We did the original iPod Shuffle on January 13, 2011 and it was so
much fun I decided to do it again. With all the Friday Flashbacks,
Monday Mixes, CD Reviews and the like, I don't often get time to be a
fan.
If you follow this blog, you know I am a proponent of discovering new music. Sometimes, however, we are so busy looking everywhere else for new music that we fail to realize we can discover a lot of great stuff within the confines of our own music collections.
This exercise helps that process.
You can see the results from our first attempt at this RIGHT HERE
In the meantime -- onward!
Here's the game:
(1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer.
(2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
(3) List the first 15 songs that come up (song title and artist) NO editing/cheating, please. Even if you might skip the song when it comes up or be embarrassed for people to know that it's in your collection, you still must list it. DISCLAIMER: I do skip past Christmas songs.
(4) You are strongly encouraged to try this exercise at home and we welcome your feedback in the comments section. Ready? Go!
![]()
01. Lonesome Blues by Phil Guy from the album Say What You Mean [unsigned] (7m 21s)
Phil was a good friend of mine so a great start so far. I probably appreciate this song a lot more than others do for that reason. Yes, Phil was Buddy Guy's younger brother and though a great guitarist in his own right, he never found the mainstream or genre success that Buddy did. But, Phil Guy shows on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s and 1990s were legendary and Phil would jam with guys like Ronnie Baker Brooks, Junior Wells and of course, Buddy Guy. In fact, at one time or another Phil was a part of all of those artist's bands. Sadly Phil died from complications of prostate cancer in 2008. I urge everyone to grab this album if you can find it - likely a used vinyl or CD store is your best bet, digital versions do not exist. Lonesome Blues is a repeat player. And Phil, I miss you walking around the room playing your guitar behind your head. Great times.
_________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon
02. Voodoo Woman (Live) by Susan Tedeschi from the album The Best Of Susan Tedeschi 2 [IndiBlu Music] (5m 36s)
Back-to-back blues is always a good thing, right? Tedeschi is a phenomenal guitarist and a decent vocalist with one of those raspy Melissa Etheridge-meets-Demi Moore voices that I absolutely love when it comes to female vocalists. Unfortunately, for guitar fans, this song is more of a showcase for Tedeschi's band and features an incendiary electric organ and a bass line that should be illegal in most jurisdictions. Tedeschi does manage a pretty decent solo - but I've heard way better from her. The whole package, however, makes this one of my favorite Susan Tedeschi songs.
_________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
03. Naked As We Came by Iron & Wine from the album Our Endless Numbered Days [Sub-Pop Records] (2m 33s)
So this is Iron & Wine channeling some combination of Nick Drake, Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley. Yes, it is an incredibly beautiful song but truth be told it doesn't feel like Iron & Wine to me and listener reviews that state things like "it literally stops time and makes whatever I'm doing a joy while I feel peaceful, humble and thankful as it plays" seem slightly exaggerated and far too superlative in my opinion, which lowers my respect factor considerably. PLEASE STOP THE HYPE!!
No doubt, this song is a great fit for our 'Cool Songs For A Cliched Film' playlist on iTunes, but to me, it's for that reason alone that I feel this song is slightly cliched and way too overrated to be considered an Iron & Wine classic. Let the hate mongering and riots begin. I'm a big boy. Film at eleven.
_________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon
04. A Cowboy's Works Is Never Done by Sonny & Cher from the album The Way Of Love: The Cher Collection [Geffen] (3m 17s)
How the hell did this song get into my iTunes collection? Stupid Friday Flashback! There is barely a peep out of Sonny on this song and 2013 Cher, though not as hot as 1969 Cher, is still a very sexually attractive human being. That being said, and despite the fact that Cher is 25 years older than me, I am far too old to have any chance at even a passing conversation with her. This song may have ended America's infatuation with spaghetti westerns thanks to it's absurd campiness. OK, now I have no chance.
