This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Fiona Apple knows how to get your attention.
She did it in 1996 with her debut Tidal, an LP of intense, intimately revealing piano-rock ballads that made you sit up and listen — whether you wanted to or not (“This is great, but why is she telling us all this stuff?” was a friend’s reaction to Apple’s unflinching tales of anger, depression and seduction).
Now, three years later, the 22 year old has done it again — with just her album title. As you may have read, and as those three little dots up top indicate, When The Pawn…’s full handle is the longest album title in history, a 90-word eye-roller that goes like this (take a deep breath): When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Gets 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.
Self-indulgent and audacious as that mouthful is, it’s also the perfect name for an album as ambitious, uninhibited and uncompromising as this. In the same way that Apple’s titles have progressed from five letters to a paragraph, her talents have increased manifold since her debut. Where Tidal centered around minor-key piano balladry (with the notable exceptions of the singles), here Apple has fully found her feet as a songwriter — confident and comfortable with rockier numbers and able to incorporate everything from electronica to a drum solo into her songs without sounding trendy or pretentious.
As a singer, Apple has also added a few new colours to her palette. On Tidal, her rich and husky voice — remarkable at age 19 — seemed almost beyond her control. But her subsequent years of performing have helped her master her instrument, and here she knows when to expertly rein it in to a sensual whisper, when to flutter it for effect and when to just open up and let loose.
And as for those lyrics, well, let’s just say Apple hasn’t lightened up. Pawn is another chronicle of dark days, most of which come during an apparently doomed relationship. “You’re all I need,” is the chorus she repeats like a mantra on the opening track On The Bound. But things go downhill fast. First she sneers “You wanna make me sick / You wanna lick my wounds / Don’t you baby?” on Limp, and soon after, in Love Ridden, it’s “only kisses on the cheek from now on / In a little while, we’ll only have to wave.” Eventually, she cuts to the chase: “How many times do I have to say / To get away?” she demands in Get Gone. But it’s all for the best, she concludes in The Way Things Are: “I couldn’t take the embrace of a real romance / I’m much better off.”
If all that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
