Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 09/01/06
Label: SonyBMG

The background to Fiona Apple's third album is, like the convoluted release of Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", emblematic of the crazy headless chicken world inhabited by major record labels since the turn of the millennium. Six years in the making, and originally handed to Epic in 2003, the guys in the suits promptly rejected Jon Brion's original mix - declaring it "too weird".

A painful gestation period followed: fans set up the freefiona website, Brion's mixes were leaked online, radio stations played it, audiences loved it, the songs were re-recorded with Mike "Lose Yourself" / "In Da Club" Elizondo, and, finally, Apple declared that the delay was actually her doing all along. Apparently, the original versions were not up to scratch.

Ironically, like Wilco's 2002 masterpiece, the resulting album will have sane listeners the world over scratching their head as to what the fuss was all about in the first place. "Extraordinary Machine" might have its faults, but a dearth of potential hits is not among them. Apple is occasionally wordy, but she's not difficult. She's not Joanna Newsom. Or PJ Harvey. In fact, given the right support, "Extraordinary Machine" could make her the biggest female star on the planet.

Certainly, if Apple could previously be accused of self-confessional navel-gazing - a sort of MTV Elizabeth Wurtzel - she now sounds confident and outward looking. These are personal songs, but only occasionally stray into Rufus Wainwright territory. Her delivery is sincere. In fact, aside from the two Brion contributions that book-end the set - the stop-start marimba-driven title track and the closing Broadway-esque "Waltz" (better than fine) - the set-piece dramatics are kept under wraps.

The rest is simply a collection of fine songs, mostly driven by Apple's penchant for effective off-centre piano riffs and under-the-skin choruses. "Get Him Back" is a prime example, lurching relentlessly onward like an epic bus ride and underpinned by a overwhelming rhythm courtesy of The Roots' Ahmir "?Uestlove" Thompson. "So I say, and on I go," Apple sighs breathlessly in the chorus, before getting back onboard in this tale of masculine failures. "To another one to disappoint me so."

Better still are "O' Sailor" and "Tymps (the sick in the head song)" and the grand cascading ballad "Oh Well". Inventive, tricksy and forever melodic, the expensive production sheen never dulls the contents. This is weird music that the mainstream will get. A film starring Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Small songs to ignite stadium lighters.

This is a frequently great and occasionally bold statement from an - extraordinary - artist on top of her game. And if it flies, it could be her "Jagged Little Pill".

    by Adam Webb