________________________
![]()
Get it at:Amazon | iTunes
05. Counting Train Cars by Widespread Panic from the album Ball [Sanctuary Records] (2m 53s)
Not one of the better WP songs but there are no bad songs by this band, and you can believe me just because I said so. This was the band's first album without founding member and guitarist Michael Houser who had passed in 2002, so the band gets a mulligan here. More so, this was Widespread Panic's first ever album that didn't include any songs previously played before live audiences. All new songs, no test market, and still an admirable effort. If you listen to this song three times it will have grown on you. It's very Jay Farrar-like and the steel pedal on this song is insanely addictive. Buy. Listen. Repeat. Dig. It's that simple.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
06. Lady Picture Show by Stone Temple Pilots from the album Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop [Atlantic Records] (4m 09s)
Too many sounds, too many textures, too many riffs. It is a melange of something but I am not sure what. A decent guitar solo somewhat saves face and the summer that this album was released was in fact one of the best summer's of my life, so I am sure songs from this album made a number of my let-me-woo-you-with-my-incredible-taste-in-music mixtapes I gave to Sally, Kim & Peaches, yes, I said Peaches, and you can pretty much surmise how she made a living by that name. Seventeen years later it feels like maybe Prince may have written this song and that maybe by this point Scott Weiland was a little too strung out to remember that STP was supposed to be a rock band, not some ephemeral 1990s amalgam of simplistic guitar chords drowned in fake fuzz and sampled distortion.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
07. Summer Day by Sheryl Crow from the album 100 Miles From Memphis [A&M Records] (4m 30s)
The best Sheryl Crow album that nobody has ever heard of. Summer Day is probably the most adult contemporary song Crow has ever recorded. The idea with this album was, of course, to ditch her country/rock identity in favor of a more blues-based Memphis Stax sound. The rest of the album accomplishes that but Summer Day feels a little Toni Braxton/Mary J Blige to me, with the cover of Citizen Cope's Sideways being the true keeper on this album. And, just an aside here, after her much publicized break up with Lance Armstrong, I find it utterly amazing that she kept her mouth shut regarding all the performance enhancing drug use. A woman who can keep a secret like that is a keeper. I want to marry Sheryl Crow. If you have a connection let me know.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
08. Ain't Messin' Round by Gary Clark, Jr. from the album Blak & Blu [Warner Bros.] (4m 09s)
The Stuart Scott, booyeah, feel good moment of 2012: don't hate the player, hate the game, there's always room on my dance card for INCENDIARY because this young man is gettin' his freak on and like gravy on a biscuit it's all good! Gary Clark, Jr. triumphantly and single-handedly brings scathing guitar-driven blues-rock back to the forefront of mainstream popularity in a haze of Hendrix-inspired white-hot riffs that instantly melts faces in near-nuclear fashion. Did you count the hyphens in that last sentence? The number of descriptive hyphens is always directly proportionate to the quality of the music being, er, descripted (George W. Bush-ism, 25 points!).
Okay, I am exaggerating somewhat. This is a great song though. I'm sure you've heard it and if you haven't you must be my grandfather or a fan of adult contemporary radio, which means you stopped reading after I kicked Cher to the curb earlier. Shame.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
09. Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan from the album Highway 61 Revisited [Columbia Records] (3m 30s)
What a great follow up to Gary Clark Jr, dare I say iGenius? Of course there is nothing I can say about Bob Dylan that hasn't already been said and I don't want to make something up in light of the whole Mant Te'o scandal -- who needs that kind of publicity? This is my favorite Dylan song, however, and I'm sure that I am in a small faction of Dylan fans that agrees with that simply because of the obscene number of great songs that have come from Dylan's amazing and incredibly laureate brain. This was Dylan's first electric album. I love the innovative ways in which Dylan uses subtle, poetic lyrics awash in blues-driven funk to capture the cultural misgivings and political chaos in America. The electric organ on this song - wow.
Something to chew on: the song is punctuated by the sound of a police siren. (In the liner notes, Dylan is credited with playing "Police Car").
