“There should be some new stuff soon”: What can we expect from the new Fiona Apple material?
At the start of any new year, people will be looking forward and wondering what is to come over the next 12 months. They’ll be wondering whether they’ll find the love of their life, or if they’ll become a parent and any number of possibilities in between; whether they’ll get a new hobby, a new job or win the lottery.
More exciting than any of that, though, is looking forward to all the new music that is on the way from your favourite artists—will this be the year that we get new music from artists like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits or Fiona Apple?
Ethel Cain, Franz Ferdinand and Ringo Starr have wasted no time in releasing new music this month, while FKA Twigs, The Weeknd, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the Manic Street Preachers all have albums on the way in January. Then there are exciting records from Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory, Sam Fender, Lana Del Rey and Japanese Breakfast to look forward to later in the year, too. Who knows, maybe the Arctic Monkeys might return with yet another new left-turn direction, as well.
And it seems we really can anticipate some new music from Fiona Apple this year, at some point, too. Posting on social media late last year, Apple’s housemate, the filmmaker Zelda Hallman, wrote: “There should be some new stuff very soon. Not an album but some great one off projects. I don’t know any timeline yet but I promise you will not be disappointed.”
It was not the first time that Hallman has hinted towards new Fiona Apple music being in the pipeline, but it is the clearest indication that she has given that we can expect something sooner rather than later. As early as May 2024, Hallman teased online that she had been listening to a newly recorded Fiona Apple song before adding that it was “just a song, not an album”, but her more recent update indicates that further songs and projects have followed.
This year will mark the fifth year since Apple’s last full-length release, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, which many have labelled as the greatest album so far this decade. It’s not unusual for Apple to go so long between albums, though. Since her 1996 debut, Tidal, she has only released four further records, but each new work has been more than worth the wait.
So, what can we expect from new Fiona Apple music?
And just like the gap between albums, the phrasing of the teased ”one-off projects” is also not surprising, either. Apple has always varied the range and output in her discography. 1999’s When the Pawn…, 2005’s Extraordinary Machine and 2012’s The Idler Wheel… are all masterpieces, with each work standing uniquely on its own while still retaining the essence of Apple’s inimitable style, but, in between each of her full-length albums, she has been no stranger to contributing to tribute albums, soundtracks, collaborations and cover projects, as well.
In 1998, Apple contributed two covers – ‘Across the Universe’ and ‘Please Send Me Someone to Love’ – to the Pleasantville soundtrack and has also recorded songs for the This is 40 and The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power films and series, as well. At the start of the century, she joined Johnny Cash on covers of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘Father and Son’ for his American IV: The Man Comes Around and Unearthed albums, respectively, and has continued to collaborate with artists like Elvis Costello, Sara Watkins and Andrew Bird as well as both Bob and Jakob Dylan, among others. In 2015, Apple also featured on the eponymous debut country album as part of the Watkins Family Hour.
Over the years, she has also paid tribute to her favourite artists and inspirations, contributing gorgeous renditions of ‘Why Try to Change Me Now’ and ‘I Walk a Little Faster’ to the 2009 Cy Coleman tribute album The Best is Yet to Come, ‘Everyday’ to the 2011 Buddy Holly celebration Rave On and, in her most recently released recording, a version of ‘Lately’ from the Tonight I’ll Go Down Swingin’: Tribute to Don Heffington album.
With such a dazzling variety in her oeuvre, every hint of a new Apple release sparks an endless stream of tantalising possibilities. Will her new work pick up where she left off with the heavily percussive Fetch the Bolt Cutters, or will she return to interpreting the songs that inspire her with another round of covers? And if she does, what kind of songs will she choose? Apple is a master of reimagining standards from the Great American Songbook and unearthing forgotten gems, but could she take on something more modern this time? Perhaps a song by one of the artists who have influenced her, like Kate Bush? Or instead, something from one of her contemporaries, like PJ Harvey or Aimee Mann? Or, maybe, even a track or two by someone that she herself has inspired, such as Olivia Rodrigo or Phoebe Bridgers?
Or will we be treated to brand-new compositions from one of the greatest songwriters of our time? Each of Apple’s albums has had a real distinct sonic identity, yet each has also offered subtle clues about where her sound might head next. ‘Criminal’ from her debut album Tidal hinted at the raw intensity that would define When the Pawn…, while ‘The Way Things Are’ from that record felt like it could have easily belonged on her next release, Extraordinary Machine. Similarly, ‘Not About Love’ foreshadowed the kind of rhythmic experimentation that would later take centre stage on The Idler Wheel…, while ‘Jonathan’ and ‘Hot Knife’ both signalled the manic, disorienting soundscape that would come to fruition on Fetch the Bolt Cutters.
What clues, then, might be hiding in plain sight on her latest album? Which songs and sounds could be hinting at the direction she’s headed next? Or will she push the percussive, raw, and skeletal feel of Fetch the Bolt Cutters to its absolute limit in her next collection of songs? Her last album featured tracks that almost seemed to deconstruct our very perception of what popular music could sound like—songs that stripped away the expected layers until only vast, echoing spaces remained. These cavernous soundscapes created the perfect environment for Apple’s immense talent and voice to pour in and fill every inch, like liquid finding its shape in an empty vessel.
Perhaps Apple will move away from the piano, or more recently, the percussion, as the main driving instrument in her newest works. In September of last year, singer-songwriter David Garza shared a now-deleted image of Apple in the recording studio wielding a semi-hollow body BB King-style guitar. Perhaps her next batch of songs will feature her demonstrating her talents on the instrument, then, in a move not dissimilar to Tom Waits adding the electric guitar to his arsenal with 1978’s Blue Valentine after predominantly being a piano player up to that point. The pair have travelled through similar sonic terrain before, so it’d be fascinating to hear Apple descend further into a Waitsian underworld in her work.
Or perhaps, the question should now shift to whether the lyrics of any new songs will carry more weight than the sound. Much of her work, and particularly on her previous album, explores not only her own personal identity and place in the world, but also the broader struggles faced by women the world over. Since that last release, the social climate has become even harsher and harder for women everywhere, with movements like #MeToo facing backlash, the rise of far-right rhetoric and an increase in horrific violence against women. In such times, music remains a powerful tool for resistance and solidarity in the fight for women’s rights.
While we wait to find out what the one-off projects that Hallman has hinted that Apple is working on are, we can be sure that we will at least hear one new collaboration where she’ll feature this year. The Waterboys have announced that their new album – Life, Death And Dennis Hopper – will arrive on April 4th and feature guest spots from with Steve Earle (‘Kansas’), Bruce Springsteen (‘Ten Years Gone’), and Fiona Apple (‘Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend’).
Tying neatly into Apple’s extended history of collaborations, covers and soundtrack work, she has incidentally previously recorded a version of The Waterboys‘ greatest song, ‘The Whole of the Moon’, for the series finale of the US drama The Affair in 2019.
