Musings on the byways of popular culture
Fiona Apples back after 8 years with a new album called fetch the bolt cutters.
The critics are going crazy over it with 5 star reviews in the Guardian, independent and even a rare 10 from hipster bible pitchfork.
On first listen it is very good, but there’s a lot to take in. But I’m not sure it’s the greatest album of the 21st century that the critics are claiming. Time will tell. (I wonder if the critics are just getting giddy as they don’t have much else to write about.)
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Browsing gently through some songs, I thought, “Ooh! That sounds like The Beatles.” I pondered that their influence has been so wide and so long, there must be plenty of songs not by The Beatles but sounding more like The Beatles than The Beatles themselves, and I’m not talking deliberate pastiche like the magnificent Rutles. It made me wish there was a word for it.
Fiona Apple, for example, loves The Beatles so much, she named herself after their record label. She does a wonderful cover of Across The Universe. On Paper Bag, the piano chords and the horns are straight out of The White Album.
How many Beatlesque songs can The Afterword think of?
It’s been done before on a Mojo or Uncut freebie CD but this is a performance by Watkins Family Hour & Friends that includes all of Robbie Z’s classic album. Watkins Family Hour includes Sara & Sean Watkins (late of Nickel Creek), Fiona Apple and Benmont Tench. & Friends includes Al Kooper, Shawn Colvin and Aimee Mann. Thought it was worth a mention.
