More Fiona, plus DAVE IS COMING~!

My search for Extraordinary Machine songs is nearing its end -- I have acquired complete versions (of varying quality) of all but two songs as of this moment.

And as much as I like it, I can really empathize with Sony at this point -- Fiona's work here is delightfully, almost willfully non-commercial. Odd rhythms, producer Jon Brion's off-kilter orchestral arrangements...radio audiences have no patience for this kind of stuff. The title track sounds like a Bjork outtake, with bouncy woodwinds, strings and chimes providing instrumentation while Fiona ratches her voice up into an almost inaudible falsetto; "Used to Love Him" compliments the piano melody with bleepy, almost Radiohead-like sound effects; "Not About Love" is a schizo masterpiece, jerking back and forth between an up-tempo jazzy beat and a wonderfully baroque chorus that churns into a saccarine string-lead break, which then slides right back into the fast stuff again and closes with a brilliant orchestral flourish. The only tracks (among those I've heard so far) that could possibly work as singles are "Better Version of Me," a rumbling little ditty aided by some wacko electronic lead instruments; and "Oh, Well," a piano-lounge-style number that probably represents something closer to what the record company wanted from a new Fiona Apple album.

Of course, the album is frocking great, which doesn't really matter in the music business. And I'm reading some stuff which indicates Apple didn't even want to make this album in the first place -- she was more or less forced to, which may explain why it's so inaccessable. I'm still holding out hope that Sony will cave and just release the album -- if only so I'll have better quality tracks -- but it doesn't look promising right now.

(If I were a person with lesser moral standards, I would probably post a link to the forum in which I found all of the songs. But I would never do that.)

In other pleasant music news, I happened to be glancing around the Dave Matthews Band site and reading over their 2005 tour dates -- the list begins with shows in Australia, so I wrote it off as an international tour...until:



Aw YEAH. I will not miss this show. I don't care if I have to kill people, I will have a ticket.