Sunday, October 09, 2005

How do you like them apples?

Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine has achieved a metascore of 87 on metacritic.com. Here is one reason why I think the previous, and un-released, mix is better:

One of the best tracks on the album is a song called "Get Him Back". The title is pretty self explanatory as to what the theme is. The initial version, mixed by Jon Brion, had a ramshackle sound. The drums were prominent, as was a percussive piano. The production was crisp, which made the track sound a feel like it had a bite; the music and the lyrics were on the same mission . In the new version, the percussive elements are put in the background, and the song is slowed down a bit. It lacks the clenched-teeth, bitterness and the above-mentioned bite of the Jon Brion-mixed version. Therefore the music removes the energy of the lyrics, and the whole thing sounds less purposeful.

I realize that this is the third or fourth piece that I've written about Extraordinary Machine (or Fuck Sony as it was once named on the internet), which is out of proportion to how much I like the album. But there you go.

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