Making a review of Extraordinary Machine comes with a certain kind of baggage. The behind of this record includes dissatisfaction with the original record, leaks and fan campaigns to release products that the artist thought was inferior, all of which can be read places like here. To lay my cards on the table, I only listened to one of the unofficial versions of Extraordinary Machine before deciding to only review just the finished product, but even with that one track listen (of which I’ll mention when we come to it) there is a very noticeable difference in Jon Brion’s arrangement compared to the one Fiona came to release. If someone wants to review the unofficial version of the album in the comment section they are more than welcome to, but as this is the edition Fiona wished to make to the public, we shall continue on as normal.
Well I say normal, but the title track is so much more chamber pop, more seemingly sweet, than anything that we have heard from Fiona up until this point. The orchestral picked strings and Broadway like swinging beats suggest an optimistic start where she said that When the Pawn’s finale “I Know” was her first optimistic end. Fiona vocals and rhyming is as swinging as the beat (with some particularly intricate moments, like “I notice that my opponent is always on the go -And-/Won’t go slow, so’s not to focus, and I notice”) though the sweeter elements of the tracks could hide what is a more complex internal struggle, with an acknowledge that through both the good and bad, the “kind” and the “mean”, that she will carry on regardless. Like the best anthems of self-love, it earns the proclamations before it gives them
In many ways, though, the title track gives a different impression to the record as a whole. Some reviews seem to imply that the sweet production of the title track was the rule rather than the exception, but aside from one or two instrument fills the next two track continue with the bluesy, jazz rock tradition of When the Pawn. “Get Him Back” has a strong piano riff that carries through most of the song, with Apple continuing her expertise in post-break up blues with some great cutting lines like “He won’t have a back to scratch…Face as I figure how to kill what I cannot catch”. Meanwhile “O’ Sailor” is also piano driven, but with more of a bluesy feel than even stuff from the previous record. On here Fiona exemplifies a new vocal trend that will show itself on a couple of tracks, in which her singing is fast to the point of spoken word, and the central image of the sailor and her singing thus really does help to give the track that illusion of the smoky nightclub she so likes to emulate.
“Better Version of Me” has a pulsating piano rhythm similar to that of “Get Him Back,” but this track get gradually more grandiose with backing of Beatlesesque guitar and horn arrangements, before a drum break brings us into a keyboard bring that’s almost psychedelic. It also contains one of my favourite, forever uncomfortable Apple lyrics with “I don’t want a home, I’d ruin that/Home is where my habits have a habitat.” We then move on to a track which has another unusual arrangement for Apple, an jazzy number that’s led more by xylophone, organs and electronic drums (which are electronic this time, I don’t want to keep making that mistake!) than anything else. “Tymphs (The Sick in the Head Song)” details the process of someone’s specific memories of a relationship deteriorating, with the emotional memories still remaining, and continues some reliably evocative lyrics like “The red isn’t the red we painted/It’s just rust.” More on the colour red later.
The middle track of the record, “Parting Gift”, is the only track that was not on the bootleg versions, and I like to think that the title (not in the song itself) is a sly acknowledgement of the record’s gestation process. The slow piano ballad starts off as one of the calmer moments on the record, but then moves across into a mix of the bitterly harsh and funny with lines like “Oh you silly stupid pastime of mine/ You were always good for a rhyme” (not a full rhyme, likely intentional). It’s one of the bluntest, most aggressive lyrics on the album, and I only say one of because the next track might take the crown on that front. “Window” is one of my favourite tracks on the album – only not my favourite because it’s a little on the long side) – which takes the both the literal and metaphorical window and smashes both of them. That great chorus of “I had to break the window/It just had to be/ Better that I break the window/ Than him or her or me” is brilliant, especially when counteracted with the anthemic, capital m Musical nature of the trumpets and drums. I think that with the amount I’ve quoted this time I should mention this is my favourite collection of Apple lyrics thus far.
“Oh Well” returns to her trademark jazz fusion with a catchy repetitive string chorus and some nice atmospheric guitars. I would probably call this my least favourite song from Extraordinary Machine, if only because it is in between two of my favourite in terms of unique instrumentation and melody, though I can’t think of another singer that would use the word “stentorian” so casually and with such aplomb. But “Please Please Please” is another fantastic highlight, with a greater focus on the alternative rock aspect of her personality. It also contains another fantastic set of lyrics on just a technical and rhythmic level, with her casually spoken internal rhyming of “melody” and “maladies” and an expressive use of the word “siren” (that could mean either that on top of police cars or that which calls mythic heroes). Speaking of expressive, the next triply uttered title “Red Red Red” offers more with a verse that makes great use of colours and there effects, though the most passionate lyric actually comes from her multiple stabs of “kill,” as though she is pushing so hard to make the figurative literal. The smooth sounds of the moog bass and organs, of which the orchestra builds ups and then mellows out the sound throughout.
It is here that I now reveal that the track that I listened to the bootleg version of was the penultimate one, “Not About Love,” and where I also say that, at least on a musical level, I prefer this first version. There is a greater dynamic range, a more orchestral feel as opposed to focus on the jazz in the original version that in turn results in something with a greater sense of the Musical that has permeated the rest of the other album. A key thing is, however, I do really prefer Fiona’s focus in the final cut. The single tracking on the studio version, as well as the tempo change, feels more like her signature raspy passion as opposed to some of the multi-tracked elements on the bootleg. Extraordinary Machine ends, however, with another song that (I’ve read) maintains the original arrangements with “Waltz (Better Than Fine).” And like the first track, it is also fantastically musical, with trumpets, descending woodwinds and other and string elements that really give it the sense of the epic, Hollywood closer.
When I reviewed Tidal I said that I thought that Fiona Apple got consistently better with each album. I still believe that, in as much as Extraordinary Machine has higher moments of ambition than the already ambitious When the Pawn, especially in the arrangement of songs like the title track, “Tymps,” “Window” and the “Waltz” finale. But whether it be the amount of consistency on When the Pawn’s 10 tracks as opposed to some lower moments on Extraordinary Machine’s 12 (such as “Oh Well”), I will ultimately give my favouritism to the former. Still, Extraordinary Machine proved that a six year gap was more than worth the wait. And with The Idler Wheel, she would prove that again.
Fiona Apple Album Rankings
- When the Pawn
- Extraordinary Machine
- Tidal