Choosing another song from When the Pawn… is both a simple and an impossible task. There are no bad choices, but how do you narrow it down to one? Today’s track, ‘The Way Things Are,’ is the first of a trio of songs that finish off the album (the closing track, ‘I Know,’ has already been featured as a Song of the Day — though the YouTube gods have since removed the video from rotation).
One thing that’s increasingly clear after listening to a lot of Apple’s music is that she must be one hell of a difficult girlfriend. So many of her songs pause in the midst of trashing some hapless man to point the finger back at herself. She even has a song called ‘Fast As You Can’ which advises a potential beau to get the hell away from her for his own good.
Lily Allen’s second album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, sticks to the template of her smash debut Alright, Still — cheeky pop songs driven by piano and percussion — but introduces a hit-and-miss element of social consciousness.
I was a pretty big fan of Apple’s based on Tidal alone but when her second album came out the whole game changed.
This week’s featured artist, Fiona Apple, is one of my very favorite singer-songwriters… and I stress both halves of that phrase — she is extraordinarily talented as both a singer and a writer of songs. I think a lot of artists tend to excel at one more than the other, but I place her in the top ranks of both categories.
The train of thought comes to a stop with another Spike Jonze video, this time for Fatboy Slim’s ‘Weapon of Choice.’ This has to be one of the best videos ever made, because Christopher Walken is a golden god.
Meet Me In Montauk 