Paradise Lost

When I get depressed about not being able to control this upcoming election no matter how much I care, I like to think about five years ago. Gas prices near a buck, the stock market irrationally ebullient and the only way we were killing Iraqis was through sanctions. Best of all Fiona Apple had just released her sophomore album When The Pawn etc…

The album fulfilled the promise of her debut, making her sound more like the young, thin, alt Billie Holiday she was lauded as early on. The lyrics were darker and even more self-absorbed than her first album creating what I call "one of the great break up albums of all time," up there with Sea Change and Blood on the Tracks. Yeah, that good.

Five years later, Sony Music has shelved her follow-up album. And even worse, last night when I signed the online petition for its release, I was number 179 to do so. Desperate times. Desperate measures. Etc. I am pleading with Fiona Apple to pull a “Wilco” and release her album online. How else are we going to be able to get some new good music from her as Ohio, Pennsylvania and the Conservative Republic of Florida decide our collective fate?

I don’t mean to be dire and make threats, but the great Elliott Smith was in a smililar situation with his album when he allegedly killed himself last year. Most anyone who’s heard the album agrees that it is the best of his “big sound” albums. I’m not saying Fiona may meet the same fate. Just remember she’s more Sylvia Plath than Nellie McKay, more Cobain than Michelle Branch. We need her to fufill her potential, which I see as becoming kinda an American Bjork. Not just because it is my mission in life to love her, life is just a ruse to hide love, but also because a little miracle over depression would be a good sign about now.