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon
10. Gettin' Old and Grey by Howlin' Wolf from the Chess Blues Box Set, Disc One: 1947-1952 [Chess Records/Geffen] (2m 38s)
iTunes is sending me a message today as a number of songs here are deeply rooted in traditional blues. Ol' Wolf (Chester Burnett) was the baddest of the ensemble put together by Leonard Chess over at the original Chess /Checkers studio at 4750 S. Cottage Grove in Chicago. This is pure blues raunch, the stuff that begot rock & roll, in fact. Honestly I had never heard this song despite it being in my collection - box sets are best experienced when you have an entire day to kill. I just found my excuse to call it an early day today. What a gem.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
11. New Year by Beach House from the album Bloom [Sub Pop Records] (5m 26s)
2011 and 2012 arguably belonged to Beach House from an indie standpoint and 2013 is looking like another banner year on the strength of this album, though it is my belief that this type of music in general is beginning to trend downward in popularity, somewhat. This is my favorite song by Beach House and maybe my favorite song by the duo overall. It's dreamy and ethereal. Everything they do is. No need to check your buzz-induced haze at the door, you and your haze are quite welcome here.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
12. Parted Ways by Heartless Bastards from the album Arrow [Partisan Records] (4m 58s)
The Heartless Bastards were my go-to band of 2012, I saw them six times and Parted Ways is my favorite song from this album. The guitar solos and the bridge are crack-like addictive. Erika Wennerstrom's amazing vocals are immediately recognizable and the combination of blues, roots and guitar-driven rock is, in a word, infectious. I could listen to this song hundreds of times continuously without tiring of it. The finish to this song is wild and beautifully unrestrained. Better than really great sex. Swear.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
13. Agnes & Myrtle by The Panda Resistance from Fassler Hall Presents: The New Tulsa Sound II: The Church Studio Sessions [Horton Records] (5m 35s)
Instrumental groups simply don't get their due, and that's unfortunate because without instrumentals, music is just spoken poetry, right? Agnes & Myrtle may be the best instrumental I've heard, and in full disclosure, this song has taken a long time for me to become so fond of it. I always liked it, but when you talk about placing a song in the upper echelon of its genre, at the zenith even, you are really making a bold statement. I don't know, every time I hear this song I fall more in love with it.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
14. The Mayor Of Simpleton by XTC from the album Fossil Fuel: The XTC SINGLES COLLECTION 1977 - 1992 [Virgin Catalogue] (3m 58s)
Well, I love XTC, they are no doubt the preeminent pure pop group of the 1980s. This is also one of my favorite songs. Pop music used to be the enclosure that housed a varying ideology and style with which music containing cleverly penned lyrics and pristine soundscapes (and structures) could stand. Andy Partridge had the creative vision to meld simplistic or inconsequential subject matter and an extreme, rapier wit with complex melodic buoyancy, the likes of which may have been matched by Brian Wilson alone. Partridge was a master of creating something of an eerie or self-deprecating sensation that belied it's upbeat melody and the intelligent descriptive of it's lyrics no matter how simplistic or complex the subject matter. I long for a return of this sound.
________________________
![]()
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
15. A Mistake by Fiona Apple from the album 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, commonly shortened to When the Pawn...[Clean Slate/Epic] (4m 58s)
Fast As You Can is generally conceded by most Apple fans as the go-to song on this album but A Mistake is considerably better. Apple is genuinely more misunderstood than she is appreciated as she carries a somewhat undeserved reputation due to her indie sound/major label backing and a negative Spin magazine article at the onset of her career. She is often lumped together with indie maven Tori Amos and lesser qualified artists like Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks and Joan Osbourne.
Apple sounds nothing like any of those artists, combining aching vocals, post-adolescent angst and scorching attitude infused with a funky blues sound and a somewhat complicated arrangement that is haunting and poetic. There's a rueful self-awareness and extreme sensuality to her lyrics. “I’m gonna make a mistake/ I’m gonna do it on purpose,” she defiantly announces in A Mistake and you line up to be chosen to help the cause, knowing full well that that path leads to an imminent curb-kicking and a failed attempt to remotely satisfy that choice and those desires.
