Music : Tidal

Rating: - Sullen girl
Tidal is Fiona first and best cd. I love the power behind this cd. As a female artist she really put herself out there. You can feel her every emotion behind each of her song. Sullen girl is what got me hooked to this cd. Fiona maybe writing about her own emotions but when you listen to the cd you feel like she writing about you two. It always seems like the singer is misunderstood. When you hear music, listen to it read the lyrics it hard to belive that she could be misunderstood.

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Rating: - Sleep to dream
Every now and then I like to go into my (enormous) cd collection and throw in a cd that I haven't listened to in years. Fiona Apple's "Tidal" is just one of those cds. As much as I enjoyed "When the Pawn...", I always thought that "Tidal" was a vastly superior album. I thought that "When the Pawn..." lacked the rawness of "Tidal" and was too polished. I feel like I am watching Fiona perform as I listen to "Tidal". There is a live feel to the album. Plus with "Tidal", there is a more jazz/torch sound to the music than on the schizophrenic "When the Pawn...". Ballads like "Sullen Girl" and "Shadowboxer" takes my breath away. Originally when Fiona Apple first came out with "Tidal", I wasn't too wild about her but the more I heard the songs "Shadowboxer", "Sleep to Dream", and "Criminal", the songs grew on me like a barnacle on a humpback whale. The songs just stuck in my head. I particularly loved the haunting ballads "The Child is Gone" and "Pale September". The songs gives me goosebumps just listening to them. I love singing the opening lines to "Criminal". The lyrics are just fun to sing along to. Of course whenever I listen to "Criminal", I think of the provovcative music video Fiona shot with famed music video director Mark Romacek (sp?). After listening to "Tidal", I sure hope that Fiona manges to squeeze out another album sometime during this lifetime. Good things comes to those who wait I suppose.

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Rating: - I am so glad I found this album!
My mother bought this album for me as a Christmas present in 1996. I played it constantly. My life was constantly shifting in location so I placed it in a box so I wouldn't lose it. Well, after a while, I forgot where I put the box. Just yesterday, my cousin was looking through the closets and there was the box with Tidal in it!When I placed it in the CD player,I remembered why I loved this album. Her lyrics contain metaphor and her voice just enhances it. I wouldn't say that she has a pretty voice but it has a haunting and convincing quality that I fell in love with.

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Rating: - Sullen Girl got me Listening
Yeah, I know I've arrived late on the Fiona Apple band wagon. But I just purchased this CD a few days ago and I can't get enough of it. Firstly, I must point on that my taste in music is generally of a soul/jazz orientation, although I have been increasing my listening habits to include singer/songwriters. I am a fan of honest and personal music, and just as soul and jazz is expressive and personal, so too is Fiona, and the singer/songwriter genre in general.

Fiona's Tidal is an album that is mainly in the spare singer/songwriter style of many '70s efforts. However, on a few tracks she does add other elements such as a more funky beat on "Criminal" and a latin-tinge to "The First Taste." Musically, the album has the under-produced and acoustic feel of singer/songwriter albums. Lyrically, it is one that is very honest.

The lyrical content is highly poetic and cryptic, as you'd expect from this genre of music. Fiona definately seems to have been affected by her rape, as we witness on "Sullen Girl," an explanation of why she is the way she is. The rest of the album seems to also be of a more inward uncertainty; reproaching herself in "Criminal" and talking about a love that is not so good in "Carrion." While at times the lyrics can be somewhat juvenile as other reviewers have pointed out, my question is this; have you listen to mainstream R & B? The lyrics are at times terrible and the songs are written by people who are 10 years older than Fiona. Give the girl a break!

This album is a one that I would recommend to people who are fans of singer/songwriters as it is one that is as confessional and honest as the best of the genre's hey day in the 1970s. It is probably the best album I have purchased since Blackalicious "Blazing Arrow" (underground hip hop) and John Mayer's acoustic first album "Inside Wants Out." And at my rate of at least a CD a week, that says something.

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Rating: - Fiona Apple - Tidal
Fiona is an amazing artist! She writtes great lyrics, she has a beautiful and strong voice and she plays piano very well!
Sleep to dream is a great song, i love the start and she sounds angry!
Sullen Girl is a beautiful song with great lyrics, fiona sounds sad, this is about her rape!
Shadowboxer is a very jazzy song, good lyrics!
Criminal is porbably the rockest song on the album, the piano gives this amazing feeling to the song! great lyrics once gain!
Slow like Honey, is a slow song and has a jazz feeling!
The First Taste has this beat that you just can't help but start dancing!
Never is a promise has amazing lyrics, very beautiful!!!
The Child is gone has again a jazz feeling...very good!
Pale September is absolutely beautiful, she sounds calm and sad.
Carrion finishes well the album, the chorus part is amazing!

All this album is stunning, but when the pawn...is better!