Get the fuck over Adele or St. Vincent. This woman's album comes seven years after her last and features excellent songs, vocals, instrumentation, production, you name it, it's perfect.
Completely rejecting the overused melodies of her peers, Fiona Apple creates an album of extensive depth. The echoes of children crying in 'Werewolf', despite the soulful crooning from the singer, makes for a highly intriguing juxtaposition that is sure to excite the listener. Many of the songs contain samples of field noises, which is more of a black metal stylistic than a contemporary pop music feature. Also interesting to note is the excellent drumming from Charley Drayton, who doesn't give simple 4 part rhythms but uses every drum in his set to create savagely satisfying drum fills atop the smooth-jazz songs constructed by Apple.
What truly gives the album character is the arrangements of the music. All the elements come together not sounding like a bad mishmash of mismatched musical parts but as a complete whole, a dark, raw, complex and strangely emotional album (she even gives harsh growls in the song 'Regret'!) that has several intricate cuts. It is dense, and definitely not for everyone. As a metalhead who hardly steps out of his genre during these annoyed days, I can safely say The Idler Wheel... could easily compete with any other album, regardless of genre, for this year's favourite list.
Rating: ★★★★☆ Good - Strong flow, immediately grabs you
No comments:
Post a Comment