I don't think listeners really get Fiona Apple, which is too bad. Further, not many people really delve into Fiona Apple's entire catalog and that's almost sad.![]()
If you follow this blog, you know I am a proponent of discovering new music. Sometimes, however, we are so busy looking everywhere else for new music that we fail to realize we can discover a lot of great stuff within the confines of our own music collections.
This exercise helps that process.
You can see the results from our first attempt at this RIGHT HERE
In the meantime -- onward!
Here's the game:
(1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer.
(2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
(3) List the first 15 songs that come up (song title and artist) NO editing/cheating, please. Even if you might skip the song when it comes up or be embarrassed for people to know that it's in your collection, you still must list it. DISCLAIMER: I do skip past Christmas songs.
(4) You are strongly encouraged to try this exercise at home and we welcome your feedback in the comments section. Ready? Go!
01. Lonesome Blues by Phil Guy from the album Say What You Mean [unsigned] (7m 21s)
Phil was a good friend of mine so a great start so far. I probably appreciate this song a lot more than others do for that reason. Yes, Phil was Buddy Guy's younger brother and though a great guitarist in his own right, he never found the mainstream or genre success that Buddy did. But, Phil Guy shows on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s and 1990s were legendary and Phil would jam with guys like Ronnie Baker Brooks, Junior Wells and of course, Buddy Guy. In fact, at one time or another Phil was a part of all of those artist's bands. Sadly Phil died from complications of prostate cancer in 2008. I urge everyone to grab this album if you can find it - likely a used vinyl or CD store is your best bet, digital versions do not exist. Lonesome Blues is a repeat player. And Phil, I miss you walking around the room playing your guitar behind your head. Great times.
_________________________
Get it at: Amazon
02. Voodoo Woman (Live) by Susan Tedeschi from the album The Best Of Susan Tedeschi 2 [IndiBlu Music] (5m 36s)
Back-to-back blues is always a good thing, right? Tedeschi is a phenomenal guitarist and a decent vocalist with one of those raspy Melissa Etheridge-meets-Demi Moore voices that I absolutely love when it comes to female vocalists. Unfortunately, for guitar fans, this song is more of a showcase for Tedeschi's band and features an incendiary electric organ and a bass line that should be illegal in most jurisdictions. Tedeschi does manage a pretty decent solo - but I've heard way better from her. The whole package, however, makes this one of my favorite Susan Tedeschi songs.
_________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
03. Naked As We Came by Iron & Wine from the album Our Endless Numbered Days [Sub-Pop Records] (2m 33s)
So this is Iron & Wine channeling some combination of Nick Drake, Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley. Yes, it is an incredibly beautiful song but truth be told it doesn't feel like Iron & Wine to me and listener reviews that state things like "it literally stops time and makes whatever I'm doing a joy while I feel peaceful, humble and thankful as it plays" seem slightly exaggerated and far too superlative in my opinion, which lowers my respect factor considerably. PLEASE STOP THE HYPE!!
No doubt, this song is a great fit for our 'Cool Songs For A Cliched Film' playlist on iTunes, but to me, it's for that reason alone that I feel this song is slightly cliched and way too overrated to be considered an Iron & Wine classic. Let the hate mongering and riots begin. I'm a big boy. Film at eleven.
_________________________
Get it at: Amazon
04. A Cowboy's Works Is Never Done by Sonny & Cher from the album The Way Of Love: The Cher Collection [Geffen] (3m 17s)
How the hell did this song get into my iTunes collection? Stupid Friday Flashback! There is barely a peep out of Sonny on this song and 2013 Cher, though not as hot as 1969 Cher, is still a very sexually attractive human being. That being said, and despite the fact that Cher is 25 years older than me, I am far too old to have any chance at even a passing conversation with her. This song may have ended America's infatuation with spaghetti westerns thanks to it's absurd campiness. OK, now I have no chance.
