Music
Fetch the Boltcutters // Review Apple impresses with a bold, homemade album.
This year featured the release of Fiona Apple’s
long-awaited album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters. Each new album from Apple brings with it a frenzy of excitement from fans and critics alike, and Apple has succeeded in meeting her listeners’ high expectations. On this exceptional album, she is unafraid to engage with current issues and embrace a new percussive sound. Inventive as ever, Apple has impressed me yet again with the boldness of her music and commitment to creating a record within the confines of her own home. We are only halfway through 2020, but Fetch the Bolt Cutters has already asserted itself as a frontrunner for album of the year.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters explores Apple’s complicated relationships with other women, as she engages with topics such as gender inequality, female empowerment, and solidarity amongst women. In the opening of ‘Ladies’, Apple impersonates the condescending tone a man may use in the course of mansplaining. Later, the song calls for solidarity between women, especially in the case of infidelity: “Nobody can replace anybody else / So it would be a shame to make it a competition.” On ‘Shameika,’ Apple discusses how one of her tougher classmates empowered her by saying she “had potential.” It is clear from Apple’s reverence that this experience had a profound effect on her confidence, and the song serves to emphasise the importance of female empowerment. On ‘Under the Table,’ Apple refuses to be silenced by others, making it clear that she will voice her opinions whenever she wants to: “I would beg to disagree but begging disagrees with me … Kick me under the table all you want / I won’t shut up.” As the Me Too movement continues to expand and examples of patriarchal abuse are brought to light, it is vital that voices like Apple’s are heard and amplified. Apple addresses such abuse on ‘For Her,’ alluding to a man’s transgressive behaviour in a chirpy chant before sharply exposing his most heinous crime. Fetch the Bolt Cutters is Apple’s most brutally honest album yet, and no subject is taboo. Despite the difficult subject matter of Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Apple creates a sense of levity throughout the album. Whimsical notes are especially noticeable on ‘Rack of His,’ as Apple humorously turns the tables on female objectification: “Check out that rack of his / Look at that row of guitar necks / Lined up like eager fillies / Outstretched like legs of Rockettes.” The dark tone of the album is offset by some of the later tracks, which are reminiscent of Apple’s previous work. The gentle chorus on ‘Cosmonauts’ harkens back to the softer melodies of Apple’s debut album Tidal, providing a fleeting moment of sweetness on the record. The fluctuating vocal delivery and unusual imagery on ‘Heavy Balloon’ are reminiscent of Apple’s experimental sound on her third album Extraordinary Machine. Although the heavy percussion on Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a large departure from her earlier sound, these songs are a welcome callback to her older music.
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