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Fiona Apple, a cinque anni di distanza dal precedente "When The Pawn", per il suo ritorno sulle scene è stata coinvolta quasi suo malgrado in una curiosa polemica con la propria etichetta discografica; la Sony infatti avrebbe costretto la giovane artista statunitense a riscrivere il nuovo album, avendolo ritenuto poco “appetibile” nella veste iniziale. La notizia (confermata dai provini dell’intero album finiti sul web agli inizi del 2005) è giunta in qualche modo ad alcuni che fans che hanno subito avviato una petizione on-line per obbligare la Sony a pubblicare il terzo album della Apple. L’aspetto più interessante della vicenda resta l’assoluta estraneità di Fiona alle proteste fatte in suo nome; è stata infatti lei stessa a decidere, senza alcuna apparente pressione esterna, di accantonare il lavoro fatto col produttore storico Jon Brion per avvalersi dei servigi di Mike Elizondo, fino ad allora avvistato negli studi di rappers quali Eminem o 50 Cent.
Le dodici canzoni di "Extraordinary Machine", a parte la prima e l’ultima traccia rimaste fedeli alla stesura originaria (quella di Jon Brion, per intenderci), ci presentano una Fiona Apple in ottima forma. L’inseparabile pianoforte che l’accompagna fino dal suo debutto ("Tidal", del 1996) ricopre ancora un ruolo di primo piano, ma rispetto agli esordi lo stile del lavoro rinvia decisamente al secondo album "When The Pawn". Le ricche orchestrazioni, a differenza del passato, non soffocano tuttavia l’urgenza che affiora dai testi di un’artista ormai matura.
La rottura col compagno Paul Thomas Anderson – regista cult di pellicole come Magnolia e Boogie Nights – ha evidentemente aiutato Fiona nel conferire a canzoni come "Get Him Back", "Better Version Of Me", "Please Please Please" e "Not About Love" un valore catartico di indubbia efficacia.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Not About Love (03:46)
Not about love
The early cars
Already are
Drawing deep breaths past my door
And last night's phrases
Sick with lack of basis
Are still writhing on my floor
And it doesn't seem fair
That your wicked words should work
In holding me down
No, it doesn't seem right
To take information
Given at close range
For the gag
And the bind
And the ammunition round
Conversation once colored by esteem
Became dialogue as a diagram of a play for blood
Took a vacation, my palate got clean
Now I could taste your agenda
While you're spitting your cud
And it doesn't make sense
I should fall for the kingcraft of a meritless crown
No, it doesn't seem right
To take information
Given at close range
For the gag
And the bind
And the ammunition round
This is not about love
'Cause I am not in love
In fact I can't stop falling out
This is not about love
'Cause I am not in love
In fact I can't stop falling out
I miss that stupid ache
What is this posture
I have to stare at
That's what he said when I'm sittin' up straight
Change the name of the game 'cause he lost
And he knew he was wrong but he knew it too late
But I'm not being fair
'Cause I chose to listen to that filthy mouth
But I'd like to choose right
Take all the things that I've said that he stole
Put 'em in a sack
Swing 'em over my shoulder
Turn on my heels
Step out of this sight
Try to live in a lovelier life
This is not about love
'Cause I am not in love
In fact I cant stop falling out
This is not about love
'Cause I am not in love
In fact i cant stop falling out
I miss that stupid ache
02 Red, Red, Red (03:30)
I don't understand about complimentary colors
And what they say
Side by side they both get bright
Together they both get gray
But he's been pretty much yellow
And I've been crying blue
But all I can see is
Red, red, red, red, red now
What am I to do
I don't understand about
Diamonds and why men buy them
What's so impressive about a diamond
Except the mining
And it's dangerous work
Trying to get to you too
And I think if I didn't have to
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill myself doing it
Maybe I would glisten so much for you
I've been watching all the time
And I still can't find the track
And I wanna know is it okay
Is it just fine
Was it my fault
Is it my lack
I don't understand about
The weather outside
The harbinger to the words
Somebody lied
There's solace a bit for submitting
To the fitfully cryptically true
What's happened has happened
What's coming is already on its way
With a role for me to play
I don't understand
I'll never understand
But I'm trying to understand
There's nothing else I can do
03 Get Him Back (04:26)
One man he disappoint me
He give me the gouge and he take my glee
Now every other man I see
Remind me of the one man who disappointed me
Wait 'til I get him back
He won't have a back to scratch
Yeah keep turning that chin
And you will see my face
As I figure how to kill what I cannot catch
So I say and on I go
To another one who disappoint me so
The next one up a contemptible snob
He lived to put things in their place
He did a commendable job
He put himself so low
He can hardly even look me in the face
Wait til I get him back
He won't have a back to scratch
Yeah, keep turning that chin
And you will see my face
As I figure how to kill
What I cannot catch
Oh he made my blood just burn
I've looked so far
I thought that I would not return
But the last one I had was getting my hopes up
I might have been a little fast to dismiss
I think he let me down when he didn't disappoint me
He didn't always guess right but he usually got my gist
So wait 'til I get him back
Gonna bring him home and watch him unpack
Hey, keep turning that chin
And you will see my face is fixed on the one
I'm going to get back
I'm going to get him back
04 Better Version of Me (03:22)
The nickel dropped
When I was on
My way beyond
The rubicon
What did I do
And the games that I can handle
None are ones worth the candle
What should I do
I'm a frightened, fickle person
Fighting, cryin', kickin', cursin'
What can I do
Oooh, after all the folderol,
