Perhaps the title doubles as a reference to how long it took for Fiona Apple to release this album. At this rate, it’ll be about another decade until we get another one. With that it demands careful and repeated listens, at least for her loyal and patient fans.

I’m one, though I haven’t liked a Fiona Apple album since Extraordinary Machine, the best songs of which were produced by Jon Brion. He also moved The Pawn, probably her best album. Is it coincidence the quality of her music declined when they split ways?

Fetch The Bolt Cutters sounds more like The Idler Wheel, which offered Anything We Want and Valentine; Largo would easily be the best song if it were actually on that album; as highlights. Most of its songs are middling though, which is also the case here.

It seems Fiona Apple needs to be reacquainted with melody, at least at the breaks where it matters. Most of these songs aren’t bad, but she’s too comfortable repeating awkward bars of fortune cookie poetry; “Evil is a Relay sport”; and passing it off as a hook.

The Mellotron riff on Rack Of His sounds enchanting though, even as Apple offers little of substance to accommodate it vocally. She does better on Cosmonauts, where she actually manages a cutesy chorus, and the feel-good feminist anthem Ladies.

my rating : 3 of 5

2020