The Idler Wheel... | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 19, 2012 | |||
Recorded | 2008–2011 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | Art pop [1] | |||
Length | 42:39 | |||
Label |
| |||
Producer |
| |||
Fiona Apple chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from The Idler Wheel... | ||||
|
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, frequently abridged as The Idler Wheel..., is the fourth studio album by Fiona Apple. Like her second album When the Pawn... , its title derives from a poem written by Apple herself. [2] It was released in the UK on June 18, 2012 [3] and in the US on June 19 by Epic Records. [4] The album received a nomination at the 2013 Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Album. [5] The album received widespread acclaim from critics, and was frequently included in year and decade-end lists by several publications; in 2020, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 213 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was her highest debut in the US, reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 with 72,000 copies sold in its first week. [6]
Following the delays and controversy surrounding the release of Extraordinary Machine (2005), Apple began recording new material for her fourth studio album in secret, including from her label, Epic Records. When asked by BlackBook magazine when the recording sessions began, Apple remarked, "It must have started in 2008. Or 2009. I don't know! I have no idea. It's weird to think that there was 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. Where've I been? What was I doing? What was that year about?" [7] Apple elaborated,
It was very casual, and I wasn't fully admitting that I was making an album, I got to use the time in the studio to inspire me to finish other things rather than feel like I was finishing homework to hand in. It wasn't a lot of pressure. And the record company didn't know I was doing it, so nobody was looking over my shoulder.
Instead of her long-time collaborator Jon Brion, Apple opted to produce the album with her touring drummer, Charley Drayton. [8] Executives at Epic found out that Apple had recorded an album in early 2012, when she presented it to them. [9] The album was originally planned for release in 2011, but Apple delayed the release until her label found a new president in 2012, explaining that she "didn't want her work to be mishandled amid corporate disarray." [8] During a secret concert in Los Angeles with Brion, Apple remarked, "I can't remember any of my new songs because they've been done for a fucking year." [10] In January 2012, L.A. Reid announced through Twitter that new material from Apple would be released later in 2012. [11] [12]
Apple announced a small tour in early 2012 prompting speculation over a new album. [13] Ahead of her first performance on the tour, the album and its title were announced. [14] The tour marked Apple's first performances outside of Los Angeles in over five years. [15] Apple kicked off the tour with two performances at the South by Southwest Festival where she debuted three new songs from The Idler Wheel....The album's first single, "Every Single Night", received positive reviews and was well received by fans and critics. [16] [17] She released a video for the track "Hot Knife" on July 24, 2013. [18]
On June 19, 2012, the same day that The Idler Wheel... was released, Apple began an expansive North American tour to promote the album. The tour kicked off in Ithaca, New York, and finished on July 29 at the Hollywood Palladium. On June 24, Apple performed at the Sunday portion of New York City's Governors Ball Music Festival, which featured acts such as Modest Mouse, Explosions in the Sky and Beck, among others. [19]
The music video for "Every Single Night" premiered on the Sundance Channel on June 10 [20] and was directed by Joseph Cahill. [21] On the same day, the entire album streamed online on NPR. [22] On June 18, Apple made her first television appearance since 2006 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon . Apple performed "Anything We Want" with the Roots and celebrated Paul McCartney's 70th birthday by performing "Let Me Roll It" with Jimmy Fallon performing back-up vocals. [23]
A video was also made for the song 'Hot Knife' directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, due to shooting conflicts with the movie The Master, it was not edited and released until July 24, 2013 over a year after the album release and 6 months after the tour finished. 'Hot Knife' was never released as a single.
