(Better Than Fine)
I love music. I just love it. And although I have a pretty big collection of cds, I usually end up listening to the same thing for months. I have been listening to strokes, franz ferdinand (fraaaanz!!! I can't wait for 16/9!!), for about a year. The strokes are a chapter a part, they will deserve a full post someday (also a great great song, by the way), as will franz ferdinand. But there is another cd I have been listening to for over a year, a cd that the people that travelled with me in January probably dread (I stopped at every store to try and find it). So, without furth
er delay, Fiona Apple. Fionna Apple has a very sad life story, filled with abuse and sorrow, both things she experienced from a very young age. And maybe that's what makes her such a great artist - which is a bit strange, but not uncommon. It seems to me sometimes that to be a great writer or performer, you have to suffer. you have to feel the pain so deep in you before you can transmit anything else to others. And the pain in her voice when she sings is visible. Or, as she says, "the pain is evident in my existence". Her songs, apart from being absurdly sad, are also extremely poetic, and the music itself is, sometimes, magic. There are some sounds in the record that sound like tinkerbell stepped in. And that makes it so much more special, because it is so unique. It sounds like a fairy tale, until you pay attention to the lyrics. And then you see how pain can indee
d be beautiful.
d be beautiful. I recommend all her 3 cds, they are all great. The last one is the most different one, the one that feels more like a fairy tale gone wrong. Get him back (best song in a long time), Not about love, Oh well, Better version of me, Window, Tymps. Well, everything, basically. But she has also very good songs on her first cd (Shadowboxer, never is a Promise, Sleep to Dream), and in the fantastic When the Pawn... (aaaall the songs). Also, not in cds: use me and after you've gone, 2 of her best recordings I think. So much expression in her performance.. I've seen both of them on live performances (internet, I am sad to say), and they convinced me this is a concert I would love to see, no matter that her songs aren't very agitated. Just sit down and appreciate the beauty. 
Fiona had a breakdown in the middle of a concert in NY a few years a go, and then she disappeared from the music industry for a while. Now she came back with this masterpiece called "Extraordinary Machine", that almost didn't get released because it wasn't commercial enough. Her fans protested (there are some very cute videos of the fans in her website, saying why she is so important to them), and it was released after almost a year of delay, and a lot of changes in the songs. In the end, it was a hit. So, let's hope she doesn't leave like that again, and that she can still channel all her pain into making us all feel.
oficial website: http://www.fiona-apple.com/
posted by Julia Moreira Leite @ 12:18 AM
1 Comments:
I couldn't agree more... Only pain is real and when pain is put into words and music, a sort of delirious yet so real magic happens. Just as you say... Ju, I remember car trips in cold January, warmed up with Fiona's sorrow playing as background. Excellent soundtrack, don't you think?
Post a Comment
<< Home