________________________
Get it at:Amazon | iTunes
05. Counting Train Cars by Widespread Panic from the album Ball [Sanctuary Records] (2m 53s)
Not one of the better WP songs but there are no bad songs by this band, and you can believe me just because I said so. This was the band's first album without founding member and guitarist Michael Houser who had passed in 2002, so the band gets a mulligan here. More so, this was Widespread Panic's first ever album that didn't include any songs previously played before live audiences. All new songs, no test market, and still an admirable effort. If you listen to this song three times it will have grown on you. It's very Jay Farrar-like and the steel pedal on this song is insanely addictive. Buy. Listen. Repeat. Dig. It's that simple.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
06. Lady Picture Show by Stone Temple Pilots from the album Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop [Atlantic Records] (4m 09s)
Too many sounds, too many textures, too many riffs. It is a melange of something but I am not sure what. A decent guitar solo somewhat saves face and the summer that this album was released was in fact one of the best summer's of my life, so I am sure songs from this album made a number of my let-me-woo-you-with-my-incredible-taste-in-music mixtapes I gave to Sally, Kim & Peaches, yes, I said Peaches, and you can pretty much surmise how she made a living by that name. Seventeen years later it feels like maybe Prince may have written this song and that maybe by this point Scott Weiland was a little too strung out to remember that STP was supposed to be a rock band, not some ephemeral 1990s amalgam of simplistic guitar chords drowned in fake fuzz and sampled distortion.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
07. Summer Day by Sheryl Crow from the album 100 Miles From Memphis [A&M Records] (4m 30s)
The best Sheryl Crow album that nobody has ever heard of. Summer Day is probably the most adult contemporary song Crow has ever recorded. The idea with this album was, of course, to ditch her country/rock identity in favor of a more blues-based Memphis Stax sound. The rest of the album accomplishes that but Summer Day feels a little Toni Braxton/Mary J Blige to me, with the cover of Citizen Cope's Sideways being the true keeper on this album. And, just an aside here, after her much publicized break up with Lance Armstrong, I find it utterly amazing that she kept her mouth shut regarding all the performance enhancing drug use. A woman who can keep a secret like that is a keeper. I want to marry Sheryl Crow. If you have a connection let me know.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
08. Ain't Messin' Round by Gary Clark, Jr. from the album Blak & Blu [Warner Bros.] (4m 09s)
The Stuart Scott, booyeah, feel good moment of 2012: don't hate the player, hate the game, there's always room on my dance card for INCENDIARY because this young man is gettin' his freak on and like gravy on a biscuit it's all good! Gary Clark, Jr. triumphantly and single-handedly brings scathing guitar-driven blues-rock back to the forefront of mainstream popularity in a haze of Hendrix-inspired white-hot riffs that instantly melts faces in near-nuclear fashion. Did you count the hyphens in that last sentence? The number of descriptive hyphens is always directly proportionate to the quality of the music being, er, descripted (George W. Bush-ism, 25 points!).
Okay, I am exaggerating somewhat. This is a great song though. I'm sure you've heard it and if you haven't you must be my grandfather or a fan of adult contemporary radio, which means you stopped reading after I kicked Cher to the curb earlier. Shame.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
09. Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan from the album Highway 61 Revisited [Columbia Records] (3m 30s)
What a great follow up to Gary Clark Jr, dare I say iGenius? Of course there is nothing I can say about Bob Dylan that hasn't already been said and I don't want to make something up in light of the whole Mant Te'o scandal -- who needs that kind of publicity? This is my favorite Dylan song, however, and I'm sure that I am in a small faction of Dylan fans that agrees with that simply because of the obscene number of great songs that have come from Dylan's amazing and incredibly laureate brain. This was Dylan's first electric album. I love the innovative ways in which Dylan uses subtle, poetic lyrics awash in blues-driven funk to capture the cultural misgivings and political chaos in America. The electric organ on this song - wow.
Something to chew on: the song is punctuated by the sound of a police siren. (In the liner notes, Dylan is credited with playing "Police Car").
