Fiona Apple: Fast As You Can
Continuing my list of the Top 10 albums of 1999, coming in at #8 is When the pawn… by Fiona Apple. Half of the albums on my list are records I listened to in 1999 and half are records I have discovered over the years since. Looking at the complete list, the one album that took me the longest to discover is this one. Upon its release, this album received mixed reviews, including several terrible reviews by some influential, male, so-called music experts of the time. The world of rock music in 1999 was filled with hundreds of boring albums by boring bands like Blink-182, Silverchair, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. None of those albums are on my list. I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t suckered into the male-dominated rock landscape of the late ’90s (especially #3 on my list), but the most popular acts of the era were never my favorite. Even then I thought that they all sounded the same and none of them were original, even though all of those mainstream alt-rock bands dominated sales and airplay at the time. I think this mainstream obsession with post-grunge music in the late ’90s is why this album by Fiona Apple was treated so unkindly at the time. It is too mature, intelligent, and sophisticated to have been accepted by the male-dominated, sexist critics of the 20th century. 25 years later, this album is heralded as one of the best of not only 1999 but of the entire decade. Apple’s 1996 debut album (Tidal) was one of the best debuts of that year, but When the pawn… is a gigantic leap forward in her songwriting ability. Now, as is often the case with hindsight, the world is more willing to accept the fact that Fiona Apple deserves to be treated like a musical genius while the music of the more popular rock acts of the time slowly fades away to be forgotten by history. I know there are people who still love to throw their old CD copies of The Fragile (Nine Inch Nails) and Californication (Red Hot Chili Peppers) into their car’s CD players, but those albums now sound like sophomoric nonsense compared to When the pawn. I will gladly admit that I still listen to sophomoric nonsense from the ’80s like Loverboy and their ilk, but lets all be honest and admit that bands like Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots aren’t any more interesting than Loverboy. The same can not be said for Fiona Apple, whose music becomes more relevant and sounds more modern with each passing year.
Interesting side note, When the pawn… held the record for longest album title when it was released (that honor now goes to Chumbawamba). The full title of the album is a poem Apple wrote in response to the negative opinions of her detractors.
When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring
There’s no body to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
And if you fall it won’t matter, cuz you’ll know that you’re right
To learn more about Fiona Apple, check out her Wikipedia page.
To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.
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