And hauling over coals
What will I do
Can't take a good day without a bad one
Don't feel just to smile until I've had one
Where did I learn
I make a fuss about a little thing
The rhyme is losing to the riddling
Where's the turn
I don't want a home, I'd ruin that
Home is where my habits have a habitat
Why give it a turn
Stops
What did I learn
I am likely to miss the main event
If I stop to cry and complain again
So I will keep a deliberate pace
Let the damned breeze dry my face
Ooooh mister wait until you see
What I'm gonna be
I've got a plan, a demand and it just began
And if you're right, you'll agree
Here's coming a better version of me
Here it comes a better version of me
Here it comes a better version of me
05 Oh Well (03:51)
What you did to me made me
See myself something different
Though I try to talk sense to myself
But I just won't listen
Won't you go away
Turned yourself in
You're no good at confession
Before the image that you burned me in
Tries to teach you a lesson
What you did to me made me see myself somethin' awful
A voice once stentorian is now again meek and muffled
It took me such a long time to get back up the first time you did it
I spent all I had to get it back, and now it seems I've been outbidded
My peace and quiet was stolen from me
When I was looking with calm affection
You were searching out my imperfections
What wasted unconditional love
On somebody
Who doesn't believe in the stuff
You came upon me like a hypnic jerk
When I was just about to settle
And when it counts you recoil
With the cryptic word and leave a love belittled
Oh what a cold and common old way to go
I was feeding on the need for you to know me
Devastated at the rate you fell below me
What wasted unconditional love
On somebody
Who doesn't believe in the stuff
Oh, well
08 Window (04:28)
I was staring out the window
The whole time he was talking to me
It was a filthy pane of glass
I couldn't get a clear view
As he went on and on
It wasn't the outside world I could see
Just the filthy pane that I was looking through
So I had to break the window
It just had to be
Better that I break the window
Than him or her or me
I was never focused on just one thing
My eyes got fixed when my mind got soft
It may looked like I'm concentrated on a very clear view
But I'm as good as asleep
I bet you didn't know
It takes a lot of it away if you do
So I had to break the window
It just had to be
Better that I break the window
Than him or her or me
So I had to break the window
It just had to be
Better that I break the window
Than him or her or me
Because the fact in fact
Whatever's in front of me is covering my view
So I can't see what I'm seeing in fact
I only see what I'm looking through
I had to break the window
It just had to be it was in my way
Better that I break the window
Then forget what I had to say
So again I've done the right thing
I was never worried about that
The answer's always been in clear view
But even when the window's clean
I still can't see for the fact
That when it's clean it's so clear
I can't tell what I'm looking through
So I had to break the window
It just had to be
Better that I break the window
Than him or her or me
I had to break the window
It just had to be it was in my way
Better that I break the window
Then forget what I had to say
I had to break the window
It was in my way
Better that I break a window
Then forget what I had to say
Or miss what I should see
Or breaking him or her or me
09 Waltz (03:44)
If you don't have a song
To sing you're okay
You know how to get along
Humming
Hmmm
If you don't have a date
Celebrate
Go out and sit on the lawn
And do nothing
'Cause it's just what you must do
Nobody does it anymore
No I don't believe in the wasting of time,
But I don't believe that I'm wasting mine
If you don't have a point to make
Don't sweat it
You'll make a sharp one being so kind
And I'd sure appreciate it
Everyone else's goal's to get big headed
Why should I follow that beat being that I'm
Better than fine
10 Extraordinary Machine (03:41)
I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes
And
I certainly haven't been spreading myself around
I still only travel by foot, and by foot it's a slow climb
But I'm good at being uncomfortable, so
I can't stop changing all the time
I notice that my opponent is always on the go
And
Won't go slow, so's not to focus, and I notice
He'll hitch a ride with any guide
As long as they go fast from whence he came
But he's no good at being uncomfortable, so
He can't stop staying exactly the same
If there was a better way to go then it would find me
I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me
Be kind to me, or treat me mean
I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine
I seem to you to seek a new disaster every day
You deem me due to clean my view and be at piece and lay
I mean to prove I mean to move in my own way, and say
I've been getting along for long before you came into the play
I am the baby of the family, it happens, so
Everybody cares and wears the sheeps' clothes while they chaperon
Curious you looking down your nose at me
While you appease courteous to try and help
But let me set your mind at ease
If there was a better way to go then it would find me
I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me
Be kind to me, or treat me mean
I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine
Do I so worry you,
You need to hurry to my side?
It's very kind
But it's to no avail
And I don't want the bail
I promise you, everything will be just fine
If there was a better way to go then it would find me
I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me
Be kind to me, or treat me mean
I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine
Oh, if there was a better way to go, then it would find me
I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me
Be kind to me or treat me mean
I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine
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