Free Fiona!

Fiona Apple gave a voice to my angst-ridden teenage soul. I never hesitate to say that Tidal is the album which I would take with me on a desert island (seems like an odd choice, but if the days got really depressing, it might move me to end the misery...j/k I really just could listen to it over and over again more than any other album). So when I found out from my musically-enlightened friend and supplier of MP3s, Alex, that Fiona's unreleased third album was around on the internet, I was super excited. I got my hands on it, and it's excellent! Love the songs "Better Version of Me" and "Not About Love ." The only thing that would make the album better is if I had some liner notes...

Extraordinary Machine was completed in May 2003, but Sony decided that it wouldn't be commercially successful (e.g. no "Criminal"-esque singles on it) so they shelved it in an attempt to cut their losses. HELLO, Fiona Apple's first two albums went platinum. Just because her second one's title was like 100 words long doesn't = she's a commercial flop. There are legions of angst-ridden 20-30somethings just waaaiting for more "break up mix tape" material (oh wait, no one makes mix tapes anymore...). And non-depressive types liked Fiona too. Everytime I read about her in a magazine, the writer says something like, "When IS Fiona Apple going to release something?" Some of the tracks from the album have been leaked on to radio (Seattle, I believe), and it's obviously out on the internet...so hopefully Sony execs will be persuaded to release it. The thought did occur to me that maybe they delayed releasing and purposefully leaked songs to build up more hype and pseudo-controversy...who knows in that dirty industry.

The hard-core fans have been up on this whole tragedy for a while and have a bunch of websites about it:

• http://fionaapple.org/
• http://www.freefiona.com/
• http://www.petitiononline.com/Fiona9/petition.html (Sign a petition to release the CD)
  

p.s. I have been told that I don't update enough...I'll take that as a compliment! Kinda like those people wishing that Fiona would record more music (though that's not really her choice) . Anyway, thanks to all the fans! It's especially been really great to hear from some of you guys that I've lost touch with :)