Fiona Is Free!

After months of confusing stories and reasons why her album wasn’t released, the truth finally comes out.

For those of those left in the dark, I posted a story a few months back about Sony execs shelving the new Fiona Apple album, Extraordinary Machine, because it was rumored that they didn’t have a “releasable single.” Apparantly this was all pure speculation and rumors that had spun wildly out of control.

The reason the album was delayed by almost two years? Fiona herself. She recorded the original tracks with producer and friend Jon Brion, but was overall unhappy with how the album turned out.

“Sony didn’t think there was a hit,” says the singer, who is signed to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music. “And I wanted to redo some songs.” *

She handed a few tracks to her bandmate and producer Mike Elizondo (who also produced Dr. Dre and Eminem’s albums), and was thrilled with what he gave back to her. So thrilled she wanted to go back into the studio and re-record the whole album, however Sony/Epic was less than thrilled.

Apple says the label suggested “that I could maybe hand in one song at a time. But I thought that was an incredibly bad idea, because it implied that if they didn’t like what I handed in, they could try to change it. Or they could say, ‘You can’t have any more money, and we’re shelving it.’ “*

This was wildly a miscommunication between her and her label, and Fiona freaked and went into seclusion for almost a year leaving her album unfinished. Then, around November of 2004, the title track “Extraordinary Machine” and a rough cut of “Better Version of Me” was leaked to the internet, and the buzz began. Flash forward to January, where a group of loyal fans protested the album not being released to the head of Sony by picketing the offices and sending them thousands of foam apples with signatures from an online petition (that I signed as well).

“I remember thinking it was ridiculous and funny. Here I was, jobless, sitting around in my bathrobe watching TV. But then I started crying, because I thought, ‘Oh, my God, these people care so much.’ I feel so moved by that.”*

It worked. Moved by the tenacity of her fans and renewed again with the drive to finish her album, Sony/Epic gave her the full go-ahead to do what she wanted with the album.

The finished version is vastly different from the Brion produced leaked tracks as almost all but two songs were re-recorded under Elizondo’s care (the title track and “Waltz” are the only two remaining unchanged Brion tracks). Gone are the random orchestral arrangements and weird tones. The final product feels finished and has a much more upbeat feel to it. Some tracks are very similar to their original versions (Please Please Please, O Sailor), some are complete changes (Tymps, Red Red Red.)

You can purchase the album starting tomorrow (October 3, 2005) in any music store or iTunes Music store. I pre-ordered the album with the bonus DVD from Sony directly, just cuz i’m a Fiona nut like that. If you would like to preview the album before you buy it, MySpace.com is currently offering a “listening party” page where you can check out every track. The only kicker is that you cannot change tracks, but it’s better that you listen to it from track 1 to track 12 anyway.

Here’s some reviews of the albums:
The New Yorker
USA Today
Los Angeles Times
New York Times

And of course check out the official Fiona Apple site, with plenty of videos and images.

*from USA Today’s article.