Everything you thought you knew about Fiona Apple's long-awaited, soon-to-be-released Extraordinary Machine is wrong. Contrary to rumor, the label did not shelve the album out of fears that it wasn't commercial enough; neither Apple nor Epic had a falling out with her longtime producer, Jon Brion; neither Apple nor anyone else in her camp leaked the Brion sessions to the Internet last spring; and the version of Machine coming to stores on Oct. 4, as re-recorded under new producer Mike Elizondo, is really the version Apple approved.
The Brion version is excellent, but a bit over-produced-intensive. I will be interested to hear the revision. Certainly Apple's performance at the MTV Hurricane Relief concert suggested a much more minimal approach to the material. |