August 15, 2005

Fiona Apple Completes Long Awaited New Album Extraordinary Machine New Fiona Apple Website Launches With Two New Tracks

New York, NY – Acclaimed artist Fiona Apple has completed her highly anticipated third album Extraordinary Machine and it will be released by Epic Records on October 4, 2005. Extraordinary Machine, produced by Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent) and co-produced by Brian Kehew, contains twelve new tracks from this groundbreaking artist.

"Now that my album is finally finished, I am very, very excited to have people hear what we did – I am so proud of it, and all of us who worked on it." says Fiona Apple.

On Monday, August 15, Fiona Apple’s new official web site will launch at www.Fiona-Apple.com unveiling music and album artwork from Extraordinary Machine. Fans visiting the site will be the first ones to hear two songs in their entirety from the new album: "O’ Sailor" and "Parting Gift." In addition to the launch of the site, there will be an online promotion allowing fans to enter to win the new CD and a chance to see Fiona Apple live in concert.

Also on Monday, fans will also be able to listen to the track "O’ Sailor" at online social networking destination, www.myspace.com/fionaapple . On the following day, Tuesday, August 16, various digital music stores will make "O’ Sailor," available for download and Apple’s iTunes Music Store will offer an exclusive bundle download of "O’ Sailor" coupled with "Parting Gift."

Fiona Apple established herself as a visionary singer/songwriter at the age of nineteen with her debut album Tidal in 1996. This stunning album went on to earn her a Grammy Award in 1998 for “Best Female Rock Vocal Performance” establishing her as an uncompromising and original artist gaining intensely loyal fans all over the world . Fiona’s second album, When the Pawn…..was released in 1999 showcasing Fiona’s edgy and elegant musical genius. Fiona Apple's highly touted albums and captivating videos have earned her numerous accolades from music fans and the music industry alike including two MTV Music Video Awards and two Grammy nominations and sales of over 5 million albums around the world.


[Edited 8/15/05 13:01pm]

YES!!!!!

Fi is back!

She really is one of my all time favorite artists...When The Pawn is in my top 10 records ever.

Hopefully the EM songs will sound better in full mastered quality than the ones I've heard...but with Fiona you know it will be quality.

I didn't think this would ever happen. Great news.

ABOUT TIME!

I never gave up hope that this album would see the light of day somehow. even thought I already have a copy, I WILL be buying it, just to help show Sony Records that it was not a mistake to release it. I wonder what they'll choose as a single, since their reason for not releasing before was they didn't hear any radio worth material. My favorites on the album are Not About Love and Oh Well. (Oh Sailor is pretty tight too)... I signed up for the mailing list, so I'm downloading "Parting Gift" now, it's not on the original tracklist and I wonder if it's a new song or just an old one retitled...

OH! and I guess Sony think they are CLEVER with the way that press release is written. They make no reference to the fact that this album was finished like THREE YEARS AGO, as if it was just completed... I guess they won't own up to the fact that they've been sitting on it for years cuz they didn't like it. Fuckers, well at least it's coming out finally.
[Edited 8/15/05 13:15pm]

there's an interesting article on Billboard.com about it. Apparently Fiona wasn't happy with the Jon Brion sessions and THAT is why the album wasn't released, not some impasse with Sony. Wasn't Jon Brion the one spouting to the press that Sony was holding it up? I may be wrong about that, but if that is the case it is very interesting. Sounds like Jon Brion was being told one thing, while Fiona and Sony were tight-lipped about the whole situation.

So maybe all those Sony-bashers were a little bit ahead of themselves.

Hopefully the new version of the album is better than the leaked version. I'm really looking forward to hearing it!
[Edited 8/15/05 13:18pm]

That opens up a whole nother can of worms then, doesn't it? Is this In Utero all over again? Or is Sony just releasing the album cuz Fiona still owes them albums? If she was that unhappy with the production work on it, then could this be a completely different version of the album? Come to think of it, this IS the first time I have heard anything about Mike Elizondo being connected to the project... I have admired his work for years... HMMM. Now I'm REALLY excited, if this is a new version of the album... That's really tight, cuz even though I was planning on buying it anyway, I've already heard all those songs.... So it wouldn't really be a NEW album for me...

here's the billboard.com article, very fascinating stuff... I have the feeling that we're still not getting the whole story.



