Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Fiona Apple
Week 72: June 14-20, 2020
Probably weird to say that this highly rated album was underrated in Record Club, but it's true. I'm listening now and can say that in the past five years, it's only gotten better. Probably the hindsight was necessary. COVID made me a little loopy, a little distracted. My own review is pretty bad (as lampshaded by the doggie picture at the bottom). Everyone else (Nate, Sunny, Rachel S.) did a much better job, but still underrated it. I reread reviews from Stereogum and Pitchfork this week as well, and am much more inclined to agree with their hyperbole now than I was in 2020. What an album.
"Shameika" got a lot more mileage for me than the rest of the album that year. It's a great song, and it still speaks to me now. I'm having a bit of a rough go of it, emotionally speaking, but this song convinces me to remember some of the positive things that people have said to and about me throughout my life. Isn't it wild how easy it is to remember some small compliment some random stranger offered you, even if it happened many, many years ago? Our egos are so fragile, and are held together with scotch tape and small praise. I don't think that the fact that someone found the real Shameika and interviewed her with Apple does anything to diminish the song—compliments from non-strangers are even more impactful.
Pulling the focus out, I'll say that the thing that struck me this time was the percussion. What a special album this fucking thing is in that regard. I did a bad job describing the rhythms in my review. The descriptions feel oddly dismissive (e.g. "beats from Stomp"). The beats are chaotic, yes, but that's what makes them perfect. Fiona Apple is pulling at that chaos, trying to dissect it. That's what the album is about. Why shouldn't she feel like her life was chaotic back then? Why shouldn't the music attempt to mirror that? Why should I be dismissive of it when my own life feels chaotic in the same way? This is fucking art.
I dunno, man... it just feels nice to care about something. I care about Fetch the Bolt Cutters. It's not a perfect album (I still disagree with the 10/10), but I like returning to this album because Fiona Apple has made something deep and complex and it's easy to care about it. Real easy. Most people in this world don't give a shit about most things. It feels good to care. I've been stuck in this uncaring world for too long. Fetch the bolt cutters, get me out of here, bring me back to the music that makes it easy to care about something.
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