Extraordinary Machine Muncie IN

Extraordinary Machine

Fiona Apple

Sony (unreleased), 2003

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/13/2005

Fiona Apple is the current favorite "artist in captivity" onInternet sites because of Sony's refusal to release Extraordinary Machine. The album has been completed foralmost two years. The leaked response from Sony apparently citedthe album's lack of a hit single as the reason for not releasingthe album. As a result, her Sony artist Web site doesn't look likeit's been updated since 1999, when she released her last album, When the Pawn...

Extraordinary Machine hasn't been released, but now it's allover the Internet. It's been downloaded more than 30,000 times atlast count. And Fiona's fans have launched an effective campaign toget Sony to release Extraordinary Machine.

Now, before you start yelling " Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," there are some differences. Sonystill wants to salvage a relationship with Fiona Apple (whereasWilco was dropped by their label). Extraordinary Machine is a good album, but I would not rankit up as one of the top albums of the decade like Foxtrot.

Still, you can't help but wonder how dense the management isover at Sony. They're afraid that the album is not going to sell,but Sony also carries other artists whose sales are lucky to landin the hundreds of thousands of copies (be it underrated artists,such as Ben Folds, or destined for discount bin status artists,such as Bow Wow). Management claims the album doesn't have a hitsingle, but why the hell is it that Tori Amos was able to releaseher near-80-minute opus, The Beekeeper; an album whose songs have yet to stick in myhead?