This album has a much longer title, but as I as I want to keep a good word count we shall just keep it at When the Pawn and let you read the poem separately. However, I do want to draw attention to one line from the poem that adorns this cover: “depth is the greatest of heights.” This feels like a mission statement not just for this short poem – a more complex and thought out version of the ol’ “Fuck the haters” mantra – but Fiona Apple’s general discography. And she has achieved a greater height with When the Pawn, which takes the fusion of jazz and alternate rock from Tidal, expands on the latter and comes up with an even stronger and consistent set of songs than her debut. This evolution of lyrics and melody, as well as the strength in collaboration between Fiona Apple and Jon Brion, all helps to achieve that higher standard of intelligence and depth Fiona is looking for in her poem. No wonder the last song is called “I Know.”
But with an album it’s probably best to start at the beginning and “On the Bound”. Like Tidal, this jazz fusion begins with electronica, the smooth drum grooves are replaced with harsh bloops and blips that reveal themselves occasionally throughout the song, amidst Fiona’s trademark piano and strings. This track is indicative of arrangements throughout the album, whereas before there was this sense of a sequential backing, of “this is the background instrumentation, now here’s the next one,” things are arranged to flow on top each other, sometimes instruments being used sparingly once to add punch to the chord progressions. This is definitely a record that rewards multiple listens through its music, as it does from Fiona’s trademark smokey vocals, here delivered with a sarcastic edge on lines like “maybe some faith would do me good.”
Fiona Apple really knows how to embody melancholy. Here she is being the metaphorical film of Magnolia. But on this record she seems very much aware of the reputation she has cultivated for herself, starting the song “To Your Love” with a humorous indication that the subject of her song should fold their ears. But it’s this humour that makes lines like “The pain is evident in my existence” actually hit harder, as well as the moments where she snaps on this record have a contrast to disarming sarcasm. And if she didn’t hard on this song, then the guitar licks and repetitive piano chords certainly would.
We first assume on “Limp” that, just like the title suggest, the song will be a less hard hitting and calmer number, with the vibraphones and strange drum loops adding to this idea. This is then of course subverted as the chorus builds up, with guitars that sound almost like trumpets, and then later on comes up abruptly in Pixies level dynamic shifts. My favourite part of this track is the bridge, in which the vibraphone and bells maintain a rhythm as groovy and as fast the layering of drum sounds. The actual calmer song comes with the predominately piano and strings “Love Ridden,” a song that leaves way for her vocal and lyrical skills. When she said “I want your warm but it will only make me cold-” I was concerned for a moment that Fiona was dabbling in the lyrical clichés that critics of her last album accused her of. But instead she finished that line with “colder when it’s over,” a line highlighting her reasons for lacking intimacy that turned from something potentially corny into something quite powerful.
Both of these next songs, as well as adding to the alternative rock sound, the sound of the guitars and their various in rhythm more than often show the influence of 60’s Baroque pop. Take “Paper Bag,” with a central image that evokes the classic “Paperbag Writer”, (no it doesn’t you moron!) which continues 1999 entertainments’ obsession with supermarket carrying utensils. Here though, instead of the metaphor of wonder it is in American Beauty, it is one of shattered hopes and dreams. The hunger and craving of the subject matter counteracts with the bouncy rhythm to startling effect. Meanwhile the more electronic influences of “A Mistake” have the backing of Talking Heads “Once in A Lifetime” and compliments the sort of electronic sounds that were coming from contemporaries like PJ Harvey during her Is This Desire? and To Bring You My Love period. The solo guitars – that help echo the aforementioned Baroque pop vibe – and Apple’s voice more than help distinguish herself of course, with her falsettos and staccato “mistakes” particularly showing of her various skills.
We then move on the album’s most famous song, “Fast as You Can” (accompanied by a Paul Thomas Anderson music video, along with the rest of these album’s singles, that our Narrator more than covered). Lyrically she follows metaphors she has been making throughout the album, be that the beast imagery of “Limp” or the hunger of “Paper Bag.” The sudden transitions between verses, choruses and bridges are startling, yet somehow still maintain a sense of cohesion, as well as sampling every genre we have covered in the respective sections. Here we see Fiona come up with her most scorching set of lyrics to describe herself, with lines like “My pretty mouth will frame the phrases/ That will disprove your faith in man” bringing her own words into the equation as something that both saves her (through music) and causes her problems.
After that we get another two song dynamic between the more electronic influenced music and her more classical influences. First is “The Way Things Are”, with a guitar and electronica intro that gave more than a little of an OK Computer vibe before moving into an electronic tinged trademark Fiona jazz, which was a particularly kick ass chorus in which all the instruments and her voice build up on one another. If I had to pick a least favourite track from the album it would be this one, but it’s only because I feel I need to pick one. Meanwhile, “Get Gone” might actually be my favourite song from the album. The rolling drums and vibraphones provide a calming start, but it all builds and builds, particularly in the wonderful chords and strings of the chorus, to the passion that comes from the well placed “shit.” She asks “How many times can it escalate?” The answer: a considerable amount.
We then move onto the final track, the one which this great height of depth has culminated to, with the baroque jazz of “I Know.” But rather than end with a great bang, Fiona decides instead to demonstrate a vocal passion, with lines like “And you can use my skin/ To bury secrets in” showing both the melancholy that has permeated the whole record with a sense of finality. It’s a conclusion as opposed to a climax, a great one that in turn has an open ended final request that makes one listen to the whole album again.
With When the Pawn, Fiona builds on the promise of Tidal to startling success. It is a fusion of contemporary music and music 30-50 years its prior that just works on every level, without a single weak track bringing any of the cigarette tinged festivities down. It was always going to be hard to follow up such a work, and soon we would hear how much.
What did you think of the album, though?
Fiona Apple Album Rankings
- When the Pawn…
- Tidal