________________________
Get it at: Amazon
10. Gettin' Old and Grey by Howlin' Wolf from the Chess Blues Box Set, Disc One: 1947-1952 [Chess Records/Geffen] (2m 38s)
iTunes is sending me a message today as a number of songs here are deeply rooted in traditional blues. Ol' Wolf (Chester Burnett) was the baddest of the ensemble put together by Leonard Chess over at the original Chess /Checkers studio at 4750 S. Cottage Grove in Chicago. This is pure blues raunch, the stuff that begot rock & roll, in fact. Honestly I had never heard this song despite it being in my collection - box sets are best experienced when you have an entire day to kill. I just found my excuse to call it an early day today. What a gem.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
11. New Year by Beach House from the album Bloom [Sub Pop Records] (5m 26s)
2011 and 2012 arguably belonged to Beach House from an indie standpoint and 2013 is looking like another banner year on the strength of this album, though it is my belief that this type of music in general is beginning to trend downward in popularity, somewhat. This is my favorite song by Beach House and maybe my favorite song by the duo overall. It's dreamy and ethereal. Everything they do is. No need to check your buzz-induced haze at the door, you and your haze are quite welcome here.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
12. Parted Ways by Heartless Bastards from the album Arrow [Partisan Records] (4m 58s)
The Heartless Bastards were my go-to band of 2012, I saw them six times and Parted Ways is my favorite song from this album. The guitar solos and the bridge are crack-like addictive. Erika Wennerstrom's amazing vocals are immediately recognizable and the combination of blues, roots and guitar-driven rock is, in a word, infectious. I could listen to this song hundreds of times continuously without tiring of it. The finish to this song is wild and beautifully unrestrained. Better than really great sex. Swear.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
13. Agnes & Myrtle by The Panda Resistance from Fassler Hall Presents: The New Tulsa Sound II: The Church Studio Sessions [Horton Records] (5m 35s)
Instrumental groups simply don't get their due, and that's unfortunate because without instrumentals, music is just spoken poetry, right? Agnes & Myrtle may be the best instrumental I've heard, and in full disclosure, this song has taken a long time for me to become so fond of it. I always liked it, but when you talk about placing a song in the upper echelon of its genre, at the zenith even, you are really making a bold statement. I don't know, every time I hear this song I fall more in love with it.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
14. The Mayor Of Simpleton by XTC from the album Fossil Fuel: The XTC SINGLES COLLECTION 1977 - 1992 [Virgin Catalogue] (3m 58s)
Well, I love XTC, they are no doubt the preeminent pure pop group of the 1980s. This is also one of my favorite songs. Pop music used to be the enclosure that housed a varying ideology and style with which music containing cleverly penned lyrics and pristine soundscapes (and structures) could stand. Andy Partridge had the creative vision to meld simplistic or inconsequential subject matter and an extreme, rapier wit with complex melodic buoyancy, the likes of which may have been matched by Brian Wilson alone. Partridge was a master of creating something of an eerie or self-deprecating sensation that belied it's upbeat melody and the intelligent descriptive of it's lyrics no matter how simplistic or complex the subject matter. I long for a return of this sound.
________________________
Get it at: Amazon | iTunes
15. A Mistake by Fiona Apple from the album 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, commonly shortened to When the Pawn...[Clean Slate/Epic] (4m 58s)
Fast As You Can is generally conceded by most Apple fans as the go-to song on this album but A Mistake is considerably better. Apple is genuinely more misunderstood than she is appreciated as she carries a somewhat undeserved reputation due to her indie sound/major label backing and a negative Spin magazine article at the onset of her career. She is often lumped together with indie maven Tori Amos and lesser qualified artists like Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks and Joan Osbourne.
Apple sounds nothing like any of those artists, combining aching vocals, post-adolescent angst and scorching attitude infused with a funky blues sound and a somewhat complicated arrangement that is haunting and poetic. There's a rueful self-awareness and extreme sensuality to her lyrics. “I’m gonna make a mistake/ I’m gonna do it on purpose,” she defiantly announces in A Mistake and you line up to be chosen to help the cause, knowing full well that that path leads to an imminent curb-kicking and a failed attempt to remotely satisfy that choice and those desires.
I don't think listeners really get Fiona Apple, which is too bad. Further, not many people really delve into Fiona Apple's entire catalog and that's almost sad.