Fiona Fashions A Different 'Machine'

By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Fiona Apple fans are already familiar with the material that makes up the artist's third Epic album, "Extraordinary Machine," having spread leaked early versions of the tracks across the Internet while waging a campaign to force the label to release them. But on Oct. 4, Apple will instead issue an entirely new version of the album, on which she has been quietly working while the controversy raged.

Two cuts -- the title track and "Waltz" -- are holdovers from the Jon Brion-helmed sessions that leaked earlier in the year. Another, "Parting Gift," is a new solo piano-and-vocal tune captured on the first take. The rest of "Extraordinary Machine" was produced by Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew and is made up of the other nine songs that made the rounds online.

Earlier this year, fans seized upon the notion that Epic had rejected the original "Extraordinary Machine" and organized a Web site (FreeFiona.com) and a protest outside the company's New York office in the hopes of bringing the album to the marketplace. But in truth, Apple was not happy enough with the Brion-produced versions to release them. In April 2004, she sought out Elizondo, who played bass on two songs from her 1999 album "When the Pawn...," to help her re-imagine the material.

"That's essentially what we did up until a few months ago, when she felt like everything was ready to move forward," Elizondo tells Billboard.com. "I have a studio at my house, so we added all of her piano, her vocals and live drums to the things I'd already created from scratch using programmed beats. Rather than experimenting in the studio, we tried to get blueprints for each of the songs and then once everything was ready to move forward, we went in and did the finishing touches."

Although he listened to the original versions once or twice "just to get the scope of the arrangement and the melody," Elizondo says he has not "gone back and compared each song. But, there's definitely some things that are far-out experiments and things that turned out really exciting."

"All in all, it's a Fiona Apple record," he continues. "She has a very distinct style of writing and her melodies are amazing. Her chord progressions are incredible. It's not a drastic departure, but within that, there are some elements you might not have heard on a previous Fiona Apple recording."

The confusion about what exactly was going on with "Extraordinary Machine" was complicated by the fact that neither Apple nor Epic made any public statements about the situation. Elizondo acknowledges it was an unusual environment in which to be working.

"My own personal feeling was, on one side, it was a little disheartening knowing there were these versions of the songs out there while we were working on the record," he says. "But on the other side, I looked at it as, it was very admirable she has this amazing core of fans. The way they interpreted it was, the label isn't putting out her record, so we're going to do it for her. That's very admirable. But as time goes on, these fans will understand this is the album she wants to put out."

The first "official" taste of the new album will be available later today (Aug. 15) on Apple's Web site, which will be streaming "Parting Gift" and "O, Sailor." The tracks will be available for purchase tomorrow via Apple's iTunes Music Store.

And while no details have yet been nailed down, Apple looks ready to return to live performance for the first time in years.

"She's expressed a great deal of excitement with the finished product," Elizondo offers. "I've offered to put a band together as well as be a part of that band myself on bass. I've already put out some feelers to local musicians in L.A. that would probably comprise the band I'm thinking of. But there are no performances set in stone. A lot of this material is very much rhythm section-oriented. The parts will really lend themselves to being played live. It will be a lot of fun."

alright and it's coming out on my birthday too

HELL YEA. I'm still at the official site, and I've downloaded "Parting Gift" and I LOVE it. I can't wait until this album comes out. I'm going to try to resist downloading "O Sailor" now that I know that the album is mostly new versions of these songs. Great Job Mike & Fiona. This is great, great news.

I'm not a fan, but I have to say I'm glad for her!

OMG I just cried! I'm such a nerd! YAY!!!!!

I hope she has some meat on her bones now. She can be a cute little number, but that girl is skinny as fuck. Great eyes, though.

2freaky4church1 said:

I think her look is apart of her mystique. A plump Fiona would be just wrong.