Background
In 1995, Los Angeles music producer Andy Slater signed Apple under the Work Group, a Sony Music label. Upon meeting her, he thought a prank was being pulled on him after seeing how, Apple, a visibly young woman, wrote much of her early work, stating that he thought "it was a Milli Vanilli thing." [6] Later commenting in 2000 on what became Tidal, Apple said that the album "was more for the sake of proving myself; telling people from my past something. And to also try to get friends for the future." [7]
Critical reception
Tidal garnered generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics, with Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone and Richard Harrington of The Washington Post describing it as a mature effort comparable to the work of artists Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos. [18] [17] In a more negative review, The Sydney Morning Herald found the album to be produced out of a "gender cliché," specifically criticizing the lyricism of the track "Criminal" to be too "fragile." [19]
Retrospective reviews have lauded the album. In a 2017 Pitchfork review by Jenn Pelly, Tidal was described as lyrically stating "You could never feel the pain I feel because only I have felt it. There are things about me that you can’t see at all, because I have buried them so well. You don’t know who I am," and to the contrary, that the listener could see themselves. [14] A 2021 Consequence piece by Ilana Kaplan remarked that the work "inarguably recast what pop stardom could look like" and paved the way for future artists to become forthright and relentless in their artistic conception, [20] whereas Lindsay Zoladz wrote in NPR that in spite of record label executives and the media attempting to forcefully shape Apple's increasingly anti-commercial sound, her later career would continue to follow herself on Tidal "forging the tools of her own liberation in the generative fires of youth" by further growing into an even more free-spirited artist. [21]
In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 83 among the 100 greatest albums of the 1990s. [22] The following year, Slant Magazine placed it at number 74. [23] The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [24] In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 25 on its list of "100 Best Debut Albums of All Time", stating that it was "just the beginning—and Apple has kept topping herself artistically ever since." [25]
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