Fiona Apple - Extraordinary (2003)

After completing a concert tour in support of her second album 'When the Pawn...' in 2000, Fiona Apple relocated to Los Angeles, but didn't start writing new songs for a couple of years, even considering retiring from the music business as she felt she had nothing more to say with her music. In spring 2002 Apple and Jon Brion, her longtime friend and producer, met for their weekly lunch meeting, during which Brion begged her to make another album, as he needed a distraction from the film that he was then working on, and she agreed to do it. Brion went to Apple's label, Epic Records, with strict stipulations, including having no deadline, which the label eventually agreed to, and a tentative November 2002 release date was then set. Apple started studio work on the album the following June at Ocean Way Recording, where she played five songs to Brion that she'd written for the album, including 'A New Version of Me'. By late 2002 Apple, Brion, engineer Tom Biller and percussionist Matt Chamberlain were at work in a wing of the Paramour Mansion, and with the album half complete in April 2003, Brion, Apple and Biller moved to Cello Studios, and a new release date of July 22 was announced. Brion and Apple then traveled to England to record strings and orchestration for the songs at Abbey Road Studios, and by May 2003 Brion considered the album to be completed. The release was pushed back to September 30, but the need for some finishing touches to the recordings meant that it was delayed again, this time to February 2004. Little by little, small details about the songs were revealed through newspaper and magazine articles, and the titles of 'Oh Well', 'Better', and 'Red Red Red' were mentioned, while the slow-paced track 'Extraordinary' was referred to as "a Tin Pan Alley-esque blend of Tom Waits and Vaudeville". In late June 2004 the song 'Extraordinary', now titled 'Extraordinary Machine' and promoted to the title track of the album, was leaked onto the internet, and soon after a rough mix of 'Better Version Of Me' also appeared, with both songs eliciting praise from the music press for their "tantalizing, brazenly eccentric art pop" feel. After months with no official news, Brion revealed in an article in the October 2004 issue of Entertainment Weekly that the label had shelved the album as they didn't hear any obvious singles, and despite Epic Records stating that the album was to be released in February 2005, Apple decided to re-record some of the songs to appease the label, who wanted another album in the vein of her 1996 debut 'Tidal'. Her fans organized a week-long mail campaign to flood Sony with support for the release of the album, with Epic's president Steve Barnett responding with the mealy-mouthed statement "It's our understanding that Fiona is still in the midst of recording her next album, and we at Epic Records join music lovers everywhere in eagerly anticipating her next release", when they'd had an album that she was happy with for over a year. 

In February 2005 radio DJ Andrew Harms at 107.7 The End in Seattle began playing previously unheard tracks from a bootleg copy of the album, which garnered a positive response from listeners, and before long CD-quality versions of all the tracks were released through the BitTorrent website TorrentBox. They received a positive review from The New York Times, who described the album as "an oddball gem", and Ed Bumgardner concurred, saying that it was "a work of daring and sophistication". After nearly 50,000 downloads, the RIAA contacted webmasters of sites hosting the files and asked for them to be taken down, and the files vanished from the TorrentBox website. After months of silence, Epic finally released a statement regarding the album's future in August 2005, saying that it was to be officially released on October 4, 2005, extensively overhauled by co-producers Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew, who had reworked each song track by track, building from Apple's piano and vocals, adding live drums with the help of Abe Laboriel Jr. and Questlove, then inserting some instrumental flourishes, and once the song frameworks had been completed, Apple returned to the studio and recorded the final performances. Of the eleven tracks previously leaked, 'Extraordinary Machine' and 'Waltz' remained unchanged, but nine were completely rearranged, with one new song, 'Parting Gift', also added to the track listing. The official version of 'Extraordinary Machine' was ranked number one in the end of year top albums lists of Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times and Slant magazine, although Stylus magazine described it as "a rudderless piece of work" and "a bitterly disappointing listen", while Spin magazine stated "it's kinda been done". Despite that criticism, as of June 2012 the album had sold a million copies, and with such an intriguing back story, it's not surprising that the original recordings have recently resurfaced, and so fans can now hear the Brion versions and compare them to the more well-known takes of the songs to see which they prefer. The cover of the official release featured a photo of a Lily Of The Nile which was taken by Apple herself in her garden, and so as a homage to that sleeve I've used the same flower for the cover of this album, and it's named after the original name of that record's title track.  

Track listing 

01 Not About Love
02 Red, Red, Red
03 Get Him Back
04 Better Version Of Me
05 Oh Well
06 O' Sailor
07 Used To Love Him
08 Window
09 Waltz (Better Than Fine)
10 Extraordinary Machine
11 Please, Please, Please