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 8.5/10 [24] |
Metacritic | 89/100 [25] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [26] |
The A.V. Club | A [27] |
Entertainment Weekly | A [28] |
The Guardian | [29] |
Los Angeles Times | [30] |
MSN Music (Expert Witness) | A− [31] |
NME | 8/10 [32] |
Pitchfork | 9.0/10 [33] |
Rolling Stone | [1] |
Spin | 8/10 [34] |
The Idler Wheel... received widespread critical acclaim by contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 89, based on 35 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". [25]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic awarded the album five stars out of five, praising Apple's "magnetic vocals, the human element pulling us into these songs", adding that while the album has similarities to her previous three, it is "stripped of all her carnivalesque accouterments" and there is a new "unwavering determination and cohesion". [26] BBC Music reviewer James Skinner praised the "hopelessly romantic" album and Apple's "expressive" vocals, and considered the album to be her "sparsest work to date". [35] Blair Kelly of musicOMH said the album is "both roaring with rage and swooning with romance", finding it refreshingly "spare" while its focus is on Apple's "raw, rough and flawed" vocals. [36] American Songwriter writer Jim Beviglia rated the album four stars out of five, praising its "stark and raw" songs, its "visceral power" and Apple's presentation of "the mixed emotions that accompany the fallout of a broken relationship". [37]
Robert Christgau gave the album an A−, calling it "damn catchy", with "few arpeggios, and not much tone color and such", and while Apple "executes simple figures and hammers thick chords, including a few boogie-woogies just to make a point", the album is "mood music". [31] Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A, and regarded it as "highly confessional and creative and temperamental", concluding it "isn't easy listening. But it's worth it." [28] Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork scored the album nine out of ten and called it "the most distilled Fiona Apple album yet", commending its "raw emotion". [33] Consequence of Sound called the album "one of the most daring pop records in recent history", awarding it with four-and-a-half stars out of five. [38] Greg Kot of Chicago Tribune gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four, deeming it "more stripped down and turbulent than before", adding that "It makes for a raw, unsettling listen, tempered by shots of dark humor." [39] NME wrote: "The tension created by the lyrics and music is wonderful and uneasy, ensuring that The Idler Wheel... is endlessly fascinating and unlike anything else you're likely to hear this year." [32]
Jessica Hopper of Spin rated the album eight out of ten, writing that it "relentlessly reassures us that she’s the same old Fiona, still wilding and Weill-ing out" and "the unexpected triumph lies not in the spectacle of the singer raw-dogging her emotions, but in her total command of the anarchy that results". [34] Slant Magazine gave it four stars out of five and called the album "her most dense and ambitious" while it remains "accessible". [40] Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club graded the album an A and said: "The beauty of The Idler Wheel... is how it transmits each of those feelings in excruciating, frank, and lovely detail." [27] Jillian Mapes of Billboard wrote that although the album is "devoid of much musical flourishing", it was "absolutely worth the seven-year wait". [41] The Boston Phoenix 's Zeth Lundy rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of four, describing its sound as "raw and deceptively artless" and deeming it "arguably her funniest ... but also her leanest and most melodically daring." [42] Paste magazine reviewer Stephen M. Deusner rated it 8.4 out of 10, stating that Apple relies on the same eccentricities of her past work, and her inability to "get out of her own head — can’t even begin to write a song that doesn’t build on layers of self-conscious self-absorption and gritty self-loathing — may in fact be one of her greatest and most distinguishing strengths as an artist"; while her "overwrought" lyrics "can provoke cringes as easily as sympathetic nods", they "exert a considerable power, marking these songs as indelibly her own". [43] Now magazine gave the album four out of five stars, writing: "Apple's return to music is not only undeniably powerful, but Idler is arguably her best work yet." [44]
PopMatters ' Enio Chiola rated the album six out of ten, finding it "purposefully and inauthentically difficult for the sake of being difficult", criticizing the "twist[ing] [of] simple arrangements and sentiments into an unnecessarily uneasy listen...[resulting] in the record being often times tiresome and boring" and Apple's "tendency to scream". "There simply isn't enough variation" on the album, Chiola concluded, but it "isn't necessarily (even at its core) a bad record." [45] Rolling Stone gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars, writing that the album is "rawboned emotionally" while Apple "pours out her distress on driving songs with lyrics that mix romantic poetry and therapy-speak – Byron by way of Oprah", and although the songs may "drag", her "kooky energy pushes through the slow spots." [1]
