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 - Extraordinary Talent, Heavy on DissonanceFiona Apple writes uniquely and uses her phrasing skill to squeeze even more artistic juice from her work. This combination alone singles her out as a rare talent. She seems to be at her best when least encumbered by the addition of musical gimmicks like looping of instruments or clapping that appear on several tracks. The use of two different producers is evident in that the first song, Extraordinary Machine, and the last song, Waltz (Better Than Fine)were produced by Jon Brion using a straight-forward, ensemble instrumentation approach. These two songs showcase Apple's artistic skill without getting in her way. The rest of the CD is not as successful in this endeavor, but the production of Mike Elizando and Brian Kehew is not without merit. In this collection of songs, Apple expresses her many frustrations and observations about relationships. The music is often dissonant and choppy to match her emotions. It is here that the producers brought a strong attitude to the music and attempted to give weight to Apple's dissonance with a little hip hop production technique. Given the subject matter and Fiona Apple's approach to it, this CD is not easy listening by any stretch of the imagination. It is, however, an emotionally effective expression by a gifted artist. Rating: - I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes.Fiona returns, and she is on fire. A quite impressive album, though it falls a hair short of achieving the brilliance of 'When The Pawn...' I prefer this over 'Tidal' which in itself is pretty spectacular as well. Rating:  - A Little Stick of DynamiteSuch a small woman with such a big voice. She is amazing. I listened to this CD today,2008. Rating: - Flawed MasterpieceLike all Fionas albums, Extraordinary Machine has fantastic, creative lyrics backed up with a wonderful voice and perfect instrumentation. So where does it fall short? - the mastering, sadly someone made the decision to have the album mastered by "Big Bass" Brian Gardner who is famous in the industry for making 'hot' or overly loud recordings. Perhaps having the volume turned up to 11 works for hip hop albums, but it does Fiona no favours here. Having the volume level almost constant all the way through just makes it tiring to listen to. There are leaked MP3's floating around the net which contain early studio recordings of Extraordinary Machine, although clearly unfinished the leaked tracks sound better simply because you can hear the full dynamic range of the music. While it's far from being the worst victim of the 'loudness war' it could have been so much more. Rating:  - Cheesy noodling in the studio.I can't call this music but I guess it is. F. Apple shows ANYBODY with a computer these days can pump out some basic songs, getting them out there is the hard part. F. Apple's fame is the mystery. There are no songs on this album. Just noodlings. Not even clever or original noodlings. This album was released in the 21st century but sounds like half the bad pop you can find in any used CD bin at the local record store. The nineties never died, it appears. An embarrassing reminder of how low music has fallen over the years...
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