Fiona Apple
Tidal

Of the tide.

And indeed, this alluring and stunning debut album by an elegant 19-year-old artist seems to be conceived precisely by the sea. Fiona Apple, who has drawn significant attention not only for her voice but also for her compositional qualities. A singer-songwriter and excellent pianist, in ten gems of allure, she opens the doors to her world, fairy-tale and dreamlike, at times even grotesque. Anger and disappointments of a young woman trapped in a child's body, yet aware of her charm and her vibrant artistic fire.

A part I would gladly overlook, but perhaps necessary for a worthy review, is the stylistic fields in which our artist operates with ease and skill that belie her young age. In "Tidal," pop registers from the most disparate boundaries blend smoothly, we find vocal traits unequivocally reminiscent of soul, a defining characteristic of Apple's voice, with a nearly constant melodic search, and some glimpses of soft psychedelia and trip-hop. The semantic fields where the tracks of this album freely roam are those of a typical "mature youth," studded with questions and farewells, reflections and accusations, a search for the self, whether one's own or another's. Therefore, the originality of this project lies not so much in the theme addressed, but in the very context of the teen musical landscape of the time and beyond, and in the songwriting approach through which the lyrics take shape. Liqueform landscapes are represented in "Sullen girl" ("everyone thinks I'm a bitch, but they don't know that I like to admire the calmer waters and lose myself in the sadness of my oblivions"), sensuality instead in the almost Arabian "The first taste", redundancy as a metaphor for life in "Carrion," where everything sounds like a truly broken music box, repeating the same melodic, mournful sequence filled with resignation. All of it accompanied by a melodic piano base that is always present and constant.

A personal profile of the artist might better convey what we're talking about. Fiona Apple comes from a wealthy and troubled family, attempts suicide several times, and is a victim of sexual abuse at a young age. In a pretentious tone, I would say that certain experiences in one's life inevitably mark everyone's path... and indeed, I say it. If a 19-year-old girl can address themes like love in the way she does, if she can conceive metaphors of a fierce life as she manages to do, for example, in "Fast as U can" (taken from the successful follow-up to Tidal, "When the Pawn"), and if she is still able to describe certain dynamics of resigned and firm cruelty, the conviction arises that, as Gramsci said, each of us is nothing but a product of our past. We are born pure, blank slates on the world, and most of us end up where strong sensitivity, fragility, and conceptual transgression coexist, totally soiled and marked. But in some cases, miracles happen... a recycling of emotions, a flower in the muck. And in my humble opinion, this is perhaps the case with Apple's talent.