The album received a nomination at the 55th Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Album. [5] It was named the best album of 2012 by Time Magazine , Stereogum , Spinner , and NPR Music's Fresh Air . [46] [47] [48] [49] It ranked at number 2 on the lists of Consequence of Sound [50] and Entertainment Weekly , [51] number 3 on the lists of USA Today and Pitchfork , [52] [53] number 4 on Paste , [54] number 5 in Rolling Stone , [55] number 10 on Idolator, [56] number sixteen in Spin , [57] number seventeen on American Songwriter [58] and Filter , [59] and appeared on NPR's unnumbered list. [60] The album was ranked No. 10 in Pitchfork 's list of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010-2014), published in August 2014. [61]
Apple's track "Hot Knife" ranked at number twelve in Rolling Stone ’s 50 Best Songs of 2012 list [62] and "Every Single Night" ranked at number 7 on American Songwriter s Top 50 Songs of 2012. [63] In Pitchfork 's Top 100 Tracks of 2012, "Werewolf" was ranked at number 9 and "Every Single Night" was ranked at number 35. [64]
In 2019, the album was included on The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list, [65] and ranked 5th on Pitchfork 's list of The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s. [66] In 2020, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 213 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [67]
All tracks are written by Fiona Apple.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Every Single Night" | 3:29 |
2. | "Daredevil" | 3:28 |
3. | "Valentine" | 3:32 |
4. | "Jonathan" | 5:03 |
5. | "Left Alone" | 4:50 |
6. | "Werewolf" | 3:12 |
7. | "Periphery" | 4:58 |
8. | "Regret" | 5:17 |
9. | "Anything We Want" | 4:40 |
10. | "Hot Knife" | 4:02 |
Total length: | 42:39 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
11. | "Largo" | 2:41 |
Total length: | 45:20 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Every Single Night" | 3:19 |
2. | "Anything We Want" | 5:00 |
3. | "Fast as You Can" | 5:15 |
4. | "A Mistake" | 5:53 |
5. | "Sleep to Dream" | 4:40 |
Total length: | 24:07 |
Credits adapted from The Idler Wheel... album liner notes. [68]
Weekly charts
Certifications and sales
Year-end charts
|
Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart is an American singer-songwriter. She released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Apple has received numerous awards and nominations, including three Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and a Billboard Music Award.
Tidal is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released on July 23, 1996, by The WORK Group. Tidal produced three singles: "Shadowboxer", "Sleep to Dream", and "Criminal". The latter was the album's most popular single, winning a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1998. In 2017, Tidal got its first vinyl run as a "Vinyl Me Please" exclusive "Record of the Month".
Extraordinary Machine is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released by Epic Records in the United States on October 4, 2005 and in Europe on October 3, 2005. Produced by Jon Brion, it was expected to be released in 2003 but was delayed several times by the record label without explanation, leading to speculation that a dispute had arisen over its commercial appeal. The controversy surrounding the album and leaked recordings of the Jon Brion sessions were the subject of substantial press attention, as well as a highly publicized fan-led campaign to see the album officially released. In collaboration with producers Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew, Apple re-recorded the album over 2004 and 2005, and it was eventually released more than three years after the original recording sessions began.
Paris is the debut studio album by American media personality and singer Paris Hilton. It was released on August 14, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records. The entire album was posted on AOL Music, becoming available for online stream eight days before the scheduled physical copy release date. After being signed to the label in 2005, Hilton began working on the album with producer Rob Cavallo, who was originally set to produce the entire record. However, after meeting with producer Scott Storch, Hilton decided to change the musical direction of the album and record more hip hop and R&B influenced songs. She collaborated with other producers, including Fernando Garibay, J.R. Rotem, Dr. Luke and Greg Wells. Musically, Paris is a pop album that is influenced by hip hop. It also incorporates elements of reggae, soul, pop rock and R&B.
Charles Leslie Drayton is an American multi-instrumentalist and producer, known primarily as a drummer. Artists he has recorded or performed with include The Cult, Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Johnny Cash, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey, Seal, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Janet Jackson, Courtney Love, Michelle Branch, Andrés Calamaro, Hiram Bullock, and many others.
