A sign of the end times: Fiona Apple cheers up
Now, I love “Criminal” and “Sleep to Dream,” like pretty much everyone does, but one thing I never expected out of Fiona Apple was a cheerful and yet still good song. Damned if the title track off her new album, Extraordinary Machine, isn’t just that, though. It sounds like it could be the theme song for the hippest, coolest Disney cartoon ever:
I certainly haven’t been shopping for any new shoes,
And I certainly haven’t been spreading myself around.
I still only travel by foot and by foot it’s a slow climb,
But I’m good at being uncomfortable so I can’t stop changing all the time.I noticed that my opponent is always on the go,
And won’t go slow so as not to focus and I notice
He’ll hitch a ride with any guide as long as they go fast from whence he came,
But he’s no good at being uncomfortable so he can’t stop staying exactly the same.If there was a better way to go then it would find me.
I can’t help it, the road just rolls out behind me.
Be kind to me or treat me mean,
I’ll make the most of it, I’m an extraordinary machine.
Can’t you just picture a clockwork girl strolling down a road singing this, accompanied by her comic relief (say, a garden gnome)?
Good stuff, and even better than the first single off the album, “O’ Sailor,” as far as I’m concerned. And yes, the chipper spirit still has a bit of an edge. Of course it does.
Other fun stuff I’m listening to:
- “Dance Me In” by Sons and Daughters – Blazing Tex-Mex guitars and thick Scottish accents.
- “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” by Arctic Monkeys – Hip rock and roll about someone not nearly as cool as they’d like to be.
- “Everbody Loves a Loser” by Morcheeba – Is “faux James Bond theme song” a genre? Because if it’s not, it should be.
- “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap – The vocoder stuff puts this right on the border of being a novelty song, but it works for me.
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