly off key notes she fancies bending to. It’s also the most single material the album really gets to. The closer “Hot Knife” is unlike anything else as a backup punnet of Apples sing a clever little ditty while a foreground Apple sings over the top of it. How she makes something that should sound cheesy sounds so fantastic is down to pure talent and hard work.

“The Idler Wheel” is all about being visceral with the least amount of fuss as possible, whilst still pushing boundaries. Those boundaries may be vocal styles or may be using instruments in unusual ways. It may just be pushing all the emotional buttons. Mostly though, it’s brutally honest and that’s why listen after listen, more of your heart sinks into the album and the more you fall in love with it. Timeless.

by

Full Album Stream – Fiona Apple (plus Music Video)

Wow! Fiona Apple’s new album “The Idler Wheel” is now available to stream in full over at  NPR. I’m am trying so hard to not click and listen away. I’ve only caved into the music video today and my word – what a music video it is. That octopus needs to have its own monster movie – preferably vs MegaSquid or something!

I’m trying to wait until release day… it may be a futile effort!