"Sleep to Dream" is a song written and recorded by American alternative singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. It was released on February 25, 1997 by Work Records and Columbia Records as the second single from her debut studio album, Tidal.
Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer. Over the course of his career, he has received over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize.
Cross is the debut studio album by French electronic music duo Justice, first released on 11 June 2007 through Ed Banger Records and Because Music. Recorded during 2005 and 2006 in Paris, Cross was composed as an "opera-disco" album. It features many samples and "microsamples" throughout, with about 400 albums being used as sampled material. These include samples from Prince, Britney Spears and Madonna. The song "D.A.N.C.E." is a tribute to Michael Jackson. French musician Mehdi Pinson appears on "DVNO", and vocalist Uffie appears on "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy". The album was supported by the singles "Waters of Nazareth", "D.A.N.C.E.", "DVNO", "Phantom Pt. II", and "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy". A controversial music video was also released for "Stress".
Swedish pop singer Robyn has released eight studio albums, one compilation album, six extended plays, 50 singles, nine promotional singles, and 45 music videos.
When the Pawn... is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. Released by Epic Records in the United States on November 9, 1999, When the Pawn... was wholly written by Apple, with production by Jon Brion.
Who You Are is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Jessie J. It was released on 28 February 2011 by Lava Records, Island Records and Universal Republic Records. In such a high demand and interest from fans, the release was advanced by a month from 28 March, as previously planned. Recording sessions took place between 2005 and 2011, with several other record producers contributing on the album such as Dr. Luke, Toby Gad and K-Gee, among others.
The Idler Wheel Tour is the fourth tour by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. Apple announced a small tour in Spring 2012 prompting speculation over a new album. Ahead of her first performance on the tour, Apple confirmed the album. The tour marked Apple's first performances outside of Los Angeles in over five years. Apple kicked off the tour with two performances at the South By Southwest Festival where she debuted three new songs from The Idler Wheel.... Apple's first date at the Lincoln Hall sold out quickly and caused the Lincoln Hall's servers to crash. A second date was announced at Lincoln Hall shortly after. Apple was originally scheduled to perform at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue on March 21 but was postponed to March 28.
The discography of American singer-songwriter and pianist Fiona Apple consists of five studio albums, one compilation album, 2 video albums, 16 singles and 17 music videos.
"Every Single Night" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. It was released as the only single from her fourth studio album, The Idler Wheel..., on April 24, 2012, by Epic Records.
"Dull Tool" is a song by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released on the soundtrack to the comedy film This Is 40 (2012). It is the first track Apple wrote solely for a film. "Dull Tool" was produced by Apple's long-time collaborator Jon Brion, and leaked online in November 2012, several weeks before the soundtrack hit stores on December 11.
Are You Serious is the tenth solo studio album by Andrew Bird, released on April 1, 2016. The album features collaborations with Fiona Apple and Blake Mills.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. It was released on April 17, 2020, Apple's first release since The Idler Wheel... in 2012. The album was recorded from 2015 to 2020, largely at Apple's home in Venice Beach. It was produced and performed by Apple alongside Amy Aileen Wood, Sebastian Steinberg and Davíd Garza; the recording consisted of long, often improvised takes with unconventional percussive sounds. GarageBand was used for much of this recording, and Fiona Apple credited the album's unedited vocals and long takes to her lack of expertise with the program.
Rough and Rowdy Ways is the thirty-ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 19, 2020, through Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album of original songs since his 2012 album Tempest, following three releases that covered traditional pop standards. The album was recorded at Sound City Studios from January to early March 2020. The session musicians included all of the then-current members of Dylan's Never Ending Tour band alongside other musicians, such as Blake Mills and Fiona Apple. The album's sound was described by critics as Americana, folk, blues, and rhythm and blues.
Lot's [ sic ] of good music coming from Epic_Records in the next few weeks. Stay tuned music fans. Welcome back Fiona!
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)